[DSRP Evidence](https://dsrpevidence.org/)

# Infants' biased individuation of in-group members

## Details

**Authors** Fogiel et al.

**Year** 2023

**Publisher** Cognition

**Discipline** Human Development

[Read it at the publisher](https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105561) 
10.1016/j.cognition.2023.105561

## In authors' words

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

To test whether the adult tendency to construe in-group members as unique individuals is already present in infancy, even for arbitrary novel groups.

### What they found (results)

Ninety-six White 1-year-olds saw two similar women appear one at a time from behind a curtain, which then opened to reveal only one. Infants in the Ingroup condition (women who shared their food and shirt-colour preferences) looked reliably longer than those in the Outgroup or No-Group conditions, indicating a stronger expectation that two distinct women were present.

## Commentary

### In short

Drawing an in-group/out-group boundary grants distinct individual identity inside the boundary while collapsing those outside into an undifferentiated other. It should be noted that this undifferentiated other is a part-whole system (a predicted structure in DSRP Theory.)

**Patterns it shows** D

**Added** 2026-08-01

**How to cite this** Fogiel et al. (2023). Infants' biased individuation of in-group members. Cognition.