“Minimal group” paradigms investigate social preferences arising from mere group membership. We asked whether demand characteristics contribute to children’s apparent minimal group bias in a preregistered experiment (N = 160). In a group condition, we attempted to replicate findings of bias following assignment to minimal groups. A second closely matched no-group condition retained potential demand characteristics while removing group assignment. Parallel bias in the no-group condition would suggest that demand characteristics contribute to findings of apparent ingroup bias. Three main findings emerged. First, in the group condition, ingroup preference emerged in one of three bias measures only. Second, this preference emerged even though participants evaluated ingroup/outgroup photos varying in race/ethnicity between trials. Third, the measure that yielded ingroup preferences in the group condition produced no parallel bias in the no-group condition, consistent with the view that mere membership in a group, not experimental demand, leads to minimal ingroup preferences.

“最小群体”范式研究了仅仅由于群体成员身份而产生的社会偏好。我们询问需求特征是否会在预先注册的实验中导致儿童明显的最小群体偏见（N  = 160）。在小组条件下，我们试图复制分配到最小小组后的偏见结果。第二个紧密匹配的无组条件保留了潜在的需求特征，同时删除了组分配。无群体条件下的平行偏差表明需求特征有助于发现明显的内群体偏差。出现了三个主要发现。首先，在群体条件下，群体内偏好仅出现在三种偏见措施之一中。其次，即使参与者评估不同种族/族裔的组内/组外照片，这种偏好还是出现了。第三，在群体条件下产生内群体偏好的措施在非群体条件下没有产生平行偏差，这与仅是群体成员而不是实验需求导致最小内群体偏好的观点一致。