What is it: this is the unconscious preference for people in our own ‘group’ – be it team, culture, or social circle – often leading to unfair advantages, skewed decisions, and even criminality.
“He’s part of my ‘clan’ so I know he’s done wrong but, he’s MY bad person…”
Overview
In-group favouritism, along with Confirmation Bias and Group Think, is for us, one of the most insidious and toxic cognitive biases we, as humans, exhibit in our psychology.
It is a cognitive bias where we show preference, trust, positive feelings but often, completely misaligned moral and ethical judgement, toward members of our own ‘group’ while being less generous, less trusting, or even suspicious of those outside it. The ‘group’ in question can be defined in many ways and is often tenuous at best. It can be nationality, ethnicity, workplace team, sports club, university affiliation, political party, or even something as arbitrary as being randomly assigned to ‘Team A’ in an experiment.
This tendency stems from our deep-seated need for belonging and identity, as explained by social identity theory. We often derive part of our self-esteem from the groups we belong to. Favouring members of our in-group reinforces the value of that group, and by extension, boosts our own self-worth. Unfortunately, it also leads to skewed decision-making, where merit, fairness, and objectivity are overridden by allegiance.
In practice, in-group favouritism might mean hiring someone because they remind you of yourself, giving opportunities to colleagues you already know well, or offering better deals to clients who share your background. This bias can emerge even when the group division is meaningless – psychology experiments have shown people will favour in-group members they’ve never met, based purely on an arbitrary label, characteristic or quality.
The consequences can be far-reaching: reinforcing inequality, stifling diversity, and creating echo chambers where dissenting voices are excluded. While in-group bonds can build trust and cooperation, unchecked in-group favouritism often comes at the cost of fairness, innovation, morality and ethics.
What can we do to avoid this?
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Increase awareness: Recognise when shared identity might be swaying judgment.
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Standardise decisions: Use objective criteria for recruitment, promotions, and resource allocation.
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Diversify exposure: Build genuine relationships with people outside your usual circles.
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Challenge assumptions: Actively consider the merits of out-group perspectives.
Examples
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A manager promotes someone from their alma mater over a more qualified candidate.
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A sports coach gives more play time to players from their hometown.
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Team members ignore suggestions from a new hire from another department.
Takeaways
Be very aware of using terms like 'us and them' - seeing others as different simply because they are in 'Team B' is dangerous
Look for situations where criminality, poor morality and ethics and 'covering up' occur, it's is often because of in-group favouritism
