Being in the minority boosts in-group love: Explanations and boundary condition

People appreciate members of their in-group, and they cooperate with them—tendencies we refer to as in-group love. Being a member of a minority (vs. majority) is a common experience that varies both between groups in a context and within a group between contexts, but how does it affect in-group love? Across six studies, we examined when and why being in the minority boosts in-group love. In Study 1, being in the minority boosted people’s appreciation of various real-life in-groups but not out-groups. In Study 2, a real-life interaction between and within groups, people cooperated more with minority in-group (but not minority out-group) members. In Studies 3-6, we measured cooperation (Study 3, incentive-compatible), appreciation (Studies 4-6), and four mediators: perceived in-group distinctiveness, experienced in-group belongingness, expected in-group cooperation, and perceived in-group status. These four mediators independently and simultaneously explained why being in the minority boosted in-group love. In Studies 5 and 6, we observed two theoretical boundary conditions for the effect. The size of the effect was smaller when the minority in-group had many (vs. few) members (Study 5), and when the imbalance between the in-group and out-group was either low or high (here: 46% minority & 54% majority, or 20% minority & 80% majority) rather than moderate (here: 33% minority & 67% majority). We discuss how these findings align with and build on Optimal Distinctiveness Theory (ODT) and other theoretical accounts.