1.  “This presentation contains copyrighted material under the educational fair use exemption to the U.S. copyright law” Tajfel Discrimination Study AICE AS Level Psychology

2. II. Tajfel’s Hypothesis
A. Hypothesis – “discriminatory intergroup behavior can sometimes be expected even if the individual is not involved in actual (or even imagined) conflicts of interest and has no past history of attitudes of intergroup hostility.”

3. B. Aim
1. To investigate the minimal conditions in which prejudice and discrimination can occur.
2. To demonstrate that merely putting people into groups (categorization) is sufficient for people to discriminate in favor of their own group and against members of the other group.

4. C. Variables, Method and Design
a. IV type of allocation they were asked to make
b. DV the choices they made (either being fair or showing discrimination)
2. Method = Lab experiment.

5. 3. Design = It seems that it is independent because the boys are in two different groups, but because they are all asked to make all types of allocations it is a REPEATED MEASURES DESIGN

6. III. The First Experiment
A. The Sample
boys who were years old from a comprehensive school in a suburb of Bristol.
2. The boys arrived for the experiment in groups of eight.
3. All the boys in each group were from the same “House” in the same “form” or grade at the school, so that they knew each other well before the experiment.
4. Opportunity Sample

7. B. The first part of the experiment served to establish an intergroup categorization
C. The second part was to assess the effects of that categorization on intergroup behavior.
D. Apparatus = the booklet to make allocations

8. E. Procedure
1. In the first part the boys were brought together in a lecture room and were told that the researcher was interested in the study of visual judgments.
2. Forty clusters of varying numbers of dots were flashed on a screen.
3. The boys were asked to estimate the number of dots in each cluster and to record each estimate.

9. 4. After the boys had completed their estimates they were told one of two things depending on the condition they were in (4 of the groups in each condition)
a. The first group was told that in judgments of this kind some people consistently overestimate the number of dots and some consistently underestimate the number.
b. The second group was told that some people were better and some people were worse at estimating the number of dots

10. 5. After the judgments had been made they were “scored” by one of the experimenters.
6. Participants were told that researchers were interested in other decision making processes & were going to take advantage of their presence to investigate these concepts.

11. 7. Participants were told they were be grouped on the basis of the visual judgments they had just made, however the were actually randomly assigned:
a. In condition one
half to the 'under estimators'
half to the 'over estimators
b. In condition two
Half to the better
Half to the worse

12. F. The choice task 1. They were given the following instructions:.
2. The task would consist of giving others participants points which would then be converted into real money at the end of the experiment

13. 3. They would not know the identity of the individuals to whom they would be assigning these rewards & penalties since everyone would have a code number
4. Each boy went to another room on their own, sat in a student cubicle and was given a booklet containing 18 pages
5. On each page there were 14 boxes containing two numbers each

14. 6. The numbers in the top row of the matrix were the rewards and penalties to be awarded to one person and those in the bottom row were those to be awarded to another
7. They were not giving money to themselves

15. The participant had to check one column e.g. 12 and –25 or –9 and 4
#74
Over 12 10 8 6 4 2 -1 -5 -9
-13
-17
-21
-25
#68 Under
The participant had to check one column e.g. 12 and –25 or –9 and 4

16. 8. At the end of the task each boy would be brought back into the first room and would receive the amount of money the other boys had awarded him

17. 9. The value of each point they were awarding was a tenth of a penny
10. Each row of the matrix was labeled
# of over estimators
# of under estimators

18. 11. The boys were required to make three types of choice.
a. There were in-group choices, where both top and bottom row referred to members of the same group as the boy. (other than himself)
b. There were out-group choices, with both top and bottom row referred to members of the different group from the boy.
c. There were intergroup choices, where one row referred to the boys’ own group and one row referred to the other group.

19. IV. Results
A. In the intergroup choices the large majority of participants gave more money to members of their own group
#74
Over 12 10 8 6 4 2 -1 -5 -9
-13
-17
-21
-25
#68 Under

20. B. When the boys had an entirely in- group (or out-group) choice to make, they tended towards the point of maximum fairness (this would be 0 and –1 in our example).
#74
Over 12 10 8 6 4 2 -1 -5 -9
-13
-17
-21
-25
#68 Under

21. V. Results & Conclusions
A. Results
1. No NUMERIC results were provided in the study
2. They calculated the average score by making an out group decision as 1pt an in-group decision as 14pts and a fair decision as 7.5 points
3. So if they were not discriminating all 3 types of allocations should have averaged 7.5 points but they did not
4. The only information provided by the researchers is that the results were SIGNIFICANT
5. You WILL NOT be asked to provide a numeric result

22. All in-group decision = 14 pts
All out group decision = 1pt
#74
Over 12 10 8 6 4 2 -1 -5 -9
-13
-17
-21
-25
#68 Under
Maximum fairness decision = 7.5 pts

23. B. Conclusions
1. Discrimination occurred as a result of simply designating in-group and out-group membership (categorization)
2. Choices were not made to maximize everyone’s winnings (joint maximum profit) but instead to maximize in-group profits.
3. There was no difference between the two conditions (over & under) and (better & worse).

24. “This presentation contains copyrighted material under the educational fair use exemption to the U.S. copyright law” Tajfel Discrimination Study AICE AS Level Psychology Lecture 3

25. VI. The Second Experiment
A. Sample:
new boys
2. tested in 3 groups of 16 each divided into 2 conditions
B. Aesthetic preference: was used as the basis of the division into two groups

26. C. The boys were shown 12 slides of paintings: 6 by Paul Klee and 6 by Wassily Kandinsky & asked to express their preference.

27. Wassily Kandinsky
Paul Klee
The paintings were shown without any signatures so that the boys could be assigned at random to the Klee or Kandinsky group.

28. D. Procedure 1. Assignment
a. After they had judged the paintings they were then told that they were being divided into groups
b. They were classified as the 'Klee group' or the 'Kandinsky group' named after the actual painters whose work had been shown.
c. But really this was random

29. 2. Instructions
a. They were told that the study was about “decision making.”
b. Required them to allocate points to other students
c. To make their allocations the participants were shown a matrix & asked to choose a pair of numbers from the same column

30. E. AIM - Tajfel wanted to assess 3 things:
Maximum joint profit (MJP): a boy could give the largest reward to members of both groups
Maximum in-group profit (MIP): a boy could choose the largest reward for the member of his own group regardless of the reward to the boy from the other group

31. 3. Maximum difference (MD): largest possible difference in gain between a member of in-group and a member of out-group, in favor of the in-group

32. Different matrices were designed from the first study
Rewards # 36 of Klee group 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Rewards for member 15 of Kandinsky group 1 3 5 21 23 25

33. For example if you are in the Klee group
MJP =19-25 (adding)
MIP =19-25 (largest # for your group)
MD =7-1 (biggest difference between the groups, favoring yours)
Rewards #36 of Klee group 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Rewards # 15
Kandinsky group 1 3 5 21 23 25

34. VII. Results A. Maximum difference was most often chosen
1. Significant tendency to use maximum difference in favor of the in-group at the expense of maximum in-group profit
2. even if this meant that the in-group lost out on points

35. B. In a situation where the choice was between two in-group members
3. MJP almost no effect at all
4. But MIP and MD exerted a strong effect.
5. Participants always tried to give their in- group members the best deal at the cost of the out-group member.
B. In a situation where the choice was between two in-group members
1. participants’ choices were nearer the MJP then when the choice was between two out-group members

36. VIII. Conclusions A. Tajfel believed the study showed 3 things
1. There can be discrimination even when there is no reason for it.
2. This discrimination can occur without any previous hostility between groups
3. May result in discriminatory behavior before any prejudice or hostility has developed.

37. B. Out-group discrimination is easy create
4. The findings demonstrate that mere categorization into groups produces in- group favoritism and discrimination towards the out-group 
B. Out-group discrimination is easy create
1. Previous studies(Sherif) have shown how conflict or earlier hostility can act as the basis for intergroup discrimination.

38. 2. But here neither of those had any relevance to what the participants were asked to do in this experiment
C. People would rather have the out- group suffer at the expense of in-group loss so that social distance is created between the groups

39. “This presentation contains copyrighted material under the educational fair use exemption to the U.S. copyright law” Tajfel Discrimination Study AICE AS Level Psychology Lecture 4

40. IX. Evaluation A. Lab Experiment 1. Strengths = High degree of control
a. Example of controls would be
1. There was no social interaction so no confounding variables)
2. Minimal conditions were maintained

41. 2. Weaknesses = lacks ecological validity
a. Experiment was in a lab setting which takes away some of validity
b. Prejudice & discrimination are social phenomenon they are being studied in a lab
c. Unusual task that may have been difficult to understand
d. Are the results do to DEMAND CHARACTERISTICS, that is to say did the boys figure out the idea of the game and just play along?

42. B. Issues and Debates 1. Reductionism vs Holism
a. Because Tajfel is attempting to explain discrimination in terms of simple categorization this is a reductionist explanation
b. One may argue that trying to reduce a complex social behavior such as prejudice and discrimination to one factor is a major weakness.

43. 2. Situational vs Dispositional
a. Did the situation created by Tajfel cause the boys to act in a certain way
b. Or was this due to some dispostional characteristic within the boys

44. X. Explanation for Findings
A. Social Identity Theory (SIT) as an explanation for intergroup discrimination.
1. SIT suggests that the participants favored their own group because it increases their self-esteem.
2. SIT has become one of the main theories in social psychology

45. 3. SIT is useful because it explains the social causes of prejudice & it may also explain individual differences ( why some people are more likely to discriminate than others)
4. BUT in cultures that do not emphasize competition categorization does not always seem to lead to discrimination.

46. B. Social Categorization
1. We categorize objects in order to understand them
2. We also categorize people (including ourselves) in order to understand our social environment.
3. We use social categories like Black, White, Christian, Muslim, student, & teacher because they are useful.

47. 4. By assigning people to a category we (believe we) know certain things about those people
5. Thus we can find out things about ourselves by knowing to which categories we belong
6. We define appropriate behavior by referencing the norms of groups to which we belong but we can only do this if we can tell who belongs to our group