Across seven experiments and one survey (n = 4,282), people consistently overestimated out-group negativity towards the collective behaviour of their in-group. This negativity bias in group meta-perception was present across multiple competitive (but not cooperative) intergroup contexts and appears to be yoked to group psychology more generally; we observed negativity bias for estimation of out-group, anonymized-group and even fellow in-group members’ perceptions. Importantly, in the context of US politics, greater inaccuracy was associated with increased belief that the out-group is motivated by purposeful obstructionism. However, an intervention that informed participants of the inaccuracy of their beliefs reduced negative out-group attributions, and was more effective for those whose group meta-perceptions were more inaccurate. In sum, we highlight a pernicious bias in social judgements of how we believe ‘they’ see ‘our’ behaviour, demonstrate how such inaccurate beliefs can exacerbate intergroup conflict and provide an avenue for reducing the negative effects of inaccuracy.

横跨7个实验和1个调查（n = 4,282），人们始终高估了群体外消极情绪对其群体内集体行为的影响。小组元感知中的这种消极偏见存在于多个竞争性（但非合作性）小组间环境中，并且似乎更普遍地被群体心理学所束缚。我们观察到负偏倚，用于估计群体外，匿名群体甚至群体内同伴的感知。重要的是，在美国政治的背景下，更大的不准确性与人们越来越相信外来群体是有目的的阻挠主义有关的。但是，一种可以使参与者了解其信念的不正确之处的干预措施可以减少负面的群体外归因，并且对于那些对群体元认知更不准确的人们更有效。总共，