In-Group/Out-Group Bias as a Function of Differential Contact and Authoritarian Personality

The subjects, volunteers of both sexes who signed up for intermediate-level ski lessons at a large New England ski resort, were randomly assigned to a blue or a green subgroup after having filled out a shortened version of the California F (Fascism) scale (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950). Each of 18 sessions was randomly assigned to one of three in-group/out-group conditions: anticipated, moderate, or maximum differential contact. Following these sessions, each subject rated the performance of the other subjects, both blue and green, who participated in that session. Low authoritarians demonstrated no in-group/out-group rating bias in any condition. High authoritarians enhanced the in-group and disparaged the out-group relative to low authoritarians, showing an in-group/out-group bias in all three conditions that increased as a function of differential contact.