Knocking on the Outgroup's Door: Seeking Outgroup Help Under Conditions of Task or Relational Conflict

Outgroup Helping as a Tool to Communicate Ingroup Warmth

“…This observation is important because previous research has shown that feeling stereotyped can depress the willingness to seek outgroup help (van Leeuwen et al, 2011). At first glance, this seems at odds with the current finding that negative stereotyping promotes the willingness to provide outgroup help.…”

“…However, these responses are in fact demonstrations of the motivation to make a good impression of the ingroup. The provision of help can serve to portray the ingroup as warm and competent (Hopkins et al, 2007;van Leeuwen & Täuber, 2011). Seeking help, however, is often associated with dependency and incompetence (Nadler & Halabi, 2006).…”

“…In fact, the usual positive effect of empathy on intergroup attitudes can be blocked by negative metastereotypes that are automatically activated in the contact situation . Van Leeuwen, Täuber, and Sassenberg (2011) found that participants who felt negatively stereotyped by another group were more reluctant to seek help from that group. If negative metastereotypes result in avoidance of seeking help, they could also result in a reluctance to provide help.…”

“…In the current article, we present three studies investigating the degree to which outgroup helping is used as a tool to communicate ingroup warmth. As we will explain in the following, these studies complement and extend existing research on strategic outgroup helping (e.g., Hopkins et al, 2007;van Leeuwen & Täuber, 2011) by directly studying the role of group impression management motives.…”

Intergroup Helping in Response to Separatism

“…Helping can also be used as a means of communicating information about the desired relationship with the recipient, as examined in the context of power and dominance relations. For example, groups that seek to control other groups provide specific forms of help (i.e., dependency oriented help) to affirm and strengthen the recipient group's dependency on the helper (Nadler, Harpaz-Gorodeisky, & Ben-David, 2009), whereas groups in need of help may refrain from seeking help from other groups with which they have a troublesome relationship (van Leeuwen, Täuber, & Sassenberg, 2011). Based on these findings, we propose that helping can also be used to communicate a desire to establish or restore a positive relationship with another group.…”