Perceiving group boundaries as impermeable and status as illegitimate boosts ingroup favoritism

Evidence

As noted above, research largely supports Allport’s contention that responses to prejudice are largely an individual rather than a group matter. At the same time, his extropunitive/intropunitive typology has not been pursued. For example, people who are high on sensitivity to race rejection appear to be vigilant vis-à-vis prejudice, but whether this signals “extropunitiveness” as a personality trait or experience with prejudice (i.e., consciousness raising) is not known. Beyond personality differences, researchers have also begun to specify structural conditions that predict differences in responses among members of devalued groups. Social Identity Theory, for example, predicts that members of low-status groups are more likely to identify with their group and show ingroup favoritism to the extent that they see group boundaries as impermeable, and group status differences as unstable and illegitimate (e.g., Bettencourt, Charlton, Dorr, & Hume, 2001). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 974

Categorization

• XREF: Directly connects to Social Identity Theory literature and to prior chapters discussing intergroup relations and system justification. — connects to: Ingroup identification predicts less forgiveness only among the higher-status group — Miles Hewstone and Ed Cairns and Alberto Voci and Juergen Hamberger and Ulrike Niens, Intergroup Contact, Forgiveness, and…, 105; Perceived illegitimacy of advantage triggers dominant-group hostility — Nyla R. Branscombe and Bertjan Doosje (eds.), Collective Guilt: International…, 807; Beliefs about group boundary permeability shape whether individual or collective strategies are adopted — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 77 (+2 more)
• DEFINE: Clarifies the specific structural predictors from Social Identity Theory — impermeability, instability, illegitimacy — that drive identification and favoritism.