S. Khan et Aj. Lambert, INGROUP FAVORITISM VERSUS BLACK SHEEP EFFECTS IN OBSERVATIONS OF INFORMAL CONVERSATIONS, Basic and applied social psychology, 20(4), 1998, pp. 263-269
This research was designed to gain further insight into the psychologi
cal mechanisms underlying the ''black sheep effect'' (e.g., Marques, Y
zerbyt, & Leyens, 1988) using a paradigm that allowed us to address 2
potential limitations of previous research in this area First, unlike
earlier work, this research varied the group membership of the observe
r in combination with that of the target (i.e., an Observer x Target d
esign), which is necessary to provide a strict test of the black sheep
effect. Second, we relied on a manipulation of group membership that
was more subtle than that employed by previous research. This allowed
us to test whether participants would spontaneously (i.e., without pro
mpting by the experimenter) use group membership as a basis for deroga
ting dislikeable members of the ingroup. These issues were explored us
ing a ''get acquainted paradigm'' in which male or female participants
read transcripts of a conversation between 2 students whose apparent
gender was manipulated by varying only their first names (e.g., Jim vs
. Am). The existence of both ingroup favoritism and black sheep effect
s was successfully demonstrated in this paradigm, although the magnitu
de of these effects was stronger for female than for male participants
. Implications of these results for a theoretical framework presented
by Marques and his colleagues as well as recent models of assimilation
and contrast are discussed.