External intergroup threat as an antecedent to perceptions of in-group and out-group homogeneity

The present research examined the relationship between external intergroup threat and perceptions of group variability. The first study found that when Texas A&M University students worked on a task in which students from a rival university were allegedly biased against them, they perceived more intragroup similarities versus differences than in an out-group benevolent condition and a control condition, and they also perceived the self as more similar to the in-group and more different from the out-group. These results were replicated in a second study, which used the same methodology except that the benevolent condition was excluded. The findings are discussed in terms of different reactions that individuals have to internal and external intergroup threat.