EXPECTATION OF OTHERS REWARD ALLOCATION, AND INGROUP FAVORITISM IN REWARD ALLOCATION

The purpose of this study was to investigate people's expectation of o thers' ingroup favoritism, and the effect of expecting others to take part in reward allocation decision on ingroup favoritism in reward all ocation. Subjects were randomly assigned to two groups, and were asked to rate attractiveness of ingroup members, and to allocate reward to ingroup and outgroup under two conditions. In the unilateral condition , the subject alone was to make the decision, and in the multilateral condition, every subject was to. The results indicated that equally in all conditions, subjects rated ingroup members more attractive, and e xpected others to allocate more reward to own groups. Reward allocatio n that favored ingroup occurred only under the multilateral condition, where everyone participated in reward allocation, regardless of wheth er the subject's own reward was dependent on others' decisions or was a fixed amount. The findings suggest that ingroup favoritism was not a result of quasi-strategy of self-interest in an attempt to maximize o wn gains, but of psychological group formation.