ingrupps

In social psychology, an ingrupp (from the English ingroup) denotes the set of individuals with whom a person identifies and with whom they perceive shared membership. The corresponding category is the outgroup, consisting of people outside that membership. Ingrupper can be defined by shared characteristics such as nationality, team membership, language, or social ties, and membership can influence attitudes and behavior.

The concept is central to social identity theory, which posits that people derive part of their self-esteem from the status of the groups they belong to. People tend to prefer their own group over others, a phenomenon known as ingroup favoritism, which can manifest in more favorable judgments, cooperation, and resource allocation to ingroup members. This can occur even when groups are randomly assigned and have no meaningful differences (the minimal group paradigm).

Intergroup relations are shaped by both cohesion within the ingroup and differentiation from outgroups. Strong ingroup identification can promote solidarity and prosocial behavior within the group but can also fuel stereotypes and discrimination toward outgroups, especially in conditions of competition or threat.

Applications of the ingroup concept appear in diverse areas such as organizational behavior, education, sports, and politics. Understanding ingroup dynamics can help address bias, enhance teamwork, and design interventions to reduce prejudice.

Scholarly discussions emphasize that ingroups are context-dependent and fluid; boundaries shift with social change, and intersectional identities (e.g., ethnicity, class, gender) create overlapping ingroups and complex loyalties. Critics argue that some theories overemphasize group causation and underplay individual variation.