Mere minimal group categorization alone triggers discrimination against outgroups

Evidence

The starting point for this theory was the discovery that the mere fact of being categorized as a group member, however “minimal” that group might be, is sufficient to trigger some elementary intergroup differentiation and discrimination (Tajfel, Flament, Billig, & Bundy, 1971). These findings occasioned many researchers to conclude that simply belonging to a group – providing someone with a primitive form of social identity – can lay the foundations of prejudice towards outgroups. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 430

The starting point for this theory was the discovery that the mere fact of being categorized as a group member, however “minimal” that group might be, is sufficient to trigger some elementary intergroup differentiation and discrimination (Tajfel, Flament, Billig, & Bundy, 1971). These findings occasioned many researchers to conclude that simply belonging to a group – providing someone with a primitive form of social identity – can lay the foundations of prejudice towards outgroups. — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 430

The starting point for this theory was the discovery that the mere fact of being categorized as a group member, however “minimal” that group might be, is sufficient to trigger some elementary intergroup differentiation and discrimination (Tajfel, Flament, Billig, & Bundy, 1971). These findings occasioned many researchers to conclude that simply belonging to a group – providing someone with a primitive form of social identity – can lay the foundations of prejudice towards outgroups. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 430

Categorization

• QUESTION: The minimal group studies are famous, but worth revisiting their exact design - mere categorization with no interaction and no history produced measurable discrimination?
• corroborated: 4 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 430; John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice: Fifty Years…, 430
• XREF: connects to: Anticipatory loss of group standing drives outgroup discrimination — Brenda Major and Alison Blodorn and Gregory Major Blascovich, The threat of increasing diversity: Why…, 14; Both weak and strong group identifiers resist compensation but for opposite reasons — Torsten Masson and Markus Barth, The identification-guilt paradox…, 70; Merely categorizing people into us and them produces discrimination against them — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide: The Social…, 88