Differential power and effects of expected competitive and cooperative intergroup interaction on intragroup and outgroup attitudes

Asked 41 3-man groups to play the role of union representatives, which prepared them for intergroup negotiations with (fictitious) management teams. In a 2 * 2 experimental design, cooperative or competitive orientations were induced in groups that were led to believe that they had either a strong or a weak bargaining position. As predicted, competitive groups showed greater cohesiveness when they had a strong than when they had a weak bargaining position. Unexpectedly, the cooperative groups felt more positive about their own group when they had a weak bargaining position than when their bargaining position was strong. Similar interactions were obtained for the outgroup ratings. As expected, competitive groups were more hostile and had more negative attitudes toward the other group than cooperative groups. In the competitive as compared with the cooperative condition, there was greater attention to the task than to the socioemotional relationships in the group. The experimental manipulations had little or no effect on the preferences of the Ss to negotiate in public or in private or on their arguments in support of these preferences. (27 ref)