Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Trait Centrality

Trait Centrality

Trait centrality refers to the degree to which a particular characteristic influences the overall impression of an individual. Some traits exert a disproportionately strong impact on perception, shaping how people interpret other attributes of a person. Solomon Asch first systematically studied this phenomenon in 1946.Asch’s Experiment on Trait CentralityAsch's seminal study demonstrated the centrality of certain traits through a controlled experiment. Participants were presented with a...

Social Proof

Social proof is a form of persuasion based on comparison and conformity. People compare their behavior and actions to what others are doing and will change to conform to do what their peers do.

Social Loafing

Another way in which a group presence can affect performance is social loafing—the exertion of less effort by a person working together with a group. Social loafing occurs when our individual performance cannot be evaluated separately from the group. Thus, group performance declines on easy tasks (Karau & Williams, 1993). Essentially individual group members loaf and let other group members pick up the slack. Because each individual’s efforts cannot be evaluated,...

In- and Out-Groups

In- and Out-Groups

People all belong to a gender, race, age, and social economic group. These groups provide a powerful source of our identity and self-esteem (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and serve as our in-groups. An in-group is a group that we identify with or see ourselves as belonging to.

Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

Social Foundations of Self II: The Generalized Other

According to George Herbert Mead, as children progress beyond the game stage, they develop a more comprehensive understanding of societal rules and norms. This cognitive and social development enables them to internalize the expectations of the broader community, refining their ability to regulate behavior.Consistent participation in organized activities is crucial in helping children recognize that their actions are not isolated but contribute to a more significant, interconnected group...

Implicit Personality Theories

Implicit Personality Theories

Implicit personality theory explains how individuals make assumptions about the relationships between personality traits, behaviors, and character types. When people learn that someone possesses a particular trait, they tend to infer the presence of other related characteristics, forming a cohesive impression. This cognitive shortcut plays a crucial role in social interactions and interpersonal judgments.Central Traits and Their InfluenceSolomon Asch's seminal 1946 study highlighted the power...

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Text understanding in GPT-4 versus humans.

Royal Society open science·2025

Same author

Timbral cues for learning to generalize musical instrument identity across pitch register.

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America·2023

Same author

A computational model of infant learning and reasoning with probabilities.

Psychological review·2021

Same author

Neural Network Simulation of Infant Familiarization to Artificial Sentences: Rule-Like Behavior Without Explicit Rules and Variables.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2021

Same author

Modeling Age Differences in Infant Category Learning.

Infancy : the official journal of the International Society on Infant Studies·2021

Same author

The evolution of high-fidelity social learning.

Proceedings. Biological sciences·2020

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Oct 9, 2025

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device ALDM Test Systems

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device ALDM Test Systems

Published on: May 5, 2015

Copy the In-group: Group Membership Trumps Perceived Reliability, Warmth, and Competence in a Social-Learning Task.

Marcel Montrey¹, Thomas R Shultz^1,2

¹Department of Psychology, McGill University.

Psychological Science

|December 23, 2021

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

People preferentially copy in-group members, a social learning strategy that influences behavior and cultural diversity. This bias overrides other factors and can lead to cultural divergence between groups.

Keywords:

cumulative cultural evolution intergroup dynamics open data preregistered social-learning strategies transmission biases

More Related Videos

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

Published on: November 19, 2015

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Oct 9, 2025

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device ALDM Test Systems

Assessment of Social Cognition in Non-human Primates Using a Network of Computerized Automated Learning Device ALDM Test Systems

Published on: May 5, 2015

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test

Published on: November 19, 2015

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

The Joint Effect of Social Comparison and Social Distance on Evaluation of Intertemporal Choice Outcomes in Event-related Potential Studies

Published on: August 25, 2023

Area of Science:

Social psychology
Evolutionary anthropology
Behavioral economics

Background:

Social learning is crucial for acquiring behaviors and knowledge.
Previous research indicates a preference for copying in-group members, but this bias's origin remains debated.
It's unclear if group membership directly influences social learning or if it correlates with other factors like similarity.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate whether group membership directly influences social learning decisions.
To disentangle the effects of group membership from other factors like perceived competence.
To understand the role of social groups in shaping cultural transmission.

Main Methods:

Utilized the minimal-group paradigm to create arbitrary group affiliations.
Conducted an online social-learning game with 540 adult participants.
Analyzed copying behavior in relation to group membership, perceived traits, and information availability.

Main Results:

Demonstrated a robust in-group-copying bias in social learning.
This bias was strengthened by a preference for observing in-group members.
The in-group bias overrode judgments of reliability, warmth, and competence, and intensified with scarce information.

Conclusions:

People genuinely employ a 'copy-the-in-group' social learning strategy.
This strategy can explain the spread of potentially inefficient behaviors.
In-group copying contributes to maintaining cultural diversity essential for cumulative cultural evolution.