ingroup / outgroup

us vs them

Jul 11, 2024

As Saul McLeod writes in “Social identity theory”, published by Simply Psychology, October 24, 2019,

We divided the world into “them” and “us” based through a process of social categorization (i.e. we put people into social groups).
Henri Tajfel proposed that stereotyping (i.e. putting people into groups and categories) is based on a normal cognitive process: the tendency to group things together. In doing so we tend to exaggerate:
1. the differences between groups
2. the similarities of things in the same group.
This is known as in-group (us) and out-group (them). The central hypothesis of social identity theory is that group members of an in-group will seek to find negative aspects of an out-group, thus enhancing their self-image.

According to the APA Dictionary of Psychology of the American Psychological Association, an ‘outgroup’ can be defined thusly,

n.
in general, any group to which one does not belong or with which one does not identify.
a specific rival group that ingroup members ridicule, derogate, and sometimes are aggressive toward. Also called they-group. [defined in 1906 by U.S. sociologist William G. Sumner (1840–1910)]

and ‘ingroup’ can be defined as such,

n.
in general, any group to which one belongs or with which one identifies, but particularly a group judged to be different from other groups (outgroups).
a group characterized by intense bonds of affiliation such that each member feels a sense of kinship and some degree of loyalty to other members by virtue of their common group membership. Also called we-group. [defined in 1906 by U.S. sociologist William G. Sumner (1840–1910)]

Considering the political compass (see below), reflect that the closer one is mapped to a corner, the more one will consider members of the other 3 quadrants to be members of the outgroup. If one goes far enough, even less moderate members of one’s quadrant are members of the outgroup.