Relative Group Size and Cognitive Representations of Ingroup and Outgroup: The Phenomenology of Being in a Group

Two studies examined cognitive representations of ingroups and outgroups of varying relative group size. These cognitive representations were examined in the context of the category verification paradigm, wherein subjects have to decide the category membership for prototypic and nonprototypic exemplars of (ingroup and outgroup) social categories. The results of both studies confirm the prediction that the smaller group is subject to greater prototype cognitive representation, whereas the larger group is subject to greater exemplar cognitive representation. Discussion considers the implications of these results for some paradoxes of intergroup behavior, andfor stereotyping in general.