ingroup bias

the tendency to favor one’s own group, its members, its characteristics, and its products, particularly in reference to other groups. The favoring of the ingroup tends to be more pronounced than the rejection of the outgroup, but both tendencies become more pronounced during periods of intergroup contact. At the regional, cultural, or national level, this bias is often termed ethnocentrism. Also called ingroup favoritism. See also group-serving bias.

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Psychology term of the day

January 22nd 2025

states versus transformations

in Piagetian theory, the extent to which a child’s attention is focused on states (e.g., the appearance of an object) rather than transformations (i.e., what is done to the object), and vice versa, at different stages of cognitive development. At the preoperational stage, children center their attention on specific states and ignore the transformations between states, whereas the reverse is true for children at the concrete operational stage.