Verb Intergroup Bias: Verbs Are Used More Often in Reference to In-Groups than Out-Groups

Abstract

Agency is a basic dimension of evaluations of social groups. More agency is assigned to in-groups than to out-groups, and verb intergroup bias (VIB) captures this tendency in language use. Four studies that performed large-scale quantitative analysis of natural language use, which covered more than 200 billion words, 20 countries, and various time spans, support the VIB model. Verbs, which are prototypically associated with actions, serve as agency indicators, and thus generic in-groups are more often described with verbs (we vs. they). Moreover, VIB is present in specific between-group comparisons: for Americans as an in-group reference and various out-groups (e.g., Mexicans, Russians, and Palestinians), as well as for Americans, Canadians, Britons, and Australians as in-group references and immigrants as a generic out-group. VIB is a useful tool in diagnosing intergroup discourses. Furthermore, VIB attests to the importance of analyzing language’s role in the formation and maintenance of social biases.