The plus polar "we": Polarity correspondence as a component of in-group related prioritization processes

We investigated whether the prioritization effect for an in-group, also called the we-prioritization effect (WPE), depends on the coding of stimulus and response alternatives on positive and negative poles in accordance with the polarity correspondence principle (PCP; Proctor & Cho, 2006). Pauly and Wentura (2025) showed that a significant part of the self-prioritization effect can be explained by the PCP. One half of the participants reacted with a (positively coded) "yes"-response to self-matching trials (in those trials, a positively coded label and shape are shown) and the other half with a negatively coded "no"-response. The self-prioritization effect was significantly reduced for the second half, which was attributed to the lack of polarity correspondence in self-matching trials. If WPEs can also be explained by polarity correspondence, a similar manipulation should lead to a significant reduction in the WPE. In a first experiment, we used a minimal group approach to induce group membership and replicated the WPE. In the second experiment, we varied task instructions between participants. Half of the participants reacted to matching trials with a positively coded response, the other half with a negatively coded response. The first half of the participants showed a significant WPE. For the second half, the WPE was significantly reduced but still existed. We conclude that the PCP can also be applied to the WPE and that a significant amount of this effect can be explained by the encoding of stimulus and response alternatives in general. However, a small genuine WPE remains. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2026 APA, all rights reserved).