Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal

Distancing from Incompetent In-Group Members: Evidence for the Black Sheep Effect in
Ethnicity and Nationality
Author(s): Alecia M. Santuzzi and Janet B. Ruscher
Source: Race, Gender & Class, Vol. 13, No. 1/2, Race, Gender, and Class: A Potpourri in
Psychology; and Others (2006), pp. 87-95
Published by: Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41675223 .
Accessed: 21/06/2014 23:44

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .
http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of
content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms
of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Jean Ait Belkhir, Race, Gender & Class Journal is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend
access to Race, Gender &Class.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Race, Gender £ Class s Volume 13, Number1-2, 2006 (87-95)

Race, Gender & Class Website: www.suno.edu/sunorgc/

Distancing from Incompetent In-

Group Members: Evidence for

the Black Sheep Effect in

Ethnicity and Nationality

Aléela M. Santuzzl
Psychology
Syracuse University

Janet B. Ruscher
Psychology
Tuiane University

Abstract: The presentstudyexaminedhow Whiteuniversity studentslivingin

the UnitedStatesevaluatedstudentuniversity applicantsgivendifferences in
applicants'nationality, and
ethnicity, competence. Consistentwith the black
sheep effect(Marques & Yzerbyt,1988), ratingsforan incompetent in-group
applicant(i.e., White applicantliving in the Unites States) were lower in
comparisonto ratingsforotherincompetent or competent applicants. These
resultsdemonstrated thatBSE maybe relevantto notonlyracial identity, but
also otheraspects of social identity(e.g., nationality).BSE seemed to be
strongerwhenthe"blacksheep"was of boththesame racialcategoryand the
same nationality as participants,
comparedto whenonlyone of eitherrace or
was
nationality thesame or when bothrace and nationalityweredifferent from
participants.Therefore, BSE might increase as the degree of overlap in
individuals'socialidentitiesincreases.

Keywords: black sheep effect;social identity;racial identity;in-group

evaluation

Alecia M. Santuzziis an assistant in theDepartment

professor of Psychology at
Syracuse University. Her researchinterestsinclude intergroup relations,
interpersonal
perception,experiencesof stigmaand prejudice,and quantitative

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
88 Distancing
fromIn-group

methodsin socialpsychology.
Address: Departmentof Psychology,SyracuseUniversity,Syracuse,NY
13244. Ph.:(315) 443-9917,Fax: (315) 443-4085,Email: amsantuz@syr.edu

JanetB. Ruscher is a professorin the Department of Psychologyat Tulane

Universityin New Orleans,Louisiana. Her researchfocusesprimarily on the
communicationof stereotypesand prejudice. Her book Prejudiced
communication : A social psychologicalperspectiveand review articlesin
Advancesin Experimental Social Psychology(Vol. 30) andJournalof Language
andSocial Psychology (Vol. 25) includesummariesofherempiricalwork.
Address: Department of Psychology,Tulane University, New Orleans,LA
70118. Ph.: (504) 862-3309,Email: ruscher@tulane.edu

toAlecia Santuzzivia emailat amsantuz@syr.edu.

Inquiriesshouldbe directed

black sheep effectis evidentwhenindividualsevaluatein-

group membersmore extremelythan out-groupmembers
The (Marques,Robalo,& Rocha, 1992; Marques& Yzerbyt,1988;
Marques,Yzerbyt, & Leyens,1988). The notionis based on the
basic tenetsof social identitytheory(Tajfel, 1979), accordingto which
individualsshouldidentifywithfavorableothersand distancethemselvesfrom
disappointingothers. Doing so allows individualsto maintainbotha positive
groupidentityandself-evaluation.

Severalclassicsocial psychological studieshave shownevidencefora

potentialnegative bias when individualsjudge out-groupmembers in
comparison to in-group members(e.g., Allport,1954; Devine, 1989; Pettigrew,
1979). Brewer (1979) explainedthat much of the perceiveddiscrepancy
betweenevaluationsof in-groupversusout-groupmembersmay be more a
functionof favoring the in-groupratherthanderogating theout-group.More
eitherin-group
specifically, favoritism or in-group devaluationmayresultduring
intergroupinteractiondependingon how favorabletheactionsof thein-group
targetare. In supportof thissuggestion, researchhas shownthatindividuals
maybe morelikelyto value and, thus,identify within-groupmemberswhen
they show positiveperformance (i.e., bask in reflectedglory;Cialdiniet al.,
1976). Thus, when an in-groupmember behaves thegroupis viewed
positively,
positively,and other members of the in-group have an opportunityto feel
aboutthemselves.
positively

Althoughin-groupfavoritismmayprevailforpositiveand even minor

transgressions
in-group (Pettigrew, can grindto a halt
favoritism
1979),in-group
for unambiguousfailings. When the actions of an in-groupmemberare

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Distancing
fromIn-group 89

unambiguously and highlynegative,theevaluationof an in-group membersalso

may polarize,but in a negative direction &
(Biernat,Vescio, Billings,1999;
Snyder,Lassegard,& Ford,1985). Forexample,Biernatand colleagues(1999)
foundthatwhenteammembersperformed ratedtheirown
poorly,participants
teammatesmoreharshlythantheyratedmembersof an opposingteam who
performedpoorly.Whenan in-group member(i.e., teammate) performs poorly,
the membermay be distancedin orderto preservethe positivevalue of the
group.As themembers of a groupsharea social identity,
maintaininga positive
value for the group is maintaining a positivevalue for themselves. The
metaphoricalblacksheep,as itwere,is psychologically castoutof thein-group
thegroup'soverallfavorableidentity.
toprotect

Past researchhas demonstrated evidenceforbothin-groupfavoritism

and derogation whenobserversand targetssharea singlesocial identity (e.g.,
Marques,Yzerbyt,& Leyens,1988). Furthermore, ifsocial identitytheorydoes
drivetheeffect,thenthedegreeof overlapin social identity shouldincreasethe
degreeof the effect. The increasednumberof commonidentitiesor crossed
categories(Crisp& Hewstone,2001) shouldyieldenhancedeffects (cf.,Mullen,
Migdal,& Hewstone,2001). Forinstance, WhiteU.S. universitystudents would
be expectedto be criticalofotherWhitestudents
and of otherU.S. students who
demonstrate incompetence.However,they shouldbe harsh
particularly in their
evaluationsof incompetent WhiteU.S. studentsbecause theywere the most
closelyrelatedto themin socialidentity.

In thepresentstudy,twopossiblein-groupidentities wereconsidered:
(Whiteor Latino)andnationality
ethnicity (insideoftheUnitedStatesor outside
of theUnitedStates). We expectedthatWhitetargetswho residein theU.S.
wouldbe judgedmostextremely.Specifically, WhiteU.S. targetswho showed
competenceshouldbe evaluatedmostpositivelyand WhiteU.S. targetswho
showedincompetence shouldbe evaluatedmostnegatively,comparedto those
with
targets less social overlap.
identity

Method

Participants
Seventy-two Whiteuniversitystudents
of U.S. residence(17 menand
ina two-part
55 women)participated study.

Procedure
In thefirstpart,participants
completeda briefmeasureof demographic
information.Second,participants wereasked to readan essay thatpurportedly
was writtenby a prospectivecollegestudent.Participantsreada competentor
incompetentessaythatallegedlywas writtenbyeithera Whiteor Latinostudent

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
90 fromIn-group
Distancing

who livedinsideor outsidetheUnitedStates. The ethnicity (Whiteor Latino)

andnationality(U.S. or notin U.S.) of theapplicant, as well as theessayquality
or were
(competent incompetent) manipulated in a 2x2x2 factorial design. Two
versionsof each essay werecreatedto represent a competent and incompetent
essay. Similarto past research(Khan & Lambert,1998,gendermembership),
thenameof theapplicantwas manipulated to indicatetheapplicant'sethnicity
(MatthewStratford orJoseGuevera).The nationality oftheapplicantwas given
in theintroductorystatement of theessay.One of theeightpossibleessayswas
assignedrandomly to eachparticipant toread.

ratedtheapplicanton threeitems
Afterreadingtheessay,participants
thatassessed whethertheywould recommend the applicantforadmissionto
theiruniversity.Namely,these itemswere qualifications , understanding of
,
qualificationsand recommendation
for admission(alpha= .87). Each itemwas
ratedon a scale thatrangedfrom-3 (extremely low) to +3 (extremely high).
Ratings from the three items were summed to compute an overall
recommendation scorefromeachparticipant.

Results

ratedtheauthorsof incompetent
As expected,participants essayslower
thanauthorsof competent essays,F(l, 64) = 53.00,p < .01. This showedthat
theessays thatwere createdforthestudywere perceivedas competent (M =
=
5.12,SD 1.60) and incompetent =
(M= -0.11, SD 4.12) as intended. No other
maineffectswerestatistically
significant.

The onlytwo-wayinteraction thatemergedas statisticallysignificant

involvedthecompetence oftheessayandnationality oftheapplicant,F(l, 64) =
4.02, p = .05. As anticipated, participantsrated the U.S. applicantswith
incompetent essays more negatively thannon-U.S. applicants withincompetent
essays,and ratedU.S. applicantswithcompetent essays morepositivelythan
non-U.S.applicantswithcompetent essays. Moreover,the resultsrevealeda
significantthree-way interaction thatdemonstrated theblack sheepeffect, F(l,
64) = 6.38, p < .01 (see Table 1 forcell meansand standarddeviations;see
Figure1 forgraphicalrepresentation). Whenthe applicant'sessay was well-
written,participants rated all applicantswith similar,relativelyhigh ratings
a
(with slightpreference for the WhiteU.S. applicant). In contrast,and in
accordancewithpast findings, a poorlywrittenessay yieldedlower ratings.
Furthermore, theratingsof the incompetent applicantwere extremely low for
applicantswho demographically weremembersof theclosestin-group(White
and U.S.). Neuman-Keulstestssuggestedthatthe incompetent WhiteU.S.
applicantwas evaluatedsignificantly morenegatively thantheotherincompetent
applicants(p < .05).

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Distancing
fromIn-group 91

S<D «<2T3tí
O cd
^3 Jfl & -O
SÎ ^ Ä /-v o ;fi u
<*} 00 <N ®^ S fi5
^ ®Š *? ¿ (O '■§M S
•S ea> X g •>
S «a
d j_»D>
-s: Ü en
Ph Ü fi
cöÄ
tf S 5fi «S c3
<ü O
0 . S Oh
s; ^!
5 ►-C' GO• £ Oh^
cd
^ ^ ^oo
6 C
o<n
©m
Tf
h• Tt ZT_ ai1
s ä S
0 .fi • w S £h
c
C Z O w^t" ÍM<N C3
r° 51 JŽ õ w
g „s
g Z I £> §
It
^ Cl 1 ssâ
r9 *> ^
s u S S &
« v.
« <£. *-» 13 sü rt
S T3 TS
•2 ? S b fi ü
£
Ì2 ••§
.Sá
-3
o rA ino'o
N m^ cd
t3 5 ÖD
?? <l>
^ * vor- c.S¿¿:
^ Q 5 D - iñ ^ ¿3 «*
< ww c«'S,
g; w
■Š* s "§
18-S
« § S CSu u.
"S •§
ei*
0 "^3 1
I . 21
Ö Oh1 «
S s U CO
•2 S •-
•-5' ^ ^ 52 G cd
^•2 S oo Trio 5 °o ^
^ .g ^ ^ S c
ZO ^ O ^ w S >>.2
S fti ^S cd •£
w
7
(^ (U ^w T3
-tj o ü (U tí
J§
'S »ĚGS
■^t
ea 2
O
« •.§
g <l>tí
tí 5 o
"tS ¿3
s:
a
e •- fe.13-1"
»2
R J > £
<D sUj iOh
J2 £ 'o
1 C3tí 'fi
»-•«» >•- i
^ Oh
CJ H 2 <L>-.N
!> _fi
^->
S II ¿ ^ 2
a> z ji
3es fOh _ *-»O §fi
H < !»
gl
O ^52®
Z .5 .£

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
92 fromIn-group
Distancing

Figure1: Graphicalrepresentationofthree-wayinteraction
among
, ethnicity
competence on recommendation
, and nationality ratings.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Distancing
fromIn-group 93

Discussion

Consistent withtheblacksheepeffect,
thepresentfindings suggestthat
individualsmay give more extremeevaluationsof in-groupmemberswho
exhibit unfavorableperformances. Thus, when an in-groupmember's
performance peoplemaybe particularly
is disappointing, criticalofthatin-group
memberin orderto preservea positiveevaluationof the valued in-group.
Moreover,sucha stancemayhelppreventtheunappealinggroupmemberfrom
beingidentified thusprotecting
as a memberof thevaluedin-group, thegroup
definitionfromincludingmemberswhose qualitieswould not bolster - and
-
indeedmay compromise the group'sabilityto be a source of positiveself-
esteem.

The unique contribution thatthese resultsmake to the established

empirical literature
is thattheblack sheepeffectappearsto be enhancedwhen
overlapamonggroupmembers.In
thereis an increaseddegreeof social identity
otherwords,whenan observerhas multiplesocial identities thatare sharedwith
an individualwho has performed poorly,the observer'sevaluationsof that
individualare evenmorenegativethanifan observerhas onlya singleidentity
in commonwiththe targetindividual. Given thatindividualshave a wide
variety of social identities - gender, race, occupation, family roles,
-
residence thesocial situations thateach individualentersare likelycomposed
of otherindividualswithvaryingdegreesof commonidentities.Thus,knowing
how phenomenasuchas theblack sheepeffectfunction in such circumstances
the
supports validity of theeffect. to
Contributingpastfindings, theblacksheep
effectseemsto becomemoreextremeas thedegreeof similarity amonggroup
members increases.

This conclusionmayhave severalimplications forfuture researchand

applications.For instance,iftheeffectis a function of thenumberof common
identities
amonggroupmembers, thenfuture researchshouldconsidernotonly
theextentto whichan individualidentifies witha singlegroupof interest (e.g.,
butalso theextentto whichindividualsidentify
ethnicity), withotheridentities
in that social context. Even in the most controlledexperimental design,
participantsmay vary in the extentto whichtheyidentifywith an alleged
interactionpartner'sprofile.In fact,in everydaysocial life,people experience
greatvariabilityin theextentto whichcommonidentities are sharedwithothers.
Knowing that this variabilityin identityoverlap may have an important
influenceon evaluationsand impressions of one's social interaction
partners
may have far-reaching implications for the developmentand selection of
techniquesthatareused in bothbasic researchandappliedsettings, as well as in
personalsocialexperiences.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
94 fromIn-group
Distancing

Note

This researchwas fundedby a NIMH, IndividualNationalResearchService

Award,No. MH12915, to Alecia M. Santuzzi,in supportof her predoctoral
trainingin the Department of Psychologyat Tulane University.Partof this
researchalso was supported by a NIMH, NationalResearchServiceAward,No.
MN14257, to the University of Illinois in supportof the firstauthoras a
postdoctoraltraineein the QuantitativeMethodsProgramof theDepartment of
Psychology, Universityof Illinoisat Urbana-Champaign.

References

G. (1954). Thenatureofprejudice.Boston: Beacon Press.

Allport,
Biernat,M., Vescio, T.K., Billings,L.S. (1999). Black sheepand expectancy
violation: Integrating two models of social judgment.European
JournalofSocial Psychology, 29:523-542.
Brewer,M.B. (1979). In-groupbias in the minimalgroup situation: A
cognitive-motivational analysis.Psychological Bulletin,86:307-324.
Cialdini,R.B., Borden,R.J.,Thorne,A., Walker,M., Freeman,S., & Sloan,L.
(1976). Basking in reflectedglory: Three (football)field studies.
JournalofPersonality and Social Psychology, 34 366-375.
Crisp,R.J. & Hewstone,M. (2001). Multiplecategorization and implicit
intergroup bias: Differentialcategory dominance and the positive-
negativeasymmetry effect.EuropeanJournalof Social Psychology ,
31:45-62.
Devine, P.G. (1989). Stereotyping and prejudice: Their automaticand
controlled components.JournalofPersonality and Social Psychology,
56:5-18.
Khan, S. & Lambert,A.J. (1998). In-groupfavoritism versusblack sheep
effectsin observations of informal conversations.Basic and Applied
Social Psychology, 20:263-269.
Marques,J.M.,Robalo, E.M. & Rocha,SA. (1992). Ingroupbias and theblack
sheep effect:Assessingtheimpactofsocialidentification andperceived
variability on group judgments. European Journal of Social
Psychology, 22:331-352.
Marques,J.M.& Yzerbyt,V.Y. (1988). The black sheepeffect:Judgmental
extremity towardsingroupmembers in inter-and intra-groupsituations.
European Journal ofSocial Psychology, 18:287-292.
Marques,J.M.,Yzerbyt,V.Y., Leyens,J. (1988). The "Black Sheep Effect":
Extremity of judgmentstowardsin-groupmembersas a functionof
group EuropeanJournalofSocial Psychology,
identification. 18:1-16.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 Distancing
fromIn-group 95

Mullen,B., Migdal,M.J.,& Hewstone,M. (2001). Crossedcategorization versus

and
simplecategorization intergroup evaluations: A meta-analysis.
EuropeanJournalofSocial Psychology, 31:721-736.
Pettigrew,T.F. (1979). The ultimateattribution error: ExtendingAllporťs
cognitiveanalysisof prejudice. Personalityand Social Psychology
Bulletin,5:461-476.
Snyder,C.R., Lassegard,M.A., & Ford,C.E. (1986). Distancingaftergroup
successand failure:Baskingin reflected offreflected
gloryand cutting
failure.
JournalofPersonalityand Social Psychology,51:382-388.
Tajfel,H. (1974). Social identityand intergroup behaviour. Social Science
Information, 13:65-93.

This content downloaded from 185.44.78.31 on Sat, 21 Jun 2014 23:44:17 PM

All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions