Us versus them: social identity shapes neural responses to intergroup competition and harm.

ABSTRACT: Intergroup competition makes social identity salient, which in turn affects how people respond to competitors' hardships. The failures of an in-group member are painful, whereas those of a rival out-group member may give pleasure-a feeling that may motivate harming rivals. The present study examined whether valuation-related neural responses to rival groups' failures correlate with likelihood of harming individuals associated with those rivals. Avid fans of the Red Sox and Yankees teams viewed baseball plays while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. Subjectively negative outcomes (failure of the favored team or success of the rival team) activated anterior cingulate cortex and insula, whereas positive outcomes (success of the favored team or failure of the rival team, even ag

SUBMITTER: Cikara M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3833634 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature