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Genetic Evidence for Multiple Biological Mechanisms Underlying In-Group Favoritism
- Source :
- Psychological Science. 21:1623-1628
- Publication Year :
- 2010
- Publisher :
- SAGE Publications, 2010.
-
Abstract
- In-group favoritism is ubiquitous and associated with intergroup conflict, yet is little understood from a biological perspective. A fundamental question regarding the structure of favoritism is whether it is inflexibly directed toward distinct, “essentialist” categories, such as ethnicity and race, or is deployed in a context-sensitive manner. In this article, we report the first study (to our knowledge) of the genetic and environmental structure of in-group favoritism in the religious, ethnic, and racial domains. We contrasted a model of favoritism based on a single domain-general central affiliation mechanism (CAM) with a model in which each domain was influenced by specific mechanisms. In a series of multivariate analyses, utilizing a large, representative sample of twins, models containing only the CAM or essentialist domains fit the data poorly. The best-fitting model revealed that a biological mechanism facilitates affiliation with arbitrary groups and exists alongside essentialist systems that evolved to process salient cues, such as shared beliefs and ancestry.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
Religion and Psychology
Social Values
Essentialism
Ethnic group
Models, Psychological
Social Environment
Choice Behavior
Race (biology)
Ethnicity
Twins, Dizygotic
Humans
In-group favoritism
Marriage
General Psychology
Cultural Characteristics
Ethnocentrism
Social Identification
Mechanism (biology)
Group conflict
Perspective (graphical)
Twins, Monozygotic
Middle Aged
Phenotype
Female
Cues
Psychology
Social psychology
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 14679280 and 09567976
- Volume :
- 21
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Psychological Science
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....74ba23b06baec86330c783ba7dcb096f