Abstract
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.