Facilitation of outgroup stereotypes by enhanced ingroup identity

Three experiments examined the role of an audience in the facilitation of stereotype usage. In a series of experiments subjects learned to associate a set of traits with a fictitious outgroup university. Then they observed and rated a member of that outgroup alone, in the presence of an expert audience, or in the presence of fellow subjects from their ingroup university. Judgments of the target member of the outgroup were significantly more in agreement with outgroup stereotypes when subjects were in the presence of fellow ingroup members than when either the experts or no audience was present. Moreover, subjects rated the target as more typical of the outgroup and themselves as more like fellow ingroup members in the ingroup audience condition. Consistent with social categorization research, salience of the ingroup increased identification with the ingroup and resulted in judgments of an outgroup member in terms of general expectations or stereotypes of the outgroup.