Classic: Sherif et al

• Aim


  1954/1961. Explore how competition of a groups goals can lead to stereotyping and prejudiced attitudes to an outgroup
• Procedure

  Field experiment. 22 middle class Protestant 11 year old boys from Oklahoma USA who did not know each other. Parental consent. 3 weeks. 2 eagles homesick and went home at end of week (rattlers)
• Stage 1

  Group formation - ingroup non competitive activities for bonding eg building campfires
• Stage 1 findings

  Called themselves rattlers or eagles and leaders made. Had diff social norms like rattlers tougher and eagles cried more
• Stage 2

  Friction. Learned of other groups existence and tournament created w prizes. Tug of war etc and bonus points for cabin inspections
• Stage 2 findings

  Both groups wanted to challenge each other and hostility developed Name calling, fights, trashed each others cabins, burned each others flags. Only 6.4% of rattlers friends were eagles and 7.5% eagles friends were rattlers. Ranked scales showed ingroup members seen as more brave
• Stage 3

  Reducing friction. Increase social contact eg watch a movie together. Later superordinate goals w inter group cooperation like starting a broken down truck
• Stage 3 findings

  Initially did little to reduce fricrion and would go back to hurling insults but after truck they made dinner together and friction reduced. They entertained each other around the campfire and left camp as friends. 36.4% of rattlers friends were eagles and 23.2% eagles friends were rattlers
• Conclusion

  Intergroup competition leads to increased in group favouritism and out group hostility. Increased social contact not enough to reduce prejudice but a series of superordinate goals can reduce prejudice
• Lacks generalisability

  Consists of 11 year old white boys from middle class backgrounds who aren’t representative of wider population If done w girls results could be diff

  BUT same type of boys so results cant be explained by pre existing differences
• application


  Applied to revising prejudice in society using idea of superordinate goals
• Ethics

  Boys allowed right to withdraw as 2 went home due to homesickness

  Parents have consents for study but didn’t know full details

  Less protection as researchers deliberately created prejudice - led to name calling and fights
• Failed replication 


  Subsequent research by Tyerman and Spencer 1983. Studied sea scout group of 30 boys (each belonged to 1 of 4 patrols and knew each other). At annual 2 year camp Tyerman observed that in group solidarity within each patrol didn’t increase. Acc decreased a little and diff patrols interacted well in competition phase