How sport participation influences intergroup bias

A social mindfulness perspective

Bibliographic Data

ID19224017
AuthorsBiye Wang (0000-0002-0982-8440, Yangzhou University), Tao Tao (0000-0001-9865-5985, Yangzhou University), Wei Guo (0000-0002-4888-4816, Yangzhou University, corresponding author)
Year2026
Volume29
Issue6
Pages938-961
Publication date2026-04-29
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueGroup Processes & Intergroup Relations (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1368-4302 • E-ISSN: 1461-7188
PublisherSAGE Publishing (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/13684302261435061
OpenAlexW7160411203
LanguageEN
References cited98

Social mindfulness (SoMi), defined as demonstrating goodwill with minimal resources, is a central component of prosociality. Although sport participation has been associated with changes in prosocial behavior, its influence on intergroup bias in SoMi remains unclear. This research used four studies ( N = 463) with adapted SoMi and minimal group paradigms to explore this issue in adolescents. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated that sport participation significantly reduced intergroup bias, particularly by increasing SoMi behaviors toward outgroup members, with variations across different sport contexts. In Study 3, the roles of cooperation and competition within sport participation were examined separately, revealing that cooperation heightened ingroup favoritism while competition increased outgroup derogation. Study 4 examined these effects in non-sport contexts, revealing that competition fostered both ingroup favoritism and outgroup derogation, whereas cooperation did not significantly affect overall bias but alleviated outgroup derogation. These findings suggest that sport participation can substantially influence intergroup bias in SoMi through sport-specific mechanisms of cooperation and competition

Affect (linguistics) · Competition (biology) · In-group favoritism · Ingroups and outgroups · Outgroup · Perspective (graphical) · Perspective-taking · Prosocial behavior · Mindfulness and Compassion Interventions · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Sport Psychology and Performance

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