Black Sheep Effect Or Similar-Leniency Effect:the Moderations Of Group Status And Status Stability

The third-party punishment,it refers to the indirect victim of violations incident will form the unfair judgment,and punish violators to safeguard the social justice.The archaism saying "road sees rough,draw out a sword to help them" can explain it.It is a intervention way to pursuit social justice and maintain social order.Previous studies about third-party punishment more focused on individual factors,but less research from the intergroup factors to explore the influencing factors of third-party punishment.In fact,individuals are not exist in isolation,but belong to different social groups.In previous research,we found group categorizations(the third-party and offenders is whether or not belong to the same group)can affect third-party punish offenders,and appear two opposite phenomenons:or appear "protect one's own children" phenomenon,third-party punish ingroup offenders lighter than outgroup offenders,namely similar-leniency effect(there are inclouding both the ingroup favoritism and derogate outgroups.),Or regard ingroup offenders as "A little gall spoils a great deal of honey",thus third-party punish ingroup offenders heavier than outgroup offenders,appear black sheep effect(ingroup favoritism reversal).Social identity theory pointed out that people need positive group identification from group memberships in order to maintain and improve their positive self-esteem,people throngh conduct advantageous comparison between ingroup and related outgroups,thus lead to the intergroup bias effect,including ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation.And the ingroup and outgroup must exist intergroup status differences and have a characteristic of status stability,both of which will influence the psychology of group members.Therefore this paper from group factors to explore the two kinds effects,based on the social identity theory.This paper adopted situational experiment paradigm to study above problems,a total of three study discusses them.The purpose of study 1 and study 2 is to explore the condition of the black sheep effect and similar-leniency effects rise.Study 3 explores the punishment motivations behind the two effects in four different conditions.Specific research design is as follows:In study 1,124 college students as research subjects,through 2(offender's group categorizations:ingroup vs.outgroup)*2(intergroup status:high vs.low)factorial design.Results show that,when ingroup in high status,third-party punish ingroup offenders heavier than outgroup offenders,appear black sheep effect.But when ingroup in low status,third-party punish ingroup offenders and outgroup offenders,there is no significant difference.Although the study 1 shows that the third-party punishment is affected by the intergroup status,it ignore the characteristic of status stability,so the main purpose of study 2 is to explore the group status and status stability how to affect the third-party punishment.With 265 college students as subjects,using 2(offender's group categorizations:ingroup vs.outgroup)*2(intergroup status:high vs.low)*2(intergroup status stability:stable vs.unstable)factorial design.Results show that when the group in a high status and status is stable,there is a black sheep effect appear.But,when group in low status and stable,and when intergroup status is unstable,no matter in a high position and low position,similar-leniency effect arised.The first two studies are to solve the problem of the condition of the black sheep effect and the similar-leniency effect appear,study 3 try to explore the motivation mechanism behind the two effects.With 394 college students as subjects,using 3(offender's group categorizations:ingroup vs.irrelevant group vs.out group)*2(intergroup status:high vs.low)*2(intergroup status stability:stable vs.unstable)factorial design.the results show that the group status in high and stable,appear black sheep effect,the motivation of improve offenders' future behavior and incompetence can explaine the ingroup favoritism reversal.Group for low and stable status and in-group for high position but not stable,there are similar-leniency effect,of which the retributive punishment and improve offenders' future behavior can explain the part of the ingroup favoritism,the retributive punishment and anticipated punishment can explain the outgroup derogatory.When group in low status but unstable,the motivation of improve offenders' future behavior and incompetence can explaine the ingroup favoritism reversal,the retributive punishment and anticipated punishment can explain the outgroup derogatory.At the end of the paper,we discussed the theoretical and practical significance of the study,and gave prospect to the study limitations.