Intergroup emotions in conditions of competition

A.Prikhidko, O.Goulevitch

➲ Modern social psychology becomes more and more emotional.

➲ Emotions are studied at 5 levels of analysis (intraindividual, interpersonal, group, intergroup and cross-cultural)

➲ The idea of present study was to show the influence of personal dispositions on the emotions felt at the intergroup level.

Theory of intergroup emotionsE. Smith

➲ Theory of intergroup emotions postulates that the feelings we have towards the members of another social group depend on the identification with an in-group.

➲ The more one identifies with an in-group the more intense emotions he will have for an out-group.

➲ To measure the intergroup emotions first you have to find out the level of in-group identification.

Studies of intergroup emotions show that

➲ The most frequent outgroup feelings usually include — anger, fear (and anxiety), guilt and zloradstvo (shadenfreude).

Studies of intergroup emotions show that

➲ Outgroup emotions are connected with social attitudes, stereotypes and prejudice.

➲ Sometimes outgroup emotions function as an infrahumanization technique and they can be used as a resource for different social actions.

Less is known about

➲ The intergroup emotions and their connection with individual dispositions of group members.

➲ The difference between emotions felt by members of small and big social groups when the size of a group is a criteria

➲ The influence of wide social context on the feelings felt towards another group

Less is known about

➲ Positive intergroup emotions — joy, happiness, sympathy.

Present study had 2 parts — one for a big and another for a small social group

➲ Research of intergroup emotions and their connection with individual dispositions of members and followers of political parties who took part in the president elections in 2008

Present study had 2 parts — one for a big and another for a small social group

➲ Research of intergroup emotions and their connection with individual dispositions of CJS players (CJS — students game — Club of Joyful and Smart)

Present study had 2 parts — one for a big and another for a small social group

➲ Paricipants — 38 male and 52 female followers of main political parties.

➲ Methods➲ Identification scale➲ Emotion scale➲ EI test➲ Coping test

➲ Participants — 38 male and 36 female members of CJS game groups

➲ Methods➲ Identification scale➲ Emotion scale➲ EI test➲ Motivation test

Intergroup emotions during the president elections

➲ Anger➲ Contempt➲ Disgust Which forma triad of hostility

emotion disgust contempt

r p< r p<

anger 0.779

0.005

0.773

10-3

Intergroup emotions during the CJS games

➲ Sympathy➲ Joy➲ Anxiety➲ Pride

➲ M1 — median before the games

➲ M2 - median after the games

Sympathy Joy Anxiety Pride

M1=5M2=4

M1=4M2=3

M1=1.5M2=1

M1=3M2=3

Intergroup emotions are influenced by ingroup identification

➲ This was right only for the members of big groups

Emotions Group importance Social activity

ß t p< ß t p<

Anger - - - 0.250 2.409 0.05

Disgust 0.287 2.796 0.01 0.345 3.430 0.01

Contempt 0.246 2.351 0.05 0.246 2.352 0.001

➲ Political parties➲ Negative emotions are

negatively connected with EE (external expression scale), EM (emotional management)

➲ CJS — Results for non-winners

➲ Negative emotions are mostly influenced by EE(external expression) scale) — the higher is EI the lower are negative emotions.

➲ Joy and anxiety are influenced by UE (understanding of emotions scale)

Intergroup emotions are influenced by an emotional intelligence of ingroup members

Intergroup emotions are influenced by motivation of affiliation

➲ This was measured only for members of small groups

Fear of resentment predicts sympathy in groups of non-winners after the game is over (ß=0.402, t= 2.149, p<0.05) and sadness (ß=0.404, t= 2.107, p<0.05).

➲ Fear of resentment predicts decreasing of

anger (ß=0.382, t= 2.180, p<0.05) and guilt

before the games (ß=0.367, t= 2.212,

p<0.05).

Possible reasons for a big difference in the intergroup emotions between big and small

groups

➲ Social context — competition in humorous game differs a lot from political competition: while members of CJS games need each other to continue their activities, members and followers of political parties want to destroy the outgroup

➲ Personal communication — the fact of knowing your opponent personally makes sense decreasing the level of hostility

➲ Mechanisms of psychological defense — they may work better having an influence on outgroup emotions when it comes up to game where humour is the point.