Abstract

This study examined the intergroup discrimination in a minimal group situation in terms of the proportion of group members possessing positive and negative attributes, group means on those attributes, group variances on those attributes and linguistic intergroup biases and their relationships. The results of this study showed intergroup discriminations in favor of in-group on group proportions of positive attributes, group means of negative attributes and linguistic biases on negative attributes, but they did not show intergroup discrimination on group homogeneity. Subjects estimated that a higher percent of in-group members possessed positive attributes, but a higher percent of out-group members did negative attributes. However, out-group means for negative attributes were estimated higher than in-group means, but not for positive attributes. In addition, subjects stated more abstractly of the in-group members' behaviors than out-group members' on negative attributes, but not on positive attributes. These results support the hypothesis based on the normative explanation of group discrimination that there is a positive-negative asymmetry in the percent (explicit measure of group discrimination), but not in the means and linguistic intergroup discrimination(implicit measures). However, the results did not support either linear or curvilinear relationships among the perception of group variability and intergroup discrimination.