Normative Beliefs Of Ingroup Favouritism Affect Individuals’ Cooperation And Their Rewards

From social appraisal to interpersonal interaction,people show a tendency to favour their ingroup members over outgroup members.The same pattern emerges in the field of human cooperation.Past research on ingroup favouritism in cooperation mostly take an individual perspective,studying the effect of individual differences and contextual factors.This research revives the original social norm hypothesis brought by Tajfel and examines the normative role ingroup favouritism plays in cooperation focusing on the phenomenon itself.Through systematically examining normative beliefs,behaviours,rewards regarding ingroup favouritism and their associations,this research reveals how ingroup favouritism exerts its normative influence in cooperative situations and discusses how the normative nature of ingroup favourtism can support current theory of cooperation and inform theory development.Current research employs the Minimal Group Paradigm to create group identity and study the normative nature of ingroup favouritism in the context of the Dictator Game.Experiment 1 examined the normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism by measuring empirical and normative expectations.Results showed that individuals held empirical expectations and normative expectations about ingroup favouritism.Individuals expected more cooperative behaviour from ingroup members and expected ingroup members to hold a higher standard of cooperation for them.Experiment 2further studied the relationship between ingroup favouritism behaviour and the normative beliefs regarding ingroup favouritism.Results showed that individuals showed ingroup favouritism behaviour and the magnitude of ingroup favouritism was associated with norm perception.The more one believed their group approves ingroup favouritism,the greater extent they showed ingroup favouritism.However,Experiment2 only offered correlational data and could not establish causation.Experiment 3directly manipulated the group norm regarding ingroup favouritism and tested whether norm beliefs can casually influence ingroup favouritism behaviours.Experiment 3found significantly stronger ingroup favouritism in the ingroup favouritism condition,compared with the no-favouritism condition.Exploratory analysis also found that group identification positively predicted the magnitude of ingroup favouritism.However,the relationship was moderated by group norm regarding ingroup favouritism,only existing in the ingroup favouritism condition.Through experiments 1-3,current research established people hold normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism norm and act accordingly.However,for a social norm to be sustained,there has to be a certain feedback mechanism.Experiment 4 examined whether ingroup favouritism influences reputation in the ingroup and how normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism impact the reward allocation between group members.The result suggested that ingroup favouritism brought the actor a higher ingroup reputation,e.g.,the actor was regarded as having higher identification with the group.People also thought that the group not only approves ingroup favouritism but also prefers ingroup favouritism over fair treatment across ingroup and outgroup.To put it another way,people held normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism.This perception of ingroup favouritism norm led to greater rewards for the actors showing ingroup favouritism.Overall,these results suggest that:(1)People hold normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism,namely expectations of this behavioural pattern and people’s attitude towards it.(2)Normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism impacts cooperative behaviours.People have a conditional preference for ingroup favouritism.When the reference group(the ingroup)approves such behaviour,individuals are more likely to show ingroup favouritism.(3)There exist feedback mechanisms that could sustain ingroup favouritism.Agents who show ingroup favouritism in cooperation are perceived as identifying more with their group.Normative beliefs about ingroup favouritism brings the actor who show ingroup favouritism a higher ingroup reputation and more rewards.Therefore,current research provided evidence that ingroup favouritism in cooperation is normative.In addition to contributing to the research on identifying social norms,current research provided empirical evidence for the claim that group functions as a system of generalized exchange,supporting the bounded generalized reciprocity theory and identified boundary conditions in which social identification theory predicts ingroup favoritism behaviours.