Intergroup Relations

Social psychological research on intergroup relations concerns the perceptions, attitudes, and behaviors humans express when they think of themselves and others as members of social groups. All humans belong to many different types of social groups, ranging from smaller groupings of people (such as one's circles of friends) to larger social categories (such as gender and race). When people think and act as group members, they tend to accentuate similarities between themselves and members of their own groups, and exaggerate differences between members of their own group and other groups (social categorization). People also tend to evaluate people differently depending on whether they are members of one's own groups (ingroup members) or members of other groups (outgroup members); specifically, people typically show a preference for ...