The Impact of Intergroup Helping on Third Parties' Perceptions of Group Reputation

We investigated the consequences of intergroup helping for both the offering and the receiving group's reputation in the eyes of third parties. In two experiments (N = 116 and N = 78), observers were presented with a group that offered versus requested help. Observers' status beliefs confirmed the emergence of a status hierarchy that favored the group that offered help. Study 2 demonstrated that the newly emerged status differential quickly solidified. In particular, observers judged the help-offering group as more attractive and allocated more resources to this group. Consistent with the social structural hypothesis on stereotype content, attributions of competence were more relevant for groups' reputation than attributions of warmth. We discuss the implications of our findings for societies comprising diverse groups.