In-Group Favoritism and Perceived Similarity: A Look at Russians' Perceptions in the Post-Soviet Era

Using social identity theory, belief congruence theory, and optimal distinctiveness theory as frameworks, the authors examined whether perceived threat would moderate the relationship between perceived out-group similarity and group evaluations. Russian undergraduates evaluated Russians, Ukrainians, Moldavians, and Georgians on a number of dimensions. It was expected that when an out-group was seen as a severe threat, perceived similarity would result in in-group bias. However, when an out-group was viewed as nonthreatening, perceived similarity was expected to be negatively related to in-group bias. As hypothesized, although perceived similarity and in-group bias were negatively related for those who felt unthreatened by Georgians, a nonsignificant positive relationship existed for those feeling threatened.