Distinguishing and privileging one's in-groups from out-groups appears to be a human universal, though theories about why and how this happens diverge. This paper contributes to understanding these processes by adding cross-cultural, ecological validity to a demographic understanding of a) which in- and out-groups are prevalent in four distinct societies and b) discernible patterns in the values that members of these groups are perceived to hold. Our results suggest that respondents see in-groups, often their family, as conventionally moral (caring for others) across societies, while typically perceiving a range of disparate out-groups as hedonistic and self-serving. We find both commonalities and distinctions in third-order beliefs (‘what I believe they believe’) across four samples, yet all highlight one axis of Schwartz's value scheme capturing conventional morality as central for feelings of affiliation with in-groups and ‘othering’ for out-groups.

尽管关于为什么以及如何发生这种情况的理论存在分歧，但将一个人的内群体与外群体区分开来并赋予其特权似乎是人类的普遍现象。本文通过将跨文化、生态有效性添加到对 a) 在四个不同社会中普遍存在的内部和外部群体和 b) 这些群体成员被感知的价值观中的可识别模式的人口理解中，有助于理解这些过程举行。我们的研究结果表明，受访者将内部群体（通常是他们的家庭）视为跨社会的传统道德（关心他人），而通常将一系列不同的外部群体视为享乐主义和自私自利。我们在四个样本中发现了三阶信念（“我相信他们相信什么”）的共同点和区别，但都突出了施瓦茨的一个轴”