Addressing ingroup bias: Using its benefits to decrease its costs

In my last article, I began by discussing the well-known negative effects of ingroup bias. This centers on the many ways we treat people who are not in our groups more negatively compared to how we treat people who are in groups to which we belong.

I then discussed the less well-known positive effects of ingroup bias. These focus on the beneficial consequences ingroup bias has on our relationships with people who are members of groups to which we belong or with which we identify.

Finally, I indicated that ingroup bias is not a zero-sum game in which enjoying the benefits necessitates accepting the costs. In other words, it is possible to have great connections and relationships with others in your ingroup without it requiring you to have negative attitudes and display unfair behaviours toward members of outgroups.

Even better news is that you can use the benefits of ingroup bias to decrease its costs. I will discuss how to do this in the following sections.

Enjoying the benefits while minimizing the costs

It is possible to enjoy the benefits of ingroup bias while minimizing the costs. This entails appreciating the connection you feel with people in your ingroup while trying to avoid unfair treatment toward people who are not in your ingroup.

For example, you can enjoy bonding with other members of your softball team while being fair to players on opposing teams. You can appreciate the positive feelings you have with others who are in your ethnic group while you try not to discriminate against people from other ethnic groups.

Being aware of your vulnerability to engage in unfair treatment toward members of outgroups makes it less likely you will treat these people unfairly. Having said that, awareness is best complimented by another strategy to address the negative effects of ingroup bias. This strategy is a more reliable way to address the issue because it focuses on improving your attitudes toward people in outgroups.

Using the benefits to decrease the costs

Using the benefits of ingroup bias to decrease its costs focuses on the fact that ingroups can be based on many categories and dimensions. If you want to decrease your bias against someone who is in a different group or category from yours, look for a group or category which you and that person share.

Doing so can create positive feelings between you and the person. In turn, this helps to lessen the negative feelings you may have had toward each other from being in different groups based on the original category. In the next section, I will provide examples of the effectiveness of this technique in decreasing the negative consequences of ingroup bias.

Examples of using the benefits to decrease the costs

A classic example of how to use the benefits of ingroup bias to decrease its costs comes from the Robbers Cave research study which I discussed in my last article. This was a study examining prejudice and discrimination in which boys at a summer camp were randomly assigned to be members of the Eagles or the Rattlers. The two groups then competed against each other in several activities to illustrate how ingroup bias effects could be created instantly. Sure enough, the instant creation of ingroups and outgroups quickly led to hostility and fighting between the Eagles and Rattlers.

After creating ingroup bias and its corresponding negative effects, the researchers were subsequently able to reduce these negative effects. They did so by having members of the Eagles and Rattlers working together on common goals. Doing so quickly created positive feelings to replace the hostility they had felt toward each other from being in different groups. Working together on common goals had made them members of the same team or ingroup. The feelings of connection and bonding from being in the same group were created.

A second example was described in Supercommunicators by Charles Duhigg. As part of a study, researchers in the United States had members of groups who are renowned for disliking each other have conversations. One of the participants in each conversational dyad was a gun control advocate while the other was a proponent of gun rights. They were instructed to take turns talking about their thoughts, feelings and experiences regarding the issue without attacking or blaming their conversational partner who was instructed to listen and ask questions to find out about the speaker’s perspective.

The results of the experiment were remarkable. Although–not surprisingly–there was little shifting of each person’s view on the issue of guns, the feelings of the those on opposite sides of the debate became significantly less negative toward each other and significantly more positive. Many became friends and kept in touch after the study. The authors also shared that one female gun control advocate told her cohorts to stop when they made personal attacks on her male gun-rights conversational partner, defending him as a good person.

The reason for this remarkable change in feelings is that having respectful conversations let them realize that they had much in common despite their difference on the ingroup-outgroup dimension of attitudes toward guns. This fostered positive feelings which decreased the negative feelings they had toward each other from being on opposite sides of the gun issue. The results were consistent with studies showing that a reliable way to decrease prejudice of members of groups is allow individuals from each group to get to know each other in informal conversations.

How I manage ingroup bias

Ingroup bias is an inescapable phenomenon which has potential negative effects. But much like the emotions of anger and anxiety which also have potential negative effects, ingroup bias can be managed so that you can enjoy its positive effects while decreasing its negative effects. To that end, I thought it would be helpful to share how I manage ingroup bias.

First, I am aware of ingroup bias and normalize it. When I encounter someone in my ingroup on a category or dimension, I enjoy the bond I feel with them and I use it to facilitate favourable interactions which often leads to a fulfilling relationship for both of us.

Similarly, when I encounter someone in the outgroup on a category or dimension, I normalize that both of us may have some expected dislike toward the other because of ingroup bias. I then use strategies to manage my feelings and behaviour toward the person.

I manage my feelings by reminding myself that my negative feelings stem from ingroup bias and that getting to know the person would let me realize that they are a decent human being. I manage my behaviour by reminding myself that ingroup bias makes me prone to treating the person unfairly. This awareness makes it less likely I will do so.

Finally, if circumstances permit me to have more contact with the person, I try to get to know them beyond the fact that they are in the outgroup in relation to me on one category or dimension. Doing so helps us both realize that there are categories and dimensions in which we are in the same ingroup.

In some instances, the positive feelings generated lead to a transformation in my relationship with the person akin to that which occurred with the gun issue study discussed in Supercommunicators. But even in those cases in which admittedly there is still some dislike present, discovering that we share some ingroup dimensions makes it much easier to communicate constructively. In turn, this makes it easier to  manage the relationship well despite our difference on a particular dimension.

You too can manage ingroup bias effectively in your social interactions and relationships by applying the strategies discussed in this article.

May you manage ingroup bias by enjoying the benefits and decreasing the costs,

-Dr. Pat