Own-Group
Bias in Social Perception: The Role of Caste and Class Membership
A.K. Dala, S. Bhagat & E.S.K. Ghosh |
The
purpose of this study was to examine own-group biases in the evaluation
of members belonging to different caste and class groups. Undergraduate
students of Allahabad University (N = 48), selected on the basis
of their high and low caste, as well as social class, evaluated their
own-group and out-group memebers for personality traits, liking,
expected performance, popularity, life satisfaction and social distance.
The findings revealed that caste differentiation led to positive
own-group bias on all response measures, whereas negative own-group
bias was found in case of low social class subjects. The implications
of these findings for frequent caste conflicts in India were discussed.
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