| Sumario: | A study investigated how people who are arbitrarily designated to a novel group immediately exhibit a range of perceptual, affective, and behavioral in-group biases. Data were obtained from observing participants who were randomly assigned to a mixed-race team. Functional magnetic resonance imaging was used to determine brain regions involved in processing novel in-group and out-group members independently of preexisting attitudes, stereotypes, or familiarity. Findings revealed greater activity in the amygdala, fusiform gyri, orbitofrontal cortex, and dorsal striatum when participants viewed novel in-group faces than when they observed novel out-group faces. Furthermore, orbitofrontal cortex activity mediated the in-group bias in self-reported liking for the faces. Findings demonstrated that neither race nor participants' explicit attention to team membership or race moderated these in-group biases in neural activity. Findings suggested that these in-group biases may occur automatically.
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