Social presence and isolation effects on intergroup bias: Task matters
Abstract
This paper examines whether and how intergroup bias, typically studied in explicitly social contexts, extends to conditions of social isolation. Prior research has yielded mixed findings, varying both in how social contexts are operationalized and in how bias is assessed. Across two experiments, we compared intergroup bias under conditions of complete social isolation and co-action (social presence). Bias was measured using the Implicit Association Test (IAT; Experiment 1) and the Weapon Identification Task (WIT; Experiment 2). Results from both experiments demonstrated that intergroup bias reliably emerges even when individuals are socially isolated. However, partially replicating earlier findings, the IAT revealed lower levels of bias when participants were alone, whereas in the WIT, social isolation improved response control without reducing the magnitude of bias. These findings suggest that the expression of intergroup bias depends jointly on social context and task characteristics, pointing to distinct underlying cognitive mechanisms. We discuss the implications of these results for understanding how social presence and task demands shape intergroup cognition.
Keywords
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Aiello, J. R., & Douthitt, E. A. (2001). Social facilitation from triplett to electronic performance monitoring. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 5(3), 163-180. https://doi.org/10.1037/1089-2699.5.3.163
Allport, F. H. (1920). The influence of the group upon association and thought. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 3(3), 159-182. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0067891
Allport, G. W. (1954). The nature of prejudice. Addison-Wesley.
Baron, R. S. (1986). Distraction-conflict theory: Progress and problems. In L. Berkowitz (Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 19, pp. 1-40). Academic Press. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(08)60211-7
Baumeister, R. F., & DeWall, C. N. (2005). The inner dimension of social exclusion: Intelligent thought and self-regulation among rejected persons. In K. D. Williams, J. P. Forgas, & W. von Hippel (Eds.), The social outcast: Ostracism, social exclusion, rejection, and bullying (ch. 4, pp. 53-73). Psychology Press.
Belletier, C., & Camos, V. (2018). Does the experimenter presence affect working memory?. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1424(1), 212-220. https://doi.org/10.1111/nyas.13627
Blanton, H., Jaccard, J., Klick, J., Mellers, B., Mitchell, G., & Tetlock, P. E. (2009). Strong claims and weak evidence: Reassessing the predictive validity of the IAT. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94(3), 567-582. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0014665
Blanton, H., Jaccard, J., Strauts, E., Mitchell, G., & Tetlock, P. E. (2015). Toward a meaningful metric of implicit prejudice. Journal of Applied Psychology, 100(5), 1468-1481. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038379
Braver, T. S. (2012). The variable nature of cognitive control: A dual mechanisms framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 16(2), 106-113. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2011.12.010
Calanchini, J., Sherman, J. W., Klauer, K. C., & Lai, C. K. (2014). Attitudinal and non-attitudinal components of IAT performance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 40(10), 1285-1296.
Campbell, W. K., Krusemark, E. A., Dyckman, K. A., Brunell, A. B., McDowell, J. E., Twenge, J. M., & Clementz, B. A. (2006). A magnetoencephalography investigation of neural correlates for social exclusion and self-control. Society for Neuroscience, 1(2), 124-134. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470910601035160
Carneiro, P., Lapa, A., & Finn, B. (2021). Memory updating after retrieval: When new information is false or correct. Memory, 29(9), 1156-1175. https://doi.org/10.1080/09658211.2021.1968438
Casper, C., Rothermund, K., & Wentura, D. (2010). Automatic stereotype activation is context dependent. Social Psychology, 41(3), 131-136. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000019
Castelli, L., & Tomelleri, S. (2008). Contextual effects on prejudiced attitudes: When the presence of others leads to more egalitarian responses. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44(3), 679-686. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2007.04.006
Conrey, F. R., Sherman, J. W., Gawronski, B., Hugenberg, K., & Groom, C. J. (2005). Separating multiple processes in implicit social cognition: The quad model of implicit task performance. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(4), 469-487. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.4.469
Corneille, O., & Hütter, M. (2020). Implicit? What do you mean? A comprehensive review of the delusive implicitness construct in attitude research. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 24(3), 212-232. https://doi.org/10.1177/1088868320911325
De Houwer, J. (2001). A structural and process analysis of the Implicit Association Test. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(6), 443-451. https://doi.org/10.1006/jesp.2000.1464
Fazio, R. H., & Olson, M. A. (2003). Implicit measures in social cognition research: Their meaning and use. Annual Review of Psychology, 54(1), 297-327. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.54.101601.145225
Fernandes, A., Garcia-Marques, T., Prada, M., & Martins, J. (2021). Emotional interference in isolation and in others’ presence. Current Psychology, 40(12), 5783-5792. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-019-00534-0
Fonseca, R., & Garcia-Marques, T. (2013). Back to basics: Socially facilitated situated cognition. Social Cognition, 31(2), 147-161. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2013.31.2.147
Garcia-Marques, T. (2003). Avaliação da familiaridade e valência de palavras concretas e abstractas em língua portuguesa. Laboratorio de Psicologia, 1, 21-44.
Garcia-Marques, L., Santos, A. S. C., & Mackie, D. M. (2006). Stereotypes: Static abstractions or dynamic knowledge structures?. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91(5), 814-831. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.91.5.814
Garcia-Marques, T., & Fernandes, A. (2023). How does the presence of others influence control inhibition? Contradictory ask. Psychological Reports, 127(6), 3044-3065. https://doi.org/10.1177/0033294123115332
Garcia-Marques, T., & Fernandes, A. C. (2024). Meta-analysis of social presence effects on stroop task performance. Psychological Reports, 129(1), 29-62. https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941241227150
Garcia-Marques, T., Varatojo, S., Fernandes, A., & Oliveira, G. (2026). Cognition with and without the presence of others: The dynamic activation-control model. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 20(4), e70133. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.70133
Gawronski, B. (2019). Six lessons for a cogent science of implicit bias and its criticism. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 14(4), 574-595.
Gawronski, B., Rydell, R. J., Vervliet, B., & De Houwer, J. (2010). Generalization versus contextualization in automatic evaluation. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139(4), 683-701. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020315
Greenwald, A. G., McGhee, D. E., & Schwartz, J. L. (1998). Measuring individual differences in implicit cognition: The implicit association test. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(6), 1464-1480. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.6.1464
Greenwald, A. G., Nosek, B. A., & Banaji, M. R. (2003). Understanding and using the Implicit Association Test: I. An improved scoring algorithm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(2), 197-216. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.2.197
Hamilton, D. L., & Sherman, J. W. (2014). Stereotypes. In R. S. Wyer Jr, & T. K. Srull (Eds.), Handbook of social cognition (2nd ed., pp. 17-84). Psychology Press.
Huguet, P., Galvaing, M. P., Monteil, J. M., & Dumas, F. (1999). Social presence effects in the stroop task: Further evidence for an attentional view of social facilitation. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 77(5), 1011-1025. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.77.5.1011
Hütter, M., & Klauer, K. C. (2016). Applying processing trees in social psychology. European Review of Social Psychology, 27(1), 116-159. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2016.1212966
Ito, T. A., Friedman, N. P., Bartholow, B. D., Correll, J., Loersch, C., Altamirano, L. J., & Miyake, A. (2015). Toward a comprehensive understanding of executive cognitive function in implicit racial bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 108(2), 187-218. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0038557
Jacoby, L. L. (1991). A process dissociation framework: Separating automatic from intentional uses of memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 30(5), 513-541. https://doi.org/10.1016/0749-96X(91)90025-F
Klauer, K. C., Schmitz, F., Teige-Mocigemba, S., & Voss, A. (2010). Understanding the role of executive control in the Implicit Association Test: Why flexible people have small IAT effects. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 63(3), 595-619. https://doi.org/10.1080/17470210903076826
Lai, C. K., & Wilson, M. E. (2021). Measuring implicit intergroup biases. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 15(1), e12573. https://doi.org/10.1111/spc3.12573
Lambert, A. J., Payne, B. K., Jacoby, L. L., Shaffer, L. M., Chasteen, A. L., & Khan, S. R. (2003). Stereotypes as dominant responses: On the “social facilitation” of prejudice in anticipated public contexts. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 84(2), 277-295. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.84.2.277
Macrae, C. N., Hewstone, M., & Griffiths, R. J. (1993). Processing load and memory for stereotype‐based information. European Journal of Social Psychology, 23(1), 77-87. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420230107
Meissner, F., & Rothermund, K. (2013). Estimating the contributions of associations and recoding in the Implicit Association Test: The ReAL model for the IAT. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 104(1), 45-69. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0030734
Mendonça, C., Mata, A., Ferreira, M. B., & Alves, H. (2024). The social amplification of illusory correlations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 54(7), 1489-1499. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.3104
Nosek, B. A., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (2007). The implicit association test at age 7: A methodological and conceptual review. In J. A. Bargh (Ed.), Social psychology and the unconscious: The automaticity of higher mental processes (pp. 265-292). Psychology Press.
Nosek, B. A., Bar‑Anan, Y., Sriram, N., Axt, J., & Greenwald, A. G. (2014). Understanding and using the Brief Implicit Association Test: Recommended scoring procedures. PLoS ONE, 9(12), e110938. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0110938
Oliveira, G. A., Remondes, M., & Garcia-Marques, T. (2022). Easy to process, hard to control: Transient and sustained processing fluency impairs cognitive control adjustments to conflict. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76(11), 2524-2534. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218231159787
Operario, D., & Fiske, S. T. (2003). Stereotypes: Content, structures, processes, and context. In R. Brown & S. L. Gaertner (Eds.), Blackwell handbook of social psychology: Intergroup processes (pp. 22-44). Blackwell Publishers Ltd. https://doi.org/10.1002/9780470693421.ch2
Payne, B. K. (2001). Prejudice and perception: The role of automatic and controlled processes in misperceiving a weapon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 81(2), 181-192. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.81.2.181
Payne, B. K. (2005). Conceptualizing control in social cognition: How executive functioning modulates the expression of automatic stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89(4), 488-503. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.89.4.488
Payne, B. K. (2006). Weapon bias: Split-second decisions and unintended stereotyping. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 15(6), 287-291. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8721.2006.00454.x
Payne, B. K., & Bishara, A. J. (2009). An integrative review of process dissociation and related models in social cognition. European Review of Social Psychology, 20(1), 272-314. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463280903162177
Rivers, A. M. (2017). The weapons identification task: Recommendations for adequately powered research. PLoS ONE, 12(6), e0177857. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0177857
Rydell, R. J., McConnell, A. R., Mackie, D. M., & Strain, L. M. (2006). Of two minds: Forming and changing valence‑inconsistent implicit and explicit attitudes. Psychological Science, 17(11), 954-958. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2006.01811.x
Schrijver, N. C., Pallier, P. N., Brown, V. J., & Würbel, H. (2004). Double dissociation of social and environmental stimulation on spatial learning and reversal learning in rats. Behavioural Brain Research, 152(2), 307-314. ttps://doi.org/10.1016/j.bbr.2003.10.016
Sharma, D., Booth, R., Brown, R., & Huguet, P. (2010). Exploring the temporal dynamics of social facilitation in the Stroop task. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 17(1), 52-58. https://doi.org/10.3758/PBR.17.1.52
Sherman, S. J., Judd, C. M., & Park, B. (1989). Social cognition. Annual Review on Psychology, 40, 281-326.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.ps.40.020189.001433
Stewart, B. D., Von Hippel, W., & Radvansky, G. A. (2009). Age, race, and implicit prejudice: Using process dissociation to separate the underlying components. Psychological Science, 20(2), 164-168.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9280.2009.02274.x
Triplett, N. (1898). The dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition. The American Journal of Psychology, 9(4), 507-533. https://doi.org/10.2307/1412188
Volpert-Esmond, H. I., & Bartholow, B. D. (2019). Explicit categorization goals affect attention-related processing of race and gender during person construal. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 85, e103839. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2019.103839
Volpert‐Esmond, H. I., Scherer, L. D., & Bartholow, B. D. (2020). Dissociating automatic associations: Comparing two implicit measurements of race bias. European Journal of Social Psychology, 50(4), 876-888. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2655
Wagstaff, G. F., Wheatcroft, J., Cole, J. C., Brunas-Wagstaff, J., Blackmore, V., & Pilkington, A. (2008). Some cognitive and neuropsychological aspects of social inhibition and facilitation. European Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 20(4), 828-846. https://doi.org/10.1080/09541440701469749
Westfall, J., Kenny, D. A., & Judd, C. M. (2014). Statistical power and optimal design in experiments in which samples of participants respond to samples of stimuli. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(5), 2020-2045. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000014
Zajonc, R. B. (1965). Social facilitation. Science, 149(3681), 269-274. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.149.3681.269
Zajonc, R. B. (1968). Attitudinal effects of mere exposure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 9(2, pt. 2), 1-27. https://doi.org/10.1037/H0025848
DOI: https://doi.org/10.14417/ap.2245
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.
Nº ERC: 107494 | ISSN (in print): 0870-8231 | ISSN (online): 2182-2980 | Copyright © ISPA - CRL, 2012 | Rua Jardim do Tabaco, 34, 1149-041 Lisboa | NIF: 501313672 | This work is published under a license Creative Commons CC BY-NC
