Focus of attention in minimal intergroup discrimination

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the level of intergroup discrimination between minimal groups depends on the amount of attention that subjects are able to pay to the intergroup distinction. This hypothesis was only partly supported. Subjects who were encouraged to attend to group membership (enhanced condition) showed greater in-group favouritism on some measures than did those in standard and distracted conditions, respectively. Enhanced condition subjects were also slightly more consistent in their intergroup allocation of points than were subjects in the other conditions. Individual differences in self-attention and conformity only affected self-reported behaviour and some affective measures, but did not influence point allocations. The results are discussed in terms of task, motivation, salience and attention.