Individual-collective primacy and ingroup favoritism: enhancement and protection effects

Individual-collective primacy refers to the extent to which people emphasize their individual interests (individual-primacy) vs. the interests of their ingroup (collective-primacy). This study examined the interactive effects of individual-collective primacy, ingroup performance, and outgroup performance on ingroup favoritism. Participants from two cultures completed a measure of their individual vs. collective-primacy orientation. Performance feedback (favorable or unfavorable) for themselves, their ingroup, and the outgroup were manipulated orthogonally. As predicted, greater collective-primacy led to more ingroup favoritism when the ingroup performed better or worse than the outgroup. However, when the ingroup and outgroup both performed well or both performed poorly, the relationship between collective-primacy and ingroup favoritism was not significant. Implications for analyses of ingroup favoritism and cross-cultural differences are discussed.