2005/02/01 by Jordan M. Robbins, Joachim I. Krueger · 13 citations
Neuroscience · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cultural Differences and Values #Psychology of Moral and Emotional Judgment #Social and Intergroup Psychology
paper · doi:10.1207/s15327957pspr0901_3
openalex publication_date 2005/02/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Social projection is the tendency to expect similarities between oneself and others. A review of the literature and a meta-analysis reveal that projection is stronger when people make judgments about ingroups than when they make judgments about outgroups. Analysis of moderator variables further reveals that ingroup projection is stronger for laboratory groups than for real social categories. The mode of analysis (i.e., nomothetic vs. idiographic) and the order of judgments (i.e., self or group judged first) have no discernable effects. Outgroup projection is positive, but small in size. Together, these findings support the view that projection can serve as an egocentric heuristic for inductive reasoning. The greater strength of ingroup projection can contribute to ingroup-favoritism, perceptions of ingroup homogeneity, and cooperation with ingroup members.