Group Membership and Preference for Information about Others

Abstract
This experiment tested the hypothesis that preference for information about persons is affected by the structure of the social environment. Subjects were either categorized into one of two competitive groups, one of two noncompetitive groups, a single group, or not assigned to a group at all. Each subject ranked his preference for seeing information concerning the similarity or dissimilarity of other persons' attitudes to his own. Subjects in the ingroup/outgroup conditions preferred information indicating similarity with the ingroup and dissimilarity with the outgroup. Subjects who were either all members of a single group or who were not categorized into a group expressed no preference regarding information about others.

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