They Saw a Game

Abstract

Students at football games in the United States (the Rose Bowl) and Japan (the Flash Bowl) evaluated in-group and out-group universities and students before and after the games. In both cultures, the university with the better academic reputation lost the game, whereas the university with the better football program won. European American students from both universities evaluated their in-groups more positively than out-groups on all measures before and after the game. In contrast, Japanese students' ratings offered no evidence of intergroup bias, although Japanese students were as identified with their teams and the game's outcome as were European American students. Instead, Japanese students' ratings reflected the universities' statuses in the larger society and the students' statuses in the immediate situation.

Disease Threat and the Functional Flexibility of Ingroup Derogation

“…Studies also revealed that participants rated the deviant ingroup members more negatively compared with their outgroup counterparts (i.e., the black sheep effect; see Marques et al, 1988; Reese et al, 2013; Kunstman et al, 2016; Bettache et al, 2019). In addition, studies also showed that, in East Asian cultures, even though the participants were not minorities or deviants, they still seemed to possess a general, status irrelevant, and pervasive negative posture toward ingroup members (Jahoda et al, 1972; Hewstone and Ward, 1985; Lee and Ottati, 1993, 1995; Diener et al, 1995; Heine and Lehman, 1997; Endo et al, 2000; Snibbe et al, 2003; Cuddy et al, 2009; Ma-Kellams et al, 2011; Zhao et al, 2012; Liu et al, 2015; Wu et al, 2015, 2016; Zuo et al, 2018; Xie et al, 2019). For example, researchers found that the Chinese implicitly associated Westerners with more positive traits and more civilized behaviors than their own ethnic group members (Ma-Kellams et al, 2011; Liu et al, 2015), and they were more prone to make outgroup-favoring and ingroup-disfavoring attributions (Hewstone and Ward, 1985).…”

Culture and Group Processes

“…For instance, Heine and Lehman (1997) found that Japanese students rated their own universities less positively than students from rival universities, a pattern not found amongst a comparison group of Canadian students. Moreover, Snibbe, Kitayama, Markus, and Suzuki (2003) found significantly less ingroup favoritism amongst Japanese football fans than their American counterparts, even though the two groups did not differ in levels of ingroup identification (see also, Bond & Hewstone, 1988).…”

Implications of Individualist Bias in Social Identity Theory for Cross-Cultural Organizational Psychology

“…Notable examples are Markus and Kitayama’s (1991) Theory of Independent and Interdependent Self-Schemas and Heine and colleagues’ Cultural Theory of Self-Enhancement (Falk & Heine, 2015; Heine & Buchtel, 2009). Both suggest that the self in individualist societies is a relatively bounded, independent entity only loosely linked to other people and groups, whereas it is substantially interdependent with others in collectivist societies (Snibbe et al, 2003). Although individuals can express values that reject their society’s IC orientation, their self-schemas remain strongly affected by cultural experiences (Falk & Heine, 2015; Peterson & Barreto, 2014).…”

“…Collectivist cultural characteristics like harmony, humility, and fitting in, however, suggest alternative means of self-enhancement besides emphasizing personal effort or qualities (Falk & Heine, 2015; Kitayama et al, 1997; Shin et al, 2013; Snibbe et al, 2003; Triandis et al, 1988). A review of 23 studies in Japan shows no evidence of the self-serving attributions of success typical in the United States (Kitayama et al, 1995).…”

“…Cultural differences in the target of self-esteem and efficacy also qualify the SIT proposition that self-enhancement requires self-aggrandizement and personal success. Self-enhancement and efficacy motives can be fulfilled in collectivist societies by attributes that promote an in-group’s status (Heine et al, 1999; Snibbe et al, 2003). Sedikides et al (2003) report that self-enhancement in collectivist societies includes doing whatever the group wants, avoiding confrontation, and even complying with group decisions when doing so is socially undesirable and wrong.…”