Racism and the Minimal Group Paradigm
The earliest study using the minimal group paradigm was done in 1971. 48 teenage boys were recruited to participate in what they believed to be a study of art appreciation. Each boy was shown a series of paintings in pairs and was asked to identify which painting he preferred. Once finished, the boys were told that one picture in each pair was painted by Paul Klee and the other by Wassily Kandinsky, two well-known European painters. Half the boys were falsely told that they preferred Klee paintings, and the other half were told they preferred Kandinsky.
Actually, the researchers had randomly assigned the boys into the two groups in a way that had nothing to do with their paintings. But in each boy’s eyes, he now belonged to either a Klee group or a Kandinsky group. The sham artist preference was the “minimal” characteristic that defined the groups, a trivial distinction that wasn’t even true. Instantly, the boys developed a powerful allegiance to their own group. In a second part of the experiment each boy showed a strong tendency to reward members of his group, and to penalize members of the other group, even if he did not know them personally.
This tendency toward favoritism based on a trivial difference became known as the minimal group bias and was repeatedly confirmed by countless experiments. In every case, as soon as groups were defined, the subjects would favor their own team, the “in-group,” with positive impressions and rewards. And they would predictably discriminate against the out-group with negative opinions and penalties. The tendency to discriminate appeared even in children under the age of four.
Knowing that the tendency to discriminate against those who are different is inborn helps us appreciate how insidious is the worst side of our human nature and how important it is to overcome that tendency through active parenting, schooling, and socialization. For that reason, it is not enough not to be racist. It is essential to work to be actively anti-racist. Because if we let up for a moment, it would be all too easy to slip back into the worst versions of ourselves.
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