When you meet another frenchie mama, there is often an instant bond. You immediately understand each other, you understand the love each of you have for your frenchies, and you understand the concerns that come along with being a frenchie mama. Just like any mama, we worry about the health of our little ones. With the plethora of health problems French Bulldogs suffer from, we cannot help but worry. Recently, we have been flooded with news stories of French Bulldogs being stolen which just adds to the list of worries we frenchie mamas experience. For tips on keeping your frenchie safe while on walks, click here: Walking Frenchies Safely blog post
So, where does this bond between fellow frenchie mama’s ultimately come from? There is a concept in Psychology which may explain it called Ingroup-Outgroup Bias.
What is Ingroup-Outgroup Bias?
Ingroup-Outgroup Bias is a concept that explains why we gravitate towards some people and not towards others. In the context of frenchie mamas gravitating towards each other, we tend to see other frenchie mamas as part of our “ingroup.” In psychology, the term ingroup refers to a group of people who feel comfortable with each other because they belong to the same group and understand certain things about each other. An out-group on the other hand is a group you do not belong to and consequently may not understand members of that group as well.
People rely on individuals in their in-group more heavily when they feel threatened. Lately, many frenchie mamas have felt threatened due to the numerous French Bulldog thefts being carried out. In most cases, understanding those who are not in your in-group and rather in the out-groups is crucial. For example, to decrease cases of racism and sexism. Studies have shown that if a member of a person’s in-group is harmed and a member of that same person’s out-group is harmed, the person will show more empathy towards the member of their in-group. It may be more important to strive for an understanding of an individual in an outgroup rather than your ingroup because you already have that empathy for ingroup members where you must work at having empathy for an outgroup member. Basically, you must work a little harder to understand members of an outgroup to decrease any bias’s you may have towards those individuals.
However, in the case of the thieves that are stealing our precious frenchies, this is an outgroup we should come together to eliminate. We frenchie mamas must come together and support each other now more than ever. When you see another mama out with their frenchie, watch out for her and her surroundings. When you see a frenchie has been stolen, get the word out. Post it on all social media sites, post flyers, let everyone know. Let us educate ourselves and each other about how we can prevent French Bulldog Thefts. After all, we can absolutely empathize with the frenchie mamas who have had their frenchies stolen.
Join my Facebook page “The Frenchie Mama Blog” (link below) and let’s have real world discussions about how to keep ourselves and our frenchies safe and how to reverse this awful trend of stealing French Bulldogs.