A functional perspective on competence and warmth stereotypes: A closer look at the compensation effect

The present study investigates whether ingroup identification moderates the compensation effect that occurs when competence and warmth stereotypes are to be allocated over two comparison groups. Because ingroup identification is believed to influence the relative importance of 2 countervailing motives driving the compensation effect (i.e., positive differentiation and fairness) by enhancing the desire for positive differentiation, high identifiers were expected to compensate more strongly than low identifiers in a low competence/status condition but less strongly in a high competence/status condition. An experimental and a correlational study confirmed this hypothesis. In addition, the relevance of the intergroup context was found to enhance the positive differentiation motive in both lowly identifying low competence/status group members and highly identifying high competence/status group members. The finding that the allocation of competence and warmth depends on ingroup status, ingroup identification, and the relevance of the intergroup context suggests that the compensation effect is strategically applied.