Children's intergroup attribution bias for liked and disliked peers

To find an intergroup bias with nonethnic peer social groups, the author as ked 30 children from New Zealand to make attributions about both positive a nd negative behaviors performed by both someone they liked and by someone t hey disliked. In line with predictions, the children produced (a) more disp ositional attributions for friends performing positive behaviors and for so meone disliked performing negative behaviors and (b) more situational attri butions for friends performing negative behaviors and for someone disliked performing positive behaviors. The results show that the intergroup attribu tion bias generalizes to the important domain of peer relations and that ch ildren's narrative accounts can be biased depending upon group membership.