Intergroup sensitivity Effect

Sarah Esposo of the University of Queen land, asked the Australians to evaluate the Statement “Australians are intolerant towards indigenous people and immigrants”.

Some participants were told that the statement was made by natives Australians (in-group) and other participants were told that the statement comes from foreigners (out-group).

The statement was supported by one of the three arguments:

• A weak argument mainly giving opinions and hearsay.
• Very strong, arguments, quoting research studies and government's statements and policies.
• No arguments at all.

Now here is the findings, when the statement is attributed to native Australians (in-group), strong arguments indeed had convinced the participants more than the weak arguments. and they were expressing the need for changing the policies in favor of migrants and indigenous people. and they expressed solidarity with the migrants and indigenous.  But when the statement is attributed to a foreigner (out-group), whether the argument is strong or weak did not matter at all and the participants remained skeptical about the statement till the end.

Objectivity depends on who says it whether it comes from the friend or the enemy. The group to which we are associated influences our mind to greater extent. If a person is not clear about his or her individual values and convictions, he or she will be easily swayed by the statement coming from the in-group and closed and suspicious to the statements made by out-group.

Being part of a group, clan, caste, religion etc is witnessed from the ancient time. It has served well when we lived in dangerous times - providing safety and support in terms of shelter, food and mating companion. But in today’s context if we derive the personal identity only from the group to which we accidentally belong, we are at the verge of becoming a fanatic. Beware of any isms, including patriotism.

Interpretation Matters

Martin Seligman and Ed Diener wanted to decode the mystery of happiness. He and is research team identified group of people with high happiness index; they were basically happy people in their life style and in dealing with the world. And they selected other people who were anxious and depressed most of the time, means who were very low in the happiness index.

The research team observed for a longer period of time their life style and how do they deal with all things they come across. The research findings highlighted important findings:

•  Everyone experiences negative emotions: Both the groups experience more or less same number of negative events in their day today life. It is not that the happy people are surrounded with rosy things and the depressed ones are with dark cloud.

•  Different cognitive interpretations (pessimists vs. optimists): The important difference between the two groups was the ability to interpret the events either with hope or hopelessness. The first group when they encountered negative event, they were affected by it, but bounced back within no time. They saw them as transient and momentary; they coped with them and made it positive with a sense of humor  Where as the similar negative events were perceived by the second group as if they are permanent and they are always unlucky.

• Self-fulfilling prophecies: sooner than latter, the first group started seeing the problems as opportunities and their belief made it so eventually. The second group started ruminating and their fear become true due to the self fulfilling prophecy

How you interpret the events matters most. Even superficially and artificially try to find positive things in the negative situation, your mind eventually moves in that direction. It is all about training the mind.