The Influence Mechanism Of Group Moral Emotions On Inner Group Preference

Ingroup favoritism refers to the preference of their own group and its members in terms of attitude and behavior.While enhancing the cohesiveness of the members within the group and maintaining a positive social image,it is easy to form deprivation and resentment among the outgroup due to excessive attention and preference for their group and its members.This has become an important potential factor for tension and conflict in intergroup relations.So the effective suppression of the negative influence of ingroup favoritism has positive significance for building a harmonious socialist society and promoting the healthy development of all kinds of intergroup relations.In recent years,foreign studies have begun to pay attention to the inhibitory effect of group-based moral emotions such as group-based shame and group-based guilt on ingroup favoritism,and have also obtained many research results.However,there are not many researches on the structure of ingroup favoritism and the influence mechanism of ingroup favoritism.Domestic studies have focused more on the positive promotion factors of ingroup favoritism,and few studies have explored how to inhibit ingroup favoritism from the perspective of promoting positive inter-group relations.Therefore,it is necessary to explore the basic state and structure of ingroup favoritism under Chinese cultural background,and to seek the explanation of the findings related to group-based guilt and group-based shame and ingroup favoritism by some empirical research.In this study,the reduction of ingroup favoritism is regarded as an important index of harmonious intergroup relations.Cross-category paradigms are used to initiate group identity of participants,and implicit association tests,measurement methods,and contextual experiment methods are comprehensively used to explore the basic state and structure of ingroup favoritism,the inhibition effects of group-based guilt and group-based shame on ingroup favoritism,and the mediating and moderating effects of empathy(individual factor),group identity threat(group factor)and group situation(situation factor)according to the perspective of social ecosystem theory.It shows the process of subtraction of ingroup favoritism from different aspects.The study consists of five parts:Study I used explicit measurement methods and implicit association tests to explore explicit attitudes and behaviors,as well as the condition of ingroup favoritism expressed on implicit attitudes,and their relationships and structural characteristics.The results showed that:In the explicit test,subjects showed obvious ingroup favoritism in explicit attitudes and behaviors,and there were significant professional differences in the attitudes of explicit ingroup favoritism.The ingroup favoritism of science students was significantly higher than that of liberal arts.In the implicit test,significant ingroup favoritism effects were also found,which were higher than those measured in the explicit test,and the implicit ingroup favoritism showed cross-class stability;implicit and explicit ingroup favoritism was both connected and relatively independent systems.Study 2 used the methods of measurement,implicit association test,and experimental manipulation,the two sub-studies were used to explore the role of group-based guilt and group-based shame on the explicit and inplicit ingroup favoritism.The results of the sub-study 1 showed that group-based guilt and group-based shame together negatively predict the positive evaluation and emotional preference level of the inner group;the group-based shame significantly negatively predicts the behavior of ingroup favoritism,while the margin significantly negatively predicts the implicit ingroup favoritism.The results of sub-study 2 showed that compared with control conditions,individuals have significantly lower levels of positive evaluation and emotional preference levels of ingroup,under significant conditions.Group-based guilt,especially group-based shame,has a stronger inhibitory effect on the behavior of ingroup favoritism.Under the control conditions and significant conditions,there was no significant difference in the individual's level of implicit ingroup favoritism.Obvious effect of implicit ingroup favoritism and explicit ingroup favoritism was found in both sub-studies.This shows that while the explicit ingroup favoritism is still present but its degree is significantly reduced,which provides new ideas for reduction of ingroup favoritism.However,group-based moral emotions do not have a significant inhibitory effect on implicit ingroup favoritism.This result further supports the dual attitude model,it means that implicit attitude and explicit attitude are two independent structures.Study 3 explored the influence of empathy on the relationship between group-based moral emotions and explicit ingroup favoritism from the individual level.The results show that empathy has some mediating effects between group-based guilt and group-based shame and ingroup positive evaluation and emotional preference attitude.while empathy has a partial mediation between group-based shame and behavior of ingroup favoritism.In other words,empathy is a contributing factor to the suppression of explicit ingroup favoritism within the conditions of group-based moral emotions.Study 4 discussed the impact of group identity threat on the relationship between group-based moral emotions and explicit ingroup biases from the group level.The results show that the threat of group identity plays a role in mediation between group-based guilt,group-based shame,ingroup positive evaluation and emotional preference attitudes.There is a partial mediation between group-based shame and the behavior of ingroup favoritism.In other words,the guilt that an individual experiences is particularly high,and the more they feel shy,the more they will feel that the behavior defiles their own group's positive social image and enhances the individual's group's moral identity threat,thereby further weakening the preference of explicit groups within the group to improve inter-group relationships.Study 5 explored the influence of group situation on the relationship between group-based moral emotions and explicit ingroup favoritism from the perspective of environmental perception.The results show that only within a stable and high group situation,the group-based guilt and group-based shame can significantly inhibit the ingroup positive evaluation and emotional preference level;While group-based shame significantly inhibited the behavior of ingroup favoritism,but in other situations,ie stable low status,unstable low status,and unstable high status situations,ingroup favoritism increased with the increase of group-based guilt and group-based shame.This shows that the inhibitory effects of group-based guilt and group-based shame on ingroup positive evaluation and emotional preference as well as the behavior of ingroup favoritism are only generated in the context of identity-safe group,and the fear of ingroup loyalty may be covered when group identity is threatened.Based on the above results,the moral emotions of group-based shame and group-based guilt can effectively reduce the ingroup favoritism,especially the explicit ingroup favoritism,thus promote the equality and harmony of the intergroup relations.Among them,empathy plays a certain role in promoting the relationship of group-based moral emotions controlling ingroup favoritism.Group-based moral emotions further weaken the ingroup favoritism through the threat of group identity;while the stable high group situation can more increase the inhibition effect of group-based moral emotions on ingroup favoritism.In this study,empathy is an individual-level variable.Group identity threat is a group-level variable,and group situation is a variable of environmental perception.Therefore,it can be said that this study is on the base of revealing the relationship between group-based moral emotions and ingroup favoritism.Based on the perspective of the social ecosystem,it continues to explore the influence mechanism of group-based moral emotions on ingroup favoritism from individual,group,and contextual levels.The research results can not only deepen people's understanding of the mechanism of interaction between group-based moral emotions and ingroup favoritism,but also have certain inspiration and reference value for forming equal relationships among groups and harmonious development among groups.