Accentuation effect occurs when something (be it a person, place or thing) is placed into a category. The differences between the categories are then exaggerated, and differences within the categories themselves are minimised. Memory of anything that can be categorized is subject to an accentuation effect in which the memory is distorted toward typical examples. In the case of people, the accentuation effect is similar to stereotyping and social categorization in that when classified as part of a group, people's features seem to more closely match their classification rather than any individual differences they have. The effect was first identified by Henri Tajfel in the late 1950s. Judgement The accentuation effect often works to create more polarized judgements within individuals. A study conducted by Eiser, 1971, showed this through people’s judgements of different attitude statements. Those who were judging were asked to rate a variety of statements regarding the non-medical use of drugs from being ‘extremely permissive’ to ‘extremely restrictive’. The group which received the statements already categorized into two distinct groups, one being from anti-drug newspapers and the other being from pro-drug newspapers, accentuated the differences between these two groups as opposed to those from the control condition. This resulted in the polarization of their judgements regarding the statements and where they belong on the scale. Once judgements are grouped into different categories, people often accentuate the subjective differences between them. Another way in which this occurs is when the response language of questions is manipulated. In another study, that was testing people’s response to statements as being pro or anti, when the pro was at the positive end of the scale and anti was at the negative end of the scale, those that agree with the statement accentuate their judgement and label them in a more polarized ways, whereas those that disagreed with the statement labelled them in less polarized ways. The opposite effect is seen when the scale is switched. This ultimately means that the most polarized labels are given when the judge’s end of the scale is positively labelled. Intergroup accentuation The accentuation effect is often found in group interactions, with group members exaggerating the differences between their ingroup and outgroup. For those in the ingroup, the accentuation of characteristics were less for the ingroup than the outgroup, suggesting that this effect may be due to distancing the outgroup from the ingroup. However, this accentuation effect