Examples Of Outgroup Homogeneity Bias

Outgroup Homogeneity Bias Outgroup Homogeneity Bias is: “the assumption that outgroup members are more similar to one another than ingroup members are to one another.” So in saying that your group (two or more people that have the same interests, traits or goals) are different people with different lives and traits while the people that are in the outgroup (anyone that is not in your group) are all the same and can be categorized and described the same way. With this definition the MyLai massacre can be looked at from the point of view of this term. Firstly the soldiers were told to look at all the Vietnamese people as if they were all Vietcong, which were the communist like force that had taken over Vietnam, especially the
Ranks are a way to distinguish that there are different abilities and levels of people within a group of similar people. Also the names that are always on uniforms to distinguish, as well as dog tags that say the name and other information of the individual. Thirdly, one of the reasons that the soldiers developed this bias is because they did not know who they could trust and the fear for their lives took over. Many times survival (living longer ) makes it vital for people to take action and develop this outgroup homogeneity bias in order to protect themselves. Thinking that it would be better not to trust anyone and even kill them than die. As radio operator Fred Widmer said: “Your mindset has to change and you’ve got to somehow figure out how to adapt. Your attitude towards the villagers, now, everybody's an enemy. You don't know who to trust. You don't know who is a friend, who is a foe. You don't have a scorecard to tell you, well, this village over here is friendly to you, it's okay to go there. Or, this village over here is sympathetic to the Communists and you start to wonder who's who.” Temporal