I wrote recently about the various political machinations at work, and how you might continue to derive success despite being outside of the various cliques that may form at work.

It’s on the topic of these cliques that a 2nd study revolved.  It set out to test how we behave towards those people inside our clique at work, and particularly whether we are more lenient towards them if they make a mistake.

In group/out group

Basic in group/out group psychology suggests that we should default towards a favorable opinion of those in our own group, but this wasn’t exactly what the study found.

Participants were divided up into groups, and then showed information about fellow group members that signified them as either cooperative or uncooperative.  Each person was asked to rate the likeability of the people they were informed about.

When the results were analyzed, it emerged that those people in both the cooperative and uncooperative camps were more memorable than those who exhibited neutral behavior.  What’s interesting however is that people were able to correctly classify people from the out-group, even when recalling them at a later date.

When people were part of the same group however, we proved less able to recall cooperative types, with the uncooperative sticking in our minds considerably more.

Critical of our friends

So why is this?  It’s likely that if people are already in our inner circle then they’ve been chosen for their positive characteristics.  Therefore, continued positive behavior is unlikely to stand out anywhere near as much as poor behavior that deviates from that norm.  What’s more, the health of the group depends greatly on noticing such violations.

The flip side of this however, is that we tend to assume the best about those in our in-group.  A 2nd experiment revealed that when we’re unsure about someone, we tend to guess in a positive way for in-group members, but in a negative way for out-group members.

So in other words, we tend to assume the best of our fellow group members, but remember vividly should they deviate from that expectation.

With team working an increasingly important part of modern working life, this research provides an interesting glimpse into how these teams may work effectively, whilst also highlighting how strong teams may not play particularly well with other teams in the organization.