Group membership can have a profound impact on perceptions of group characteristics; yet how group membership influences the accuracy of personality impressions for specific individuals remains unclear. In small groups, participants (N = 519) formed impressions via naturalistic, dyadic interactions. We then investigated whether impressions of in-group members differed from out-group members based on participant’s ethnicity and acculturation (Euro-Canadian, Acculturated East Asian, or Semi-Acculturated East Asian). Impressions of in-group members were more distinctively accurate and individuated. Further, in-group members were viewed with greater distinctive assumed similarity in that perceivers used their own idiosyncratic traits more when forming impressions of in-group members. However, in-group members, despite being liked more, were viewed less socially desirable. Discussion focuses on cultural differences in impressions and implications for in-group favoritism, in-group self-anchoring, and the out-group homogeneity effect for North Americans and East Asians.
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