User:Rchlkm/sandbox

In-Group Favoritism Work

The two main topics that I will be focusing on are:

The biological basis for in-group favoritism: at the biological level, oxytocin is a chemical that is increased when members of a group favor others based on social categories. The current wikipedia article on in-group favoritism does not have any information on why in-group favoritism occurs at a biological level. The Wikipedia article on Oxytocin currently references in-group favoritism and includes a brief statement on how the chemical is related to this social psychological concept. I plan to work on my group to provide more information and details about oxytocin and its impact of in-group favoritism.

Social Identity Theory: The current Wikipedia page for Social Identity Theory references in-group favoritism and claims that the theory is a main cause of in-group favoritism. However, there is limited information of why the social identity theory causes in-group favoritism in the in-group favoritism page. My group and I plans to expand on the content and provide a more direct link between the two.

Social Identity Theory

Social identity theory has been proved as a major cause of in-group favoritism. When people start defining themselves based on a self-inclusive social category (i.e. gender, class, team), such categorization accentuates the differences between in-group and out-group. These differences can cause biased intergroup comparisons, and ultimately bring conflicts. For example, the in-group may start developing negative stereotypes of the out-group and de-individuate the members in the out-group. In order to maintain one’s own in-group self-esteem, it is typical for an in-group to negatively stereotype an out-group. Once two groups begin to identity themselves as rivals, they naturally compete with each other. Such competition often turns into conflict between groups.