Tajfel's Study - Edexcel Psych U1

Tajfel et al - Minimal Groups Study (1971)

Social categorisation and Intergroup Behaviour

Aim: To test whether the act of grouping was enough to produce prejudice between groups of very similar people.

Procedure: A sample of schoolboys were given a fake art task and they believed they would be allocated into one of two groups based on these results. In reality, grouping was entirely random. They were given a rewards allocation task and asked to award points to two other boys (one from their group and one from the other.) the only information they were given was which group they were in. The point scores were tied together so when a participant chose a score for one, the other boy got one tied to it. The grid they were asked to choose from, was as follows;

Klee - 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 12, 14

Kandinsky - 14, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, 3, 1

Results: It was found the boys typically awarded…