How do people react to opinion conflict occurring within an ingroup? Whereas some work suggests that dissenting ingroup members evoke more negativity than equivalently dissenting outgroup members (termed the black sheep effect), other research instead finds that people are more receptive to dissent from within the group relative to the same opinion originating from outsiders (termed the intergroup sensitivity effect). We sought to integrate these largely independent lines of work by investigating how people react to opinion conflict within and between groups based on U.S. political party affiliation. Participants read about a target person, “Robert C.,” with whom they shared or did not share party affiliation. Robert C. criticized (Study 1; N = 637; preregistered) or insulted (Study 2; N = 647; preregistered) the Democratic or Republican party. Ingroup members who criticized or insulted the ingroup elicited more negativity than outgroup members who criticized or insulted the outgroup, representing the black sheep effect. Moreover, criticism and insults targeting the ingroup elicited more negativity when they originated from an outgroup (vs. ingroup) member, representing the intergroup sensitivity effect. Taken together, the present studies demonstrate that whereas ingroup critics are at times perceived as black sheep, they are also afforded a degree of benefit of the doubt. We suggest that both of these effects may be driven by social identity concerns.

人们如何对内群体内发生的意见冲突作出反应？虽然一些研究表明，持不同意见的内群体成员比同等持不同意见的外群体成员引起更多的消极情绪（称为害群之马效应），但其他研究发现，相对于来自外部的相同意见，人们更容易接受来自群体内部的不同意见（称为群间敏感性效应）。我们试图通过调查人们对基于美国政党关系的群体内部和群体之间的意见冲突的反应来整合这些基本上独立的工作线。参与者阅读了一个目标人物“罗伯特 C.”，他们与之有或不属于党派关系。Robert C. 批评（研究 1；N  = 637；预注册）或侮辱（研究 2；N = 647; 预注册）民主党或共和党。批评或侮辱内群体的内群体成员比批评或侮辱外群体的外群体成员引起更多的消极情绪，代表了害群之马效应。此外，针对内群体的批评和侮辱，当它们来自外群体（与内群体）成员时，会引发更多的消极情绪，这代表了群体间的敏感性效应。综上所述，目前的研究表明，虽然内群体批评者有时被视为害群之马，但他们也获得了一定程度的怀疑好处。我们认为这两种影响都可能是由社会认同问题驱动的。