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# Cognition in context: Social inclusion attenuates the psychological boundary between self and other

## Details

**Authors** Bentley et al

**Year** 2017

**Publisher** Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

**Discipline** Cognitive Science

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2017.06.008) 
10.1016/j.jesp.2017.06.008

## In authors' words

### What they set out to do (purpose)

How does inclusion/exclusion affect a person?

### What they found (results)

When the subject was excluded from the ingroup, they retained significantly more information related to themselves than they did about the other. However, when included, the participant remembered as much information about the other as they did the self.

## Commentary

### In short

Inclusion can be added to self identity, and the other can become a part of the self. Identity and other engage in a dynamic dance.

### In more detail

Bentley et al 2017 examined the effect inclusion and exclusion had on both the self, and one’s retention of information about the self and the other. He conducted an experiment with 169 first year psychology students on the effect inclusion and exclusion had on the retention of information about oneself and others. They used a computer-based experiment in which participants completed a questionnaire about themselves, and then played a computer game with another person. Before they played they viewed the other player’s (fake) questionnaire results. As a result, participants classified their opposing player as either matched or opposite to their own results. This assigned either an ingroup or an outgroup status to the subject pairs. They then tested each subject's memory of their opponent’s questionnaire results. Between-subjects, one-way, ANOVA test, showed significant effect on the “psychological need satisfaction.” In the inclusion condition, reported need satisfaction was highest among all other conditions. In summary, they found that when the subject was excluded from the ingroup, they retained (in a memory retention test about the experiment) significantly more information related to themselves than they did about their opponent. However, when included in the ingroup, the participant remembered (within an appropriate margin of error) as much information about the other as they did themselves. The authors concluded that it was possible that inclusion added to their self identity, and that the other also became the same as a part of the self when the two are perceived to be in the same group (ingroup). Identity and other, or inside and outside classification, are important underlying factors to our perceptions of ourselves and of others.

Systematizing (S) is the act of organizing things or ideas into parts and wholes. In other words, explicitly grouping a concept into a whole made up of parts or breaking something down into its constituent parts. This reinforces the idea that every whole has parts while simultaneously being part of a larger whole. Systematization of things or ideas is evident in both monkeys and infants as early as three months of age. Similar experiments with adults show the varied and sophisticated ways systems-part-whole is used to understand concepts across the lifespan.

A review of peer-reviewed journals across disciplines indicates:

1. the existence of Systems (i.e., part-whole groupings); 2. the act of Systematizing (i.e., splitting into parts and/or lumping of parts into wholes);

9 With a p-value of p<0.001. Between-subjects, one-way, ANOVA test, showed they found that there was a significant effect on the “psychological need satisfaction” through social context manipulation.

**Patterns it shows** D

**How to cite this** Bentley et al (2017). Cognition in context: Social inclusion attenuates the psychological boundary between self and other. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology.