CATEGORICAL DIFFERENTIATION AND INTERGROUP RELATIONSHIPS

In this study we attempted to replicate the well‐known Doise & Sinclair (1973) procedure for manipulating category salience, in a different social context. We considered the relationship between two groups of professionals: doctors and nurses, as perceived by 40 members of the superior group. The results did not confirm those obtained by Doise & Sinclair since they showed reduced categorical differentiation when the out‐group was evoked in advance of the intergroup evaluations. The implications of these findings for theories of social categorization and social identity are discussed. 1990 The British Psychological Society