What is linguistic intergroup bias in simple terms?

A difference in phrasing: when our side does well, "they're good people"; when the other side does well, "they did well this time."

Even without intent, phrasing alone passes stereotypes on to listeners and keeps them alive.

Linguistic Intergroup Bias

🧠 Psychology By CampusDown Wiki Editorial Team Last updated October 27, 2026

Linguistic intergroup bias is the phenomenon in which the abstractness of language used to describe the same behavior differs depending on who performed it. Desirable ingroup behavior and undesirable outgroup behavior are described abstractly, as in "is kind" or "is aggressive," whereas undesirable ingroup and desirable outgroup behavior are described concretely, as in "he held the door." Anne Maass and colleagues reported it in 1989. In this way stereotypes are subtly maintained and transmitted.

Contents

1. Concept and the linguistic category model
2. The Palio study and mechanisms
3. Effects and applications
4. FAQ
5. References

Concept and the linguistic category model

The bias builds on Semin and Fiedler's (1988) linguistic category model, which divides words describing behavior into four levels of abstraction. They become more abstract in this order: descriptive action verbs describing concrete actions, such as "hit"; interpretive action verbs, such as "hurt"; state verbs, such as "hates"; and adjectives describing a person's disposition, such as "aggressive." The more abstract the expression, the more the behavior sounds like a stable trait that will recur. Concrete expressions, by contrast, sound like one-off events.

The Palio study and mechanisms

Maass and colleagues (1989) asked residents of districts competing in the Palio, the traditional horse race of Siena, Italy, to describe cartoons depicting behavior by members of their own and rival districts. They described good behavior by their own district and bad behavior by rivals more abstractly, and the reverse more concretely. This is a pattern similar to the ultimate attribution error, expressed in linguistic form. Maass and colleagues (1995) showed that the bias arises not only from a motive to protect the ingroup but also from an expectancy tendency to describe expectancy-consistent behavior abstractly and inconsistent behavior concretely.

Effects and applications

Wigboldus and colleagues (2000) showed that listeners who hear abstract expressions infer that the behavior reflects the actor's enduring traits. Even without the speaker's intent, stereotypes are passed on through the form of language. Maass (1999) argued that this process is one reason stereotypes are hard to change. Von Hippel and colleagues (1997) showed that the bias can serve as an indicator of implicit prejudice that people do not self-report. The concept is used to analyze how groups are portrayed in news coverage, sports commentary and political discourse.

FAQ

What is linguistic intergroup bias in simple terms?: A difference in phrasing: when our side does well, "they're good people"; when the other side does well, "they did well this time."
Why does it matter?: Even without intent, phrasing alone passes stereotypes on to listeners and keeps them alive.

Sources reviewed: 2026-10-26

References

Semin, G. R., & Fiedler, K. (1988). The cognitive functions of linguistic categories in describing persons: Social cognition and language. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 54(4), 558–568. The Linguistic Category Model.
Maass, A., Salvi, D., Arcuri, L., & Semin, G. R. (1989). Language use in intergroup contexts: The linguistic intergroup bias. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57(6), 981–993. The original Palio study demonstrating the LIB.
Maass, A., Milesi, A., Zabbini, S., & Stahlberg, D. (1995). Linguistic intergroup bias: Differential expectancies or in-group protection? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68(1), 116–126. Tests expectancy versus ingroup-protection accounts.
von Hippel, W., Sekaquaptewa, D., & Vargas, P. (1997). The linguistic intergroup bias as an implicit indicator of prejudice. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 33(5), 490–509. The LIB as an implicit measure of prejudice.
Maass, A. (1999). Linguistic intergroup bias: Stereotype perpetuation through language. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 79–121. A comprehensive review of LIB research.
Hewstone, M. (1990). The 'ultimate attribution error'? A review of the literature on intergroup causal attribution. European Journal of Social Psychology, 20(4), 311–335. A review of intergroup attribution, the LIB's attributional counterpart.
Wigboldus, D. H. J., Semin, G. R., & Spears, R. (2000). How do we communicate stereotypes? Linguistic bases and inferential consequences. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78(1), 5–18. Listeners infer stereotypes from abstract language.

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This article was last updated on October 27, 2026. It is based on widely recognized original works and textbooks; when citing it in a paper, please check the original sources listed in the references.