Perceived entitativity and the black-sheep effect: when will we denigrate negative ingroup members?

Publisher: Routledge Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 0376372 Publication Model: Print Cited Medium: Print ISSN: 0022-4545 (Print) Linking ISSN: 00224545 NLM ISO Abbreviation: J Soc Psychol Subsets: MEDLINE

Publication: 2010- : New York : Routledge
Original Publication: Provincetown, Mass. : Journal Press

Group Processes* ; Prejudice* ; Social Desirability* ; Social Identification*; Analysis of Variance ; Humans ; Midwestern United States ; Organizations

Although ingroup favoritism is a robust effect, there are notable exceptions. For example, the outgroup extremity effect indicates outgroup derogation, whereas the black-sheep effect indicates ingroup derogation. We propose that perceived entitativity, the degree to which a group is viewed as a unified social entity, may help explain ingroup derogation. Negative ingroup members from high perceived entitativity groups may pose a meaningful threat to the perceiver's social identity that can be alleviated by denigrating the target (i.e., the black-sheep effect). Participants evaluated high or low quality essays attributed to ingroup and outgroup members. Participants did not differentiate based on ingroup/outgroup membership for low perceived entitativity groups. However, when rating high perceived entitativity groups, ingroup extremity emerged. These results confirm and provide explanations for ingroup denigration.

K05 DA00492 United States DA NIDA NIH HHS; MH-40058 United States MH NIMH NIH HHS

Date Created: 20100420 Date Completed: 20100514 Latest Revision: 20100419

20231215

10.1080/00224540903366388

20397595