Zhao Yang, Hu Xucong, Zhou Jifan, Shen Mowei, Xu Haokui
Department of Psychology and Behavioral Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China.
Department of Psychology, College of Education, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China.
Psych J. 2025 Feb;14(1):94-102. doi: 10.1002/pchj.796. Epub 2024 Aug 21.
Representing the mental state of the partner lays the foundation for successful social interaction. While the representation of group members has been extensively studied, it is unclear how intergroup interactions affect it. In three experiments utilizing the joint flanker task, we found that competition between groups brought about a greater joint flanker effect (Experiment 1). Such phenomenon was not due to competition per se, as competition that occurred between individuals from different groups did not enhance the joint flanker effect (Experiment 2). Using the minimal grouping method to directly manipulate group entitativity, we found that the joint flanker effect was larger when participants perceived the group as being more closely connected; conversely, when they perceived the group as less close, the joint flanker effect was attenuated (Experiment 3). These results suggested that beliefs about the group may be key to how group competition enhanced the joint flanker effect. The potential cognitive mechanisms producing this phenomenon are fully discussed. Overall, our study is the first to explore the impact of intergroup interactions on the joint flanker effect and provides a new perspective on understanding the relationship between within-group representations and intergroup interactions.
表征同伴的心理状态是成功进行社会互动的基础。虽然对群体成员的表征已得到广泛研究，但尚不清楚群体间互动如何影响它。在三项使用联合侧翼任务的实验中，我们发现群体间的竞争会产生更大的联合侧翼效应（实验1）。这种现象并非源于竞争本身，因为不同群体个体之间的竞争并未增强联合侧翼效应（实验2）。通过使用最小分组法直接操纵群体实体性，我们发现当参与者认为群体联系更紧密时，联合侧翼效应更大；相反，当他们认为群体联系不那么紧密时，联合侧翼效应会减弱（实验3）。这些结果表明，关于群体的信念可能是群体竞争增强联合侧翼效应的关键。我们充分讨论了产生这种现象的潜在认知机制。总体而言，我们的研究首次探讨了群体间互动对联合侧翼效应的影响，并为理解群体内表征与群体间互动之间的关系提供了新视角。
