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in-group

Definition of In-group

(noun) Any group or category to which an individual belongs and membership in the group fosters deep loyality and a sense of identity.

Example of In-group

  • In a game of football, the home team including their fans (as opposed to the visiting team and their fans, who are the out-group).

In-group Pronunciation

Pronunciation Usage Guide

Syllabification: in group

Audio Pronunciation

– American English
– British English

Phonetic Spelling

  • American English – /In-groop/
  • British English – /In-groop/

International Phonetic Alphabet

  • American English – /ɪn-grup/
  • British English – /ɪn-gruːp/

Usage Notes

  • Plural: in-groups
  • An in-group is the “us” in “us versus them”.
  • In-group is the opposite of out-group. One’s person’s ingroup is another person’s outgroup.
  • Variant spellings:
    • in group
    • ingroup

Related Quotations

  • “Empirical evidence suggests that a predisposition to favor in-groups can be easily triggered by even arbitrary group distinctions and that preferential cooperation within groups occurs even when it is individually costly” (Hammond and Axelrod 2006:926).
  • “Ethnocentrism is a nearly universal syndrome of attitudes and behaviors, typically including in-group favoritism” (Hammond and Axelrod 2006:926).

Related Video

Additional Information

Related Terms

Reference

Hammond, Ross A., and Robert Axelrod. 2006. “The Evolution of Ethnocentrism.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution: a Quarterly for Research Related to War and Peace 50(6):926–36. doi:10.1177/0022002706293470.

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Cite the Definition of In-group

ASA – American Sociological Association (5th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “in-group.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved April 20, 2024 (https://sociologydictionary.org/in-group/).

APA – American Psychological Association (6th edition)

in-group. (2013). In K. Bell (Ed.), Open education sociology dictionary. Retrieved from https://sociologydictionary.org/in-group/

Chicago/Turabian: Author-Date – Chicago Manual of Style (16th edition)

Bell, Kenton, ed. 2013. “in-group.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Accessed April 20, 2024. https://sociologydictionary.org/in-group/.

MLA – Modern Language Association (7th edition)

“in-group.” Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Ed. Kenton Bell. 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2024. <https://sociologydictionary.org/in-group/>.