Individuating Processes in Competition: Interpersonal Versus Intergroup
- 1 December 1991
- journal article
- other
- Published by SAGE Publications in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
- Vol. 17 (6), 595-605
- https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167291176001
Abstract
Two experiments investigated why interpersonal competition facilitates individuating impressions of opponents whereas inter-group competition encourages stereotyping of opponents. Prior research has shown that interdependence conditions, including interpersonal competition, encourage individuation. But, unlike interpersonal competitors, intergroup competitors are inter-dependent with several persons (i.e., teammates and opponents). Because of phenomena such as in-group bias, it was hypothesized that intergroup competitors manage limited attentional resources by assigning higher priority to individuating teammates. Experiment I demonstrated individuating processes, as manifested by attention to and dispositional inferences about expectancy-inconsistent attributes, in interpersonal but not intergroup competition. Experiment 2 demonstrated that intergroup competitors use individuating processes when forming impressions of team mates but not opponents. Implications for real-world competition are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 17 references indexed in Scilit:
- Perceptions of Ingroup and Outgroup Variability: A Meta-Analytic IntegrationBasic and Applied Social Psychology, 1989
- Negativity and extremity biases in impression formation: A review of explanations.Psychological Bulletin, 1989
- Traits and social stereotypes: Levels of categorization in person perception.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987
- A social context-personality index theory of memory for acquaintances.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987
- Motivational influences on impression formation: Outcome dependency, accuracy-driven attention, and individuating processes.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1987
- Outcome dependency and attention to inconsistent information.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1984
- Attention and weight in person perception: The impact of negative and extreme behavior.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1980
- Polarized appraisals of out-group members.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1980
- In-group bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis.Psychological Bulletin, 1979
- Outcome dependency: Attention, attribution, and attraction.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1976