It’s us or them: a study of social value orientation and type of salient group culture in intergroup conflict

Abstract

As one of the biggest problems of the century, intergroup conflict has drawn much attention in social psychology. Achieving intra- and intergroup cooperation is valuable in promoting cohesive societies, but oftentimes unattainable. The present study aimed to disentangle motives for behaviours in intergroup conflict as well as possible factors that could promote ingroup welfare without the expense of outgroup welfare. The study examined the influence of the dispositional trait Social Value Orientation (SVO; Prosocial vs. Proself), the type of salient group culture (ingroup vs. outgroup vs. neutral), and their combined effect on behaviours in intergroup conflict, specifically expression of ingroup love and outgroup hate. 111 participants responded to the Slider Measure of SVO, underwent a priming procedure to increase the salience of ingroup culture, outgroup culture or no culture, and the Intergroup Prisoner’s Dilemma-Maximising Difference game as a model of intergroup conflict. Results indicate that (1) ingroup love increased with prosociality but not outgroup hate, (2) salient group culture, both ingroup and outgroup culture, increased outgroup hate, (3) the type of salient group culture did not moderate the effect of SVO on ingroup love and outgroup hate. Possible explanations, limitations, future direction, societal and policy implications were discussed.