Abstract
As established by Social Identity Theory (SIT), belonging to specific groups is part of our identity and constitutes the feeling of “who I am” and “who I am not”. Social groups are thus an essential part of life – not only for social interactions but also for defining part of our self-conception. Early experiments found that even minimal, entirely random in-group/out-group categorizations are sufficient to cause a status gain of the in-group, while simultaneously discriminating the out-group. In this paper we transfer this so-called Minimal Group Paradigm (MGP) to online collaboration. Two empirical studies with a total of N=190 participants were conducted to replicate the Minimal Group Paradigm in different virtual settings (informal vs. work) and with different degrees of information available about the supposed group members. Overall, results show that indeed in-group favoritism could be elicited in totally anonymous virtual settings without any real interaction. Yet, the Minimal Group effect varied according to the complexity of the clues: in-group favoritism was stronger in settings with less information available. Implications for research and practice are discussed.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Hogg, M.A.: Blackwell Handbook of Social Psychology. Blackwell Publishing (2002)
Koschmann, T., Hall, R., Miyake, N. (eds.): CSCL 2: Carrying forward the conversation. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale (2002)
Lutters, W., Sonnenwald, D.H., Gross, T., Reddy, M. (eds.): Proc. ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work. ACM Press (2010)
Kraut, R.: Applying Social Psychological Theory to the Problems of Group Work. In: Carroll, J.M. (ed.) HCI Models, Theories, and Frameworks, pp. 325–356. Morgan Kaufmann, San Francisco (2003)
Tajfel, H.: Differentiation between social groups: Studies in the social psychology of intergroup relations. Academic Press, London (1978)
Tajfel, H., Billig, M.G., Bundy, R.P., Flament, C.: Social categorization and intergroup behavior. European Journal of Social Psychology 1, 146–178 (1971)
Tajfel, H., Turner, J.C.: An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In: Austin, W.G., Worchel, S. (eds.) The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, pp. 33–47. Brooks/Cole, Monterey (1979)
Tajfel, H., Turner, J.C.: The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In: Worchel, S., Austin, W.G. (eds.) Psychology of Intergroup Relations, pp. 7–24. Nelson-Hall, Chicago (1986)
Hogg, M.A.: Intragroup processes, group structure and social identity. In: Robinson, W.P. (ed.) Social groups and social identities: Developing the legacy of Henri Tajfel, pp. 65–93. Butterworth-Heinemann, Oxford (1996)
Tajfel, H., Wilkes, A.L.: Classification and quantitative judgment. British Journal of Psychology 54, 101–114 (1963)
Tajfel, H.: Social identity and intergroup relations. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1982)
Preece, J.: Online Communities: Designing Usability and Supporting Sociability. John Wiley, Ney York (2000)
Nan, N., Johnston, E.W., Olson, J.S., Bos, N.: Beyond Being in the Lab: Using Multi-Agent Modeling to Isolate Competing Hypotheses. In: CHI Extended Abstracts, pp. 1693–1696. ACM Press (2005)
Zhu, H., Kraut, R.E., Kittur, A.: Organizing without formal organization: Group Identification, Goal Setting and Social Modeling in Directing Online Production. In: CSCW 2012: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work. ACM, New York (2012)
Dabbish, L., Kraut, R.E., Patton, J.: Communication and commitment in an online game team. In: CHI 2012: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. ACM, NY (2012)
Farzan, R., Dabbish, L., Kraut, R.E., Postmes, T.: Increasing Commitment in Online Communities via Building Social Attachment. In: CSCW 2011: Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer-Supported Cooperative Work. ACM Press, New York (2011)
Janneck, M., Finck, M.: Making the community a hospitable place – identity, strong bounds and self-organisation in web-based communities. International Journal of Web Based Communities 2(4), 458–473 (2006)
Rohde, M., Reinecke, L., Pape, B., Janneck, M.: Community-Building with Web-Based Systems - Investigating a Hybrid Community of Students. Computer Supported Cooperative Work 13, 471–499 (2004)
Ibarra, H.: Provisional selves: experimenting with image and identity in professional adaptation. Administrative Science Quarterly 44(4), 764–791 (1999)
Slay, H., Smith, D.: Professional identity construction: Using narrative to understand the negotiation of professional and stigmatized cultural identities. Human Relations 64, 85–107 (2011)
Daft, R.L., Lengel, R.H.: Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design. Management Science 32, 554–571 (1986)
Daft, R.L., Lengel, R.H.: Information richness: A new approach to managerial behavior and organization design. Research in Organizational Behavior 6, 191–233 (1984)
Short, J., Williams, E., Christie, B.: The social psychology of telecommunications. Wiley, London (1976)
Postmes, T., Spears, R., Lea, M.: Breaching or building social boundaries? SIDE-effects of computer-mediated communication. Communication Research 25, 689–715 (1998)
Postmes, T., Spears, R., Lea, M.: Intergroup differentiation in computer-mediated communication: Effects of depersonalization. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice 6, 3–16 (2002)
Hogg, M.A., Abrams, D.: Social identifications: A social psychology of intergroup relations and group processes. Routlegde, London (1988)
Pelet, J.-E., Papadopoulou, P.: The Effect Of Colors Of E-commerce Websites On Mood, Memorization And Buying Intention. European Journal of Information Systems 21, 438–467 (2012)
Rohde, M.: Find what binds. Building social capital in an Iranian NGO community system. In: Huysman, M., Wulf, V. (eds.) Social Capital and Information Technology, pp. 75–112. MIT Press, Cambridge (2004)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
About this paper
Cite this paper
Janneck, M., Bayerl, P.S., Dietel, JE. (2013). The Minimal Group Paradigm in Virtual Teams. In: Holzinger, A., Ziefle, M., Hitz, M., Debevc, M. (eds) Human Factors in Computing and Informatics. SouthCHI 2013. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 7946. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39062-3_29
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-39062-3_29
Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg
Print ISBN: 978-3-642-39061-6
Online ISBN: 978-3-642-39062-3
eBook Packages: Computer ScienceComputer Science (R0)