American Political Ingroup Bias and the Above-Average Effect
17 Pages Posted: 30 Oct 2012
Date Written: October 29, 2012
Abstract
The "above-average effect" is the phenomenon that most people judge themselves above average on desirable traits. Republican and Democrat participants completed a measure of the above-average effect for traits related to warmth and competence. In addition to self-ratings, they also rated how the average Republican and the average Democrat compare to the average American. Regardless of party affiliation, participants tended to rate their own warmth and competence clearly above average. Interestingly, this self-above-average effect was combined with an "ingroup-above-self effect", i.e., participants tended to rate the average affiliate of their own party even higher – a grace that was not extended to the other party, whose average member tended to be rated just on par with the average American. Although this ingroup bias was exhibited by both parties, its warmth-competence profile differed markedly between parties: whereas Republican ingroup bias focused on competence, Democrat ingroup bias focused on warmth. Our findings fit well within social identity theory and show that political ingroup bias is larger even than the famous above-average effect.
Keywords: above-average effect, self-enhancement, ingroup bias, political stereotypes
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- Citations
- Citation Indexes: 2
- Usage
- Abstract Views: 2825
- Downloads: 289
- Captures
- Readers: 7