GROUP-REPRESENTATIONS AND INTERGROUP BLAS - POSITIVE AFFECT, SIMILARITY, AND GROUP-SIZE

This study examined how social (group size: two, three, or four person s), appearance (similar or dissimilar dress), and affective (positive or neutral mood) factors can influence social categorization and, cons equently, intergroup bias. As expected, positive affect increased the extent to which subjects formed inclusive group representations, antic ipating that the members of two groups would feel like one, superordin ate group. Also as predicted, subjects in dissimilarly dressed groups expected the memberships to feel less like one group. Consistent with the common in-group identity model, stronger superordinate group repre sentations, in turn, predicted more positive out-group evaluations and lower levels of intergroup bias. The conceptual and applied implicati ons of affect and social representations for improving intergroup rela tions are considered.