Corrigan, Nelly (2025) Exploring the Role of Accountability on Minimal Group Favoritism: Social Identity and Interdependence Accounts. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
Ingroup favoritism is a widely observed phenomenon with far-reaching consequences. Although a popular topic of research, competitive testing of different explanations has arguably dominated over understanding under what conditions these explanations function. This study investigates how two foundational explanations, social identity and interdependence, influence ingroup favoritism within the Minimal Group Paradigm (MGP) by exploring the role that accountability plays in this context. To do so, a 2(Group Type: Social identity-based vs Interdependence-based) x 2(Accountability: yes vs no) between-participants design ( N = 249) was used, sampling both from the SONA pool and Prolific. Results confirmed ingroup favoritism in all conditions. The interaction effect between group type and accountability was not significant, however, a crossover pattern was observed where accountability decreased ingroup favoritism in the social identification condition but increased it in the interdependence condition. Analysis of pictorial measures of self- categorization (self-ingroup overlap, ingroup-outgroup overlap) provided further insights into the nature of the ingroup favoritism results. Accountability exerts a complex, context- dependent influence as a surveillance mechanism, altering identification and group boundaries. As the accountability manipulation was not successful, future research should refine the manipulation and explore these nuanced dynamics further. Keywords: Ingroup Favoritism, Minimal Group Paradigm, MGP, Accountability, Interdependence, Social Identity, Individualism, Collectivism, Political Orientation
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
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| Supervisor name: | Spears, R. |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Applied Social Psychology (ASP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 08 Aug 2025 13:59 |
| Last Modified: | 08 Aug 2025 13:59 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5833 |
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