Tajfel, H. (1970)
Experiments in intergroup discrimination. Scientific American, 223, 96-102
What groups do you belong to?
Group membership is thought by Tajfel and others to be a fundamental factor in the creation of prejudice and discrimination. Tajfel uses the terms in-group and out-group (‘us’ and ‘them’) in his discussions of discriminatory behaviour. In these studies he aims to shows that discrimination can result from minimal groups as well as from well established groups.
Explain what Tajfel meant by a ‘minimal group’
Experiment One
Who were the participants in this experiment?
How did the boys think that they had been assigned to groups and how were they really assigned?
The boys were then asked individually to give rewards of real money to the other boys in the experiment. They were given booklets with grids such as the one below:
|
Choice number |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
BOY 1 |
9 |
11 |
12 |
14 |
16 |
|
BOY 2 |
5 |
9 |
11 |
15 |
19 |
They weren’t given the names of the boys that they were allocating money to but they did know which group each boy was in. Which ‘choice number’ from the above grid do you think the boys would select in each of the following situations?
|
condition |
Description |
Choice number? |
|
Ingroup choice |
Boy 1 & Boy 2 in the same group as you |
|
|
Outgroup choice |
Boy 1 & Boy 2 in the other group |
|
|
Intergroup choice |
Boy 1 in your group Boy 2 in the other group |
Tajfel was particularly interested in the results from the Intergroup choices. Outline what he found.
Experiment Two
Who were the subjects and how did they think they were assigned to groups?
Again, the boys had to complete reward booklets but this time there were THREE variables that might have an effect on the boy’s choices. Describe the three variables:
|
Variable |
Description |
|
Maximum Joint Profit |
|
|
Largest possible reward to in-group |
|
|
Maximum Difference |
In this study, all the grids referred to one boy in your group and one boy in the other group.
|
Choice number |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4 |
5 |
|
BOY 1 (in group) |
9 |
11 |
12 |
14 |
16 |
|
BOY 2 (out group) |
5 |
9 |
11 |
15 |
19 |
From the grid above, identify the choice number that would give
1. maximum joint profit?
2. maximum difference?
Briefly outline the results of Experiment Two.
What conclusions can be drawn from this study about the necessary conditions for discrimination?
Sample
This study was conducted on 14 and 15 year old boys. What effect do you think this might have had on the results? Could you generalise these results to adults?