The effects of global versus local processing styles on ingroup favouritism

• Main Author: Ma, Chen
• Other Authors: Wan Ching
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2012
• Subjects: DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Consciousness and cognition; DRNTU::Social sciences::Psychology::Experimental psychology
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/48484
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

As an individual recognises him or herself as a member of a certain social group, social categorisation takes place. It is the cognitive processes where ‘I’ becomes ‘we’ and other people in the society are labelled as either ‘us’ or ‘them’. Social categorisation in turn facilitates comparisons between in- and outgroups. When individuals make comparison between social groups, they tend to differentiate ingroup members from those of outgroup. However, it is suggested that mindsets, or information processing styles can influence how people compare between stimuli. Participants primed with global processing style were expected to show a reduced differentiation between in- and outgroup members, which would in turn lead to an overall attenuated ingroup favouritism as compared with participants who were primed with local processing style. However, participants primed with local processing style were expected to show an enhanced differentiation effect, which would in turn lead to an overall more pronounced ingroup favouritism as compared with participants primed with global processing style. The experiment results disagreed with what was predicted. Possible reasons for the incongruence as well as implications of the present study are discussed.