🥳 Super excited that today the first paper of my PhD has been published in @royalsociety.org: doi.org/10.1098/rsos... Can learning from rewards and punishments change how people approach (or avoid) in-group vs. out-group members? Read the thread below! 🧵 1/6

2/6 In a #social #intergroup context, humans often show #in-group biases: - More likely to approach - More positive impressions of individuals from their own group compared to others. But can #learning from external rewards/punishments reduce these biases?

3/6 We ran three #preregistered online studies using a new #approach-avoidance learning task: ➡️ Participants moved a manikin towards or away from symbols (representing members of their in-group or out-group) and earned money depending on their choices. Would rewards shift biases?

4/6 Our key findings: - An initial in-group bias in approach behaviour and impression ratings ✅ - Rewarding out-group approach reduced this bias ✅ - People learned more from rewards than punishments ✅ - But… impressions of the out-group remained unchanged ❎

5/6 In short: 💡 Rewards can encourage approach toward out-groups ❌ But they don’t easily alter underlying impressions This highlights both the promise and limits of non-social reinforcers in reducing social intergroup biases.