Responses to endorsement of commonality by ingroup and outgroup members: the roles of group representation and threat

Pers Soc Psychol Bull. 2013 Apr;39(4):419-31. doi: 10.1177/0146167213475366. Epub 2013 Mar 1.

Abstract

Two experiments integrated research on the roles of common identity and social norms in intergroup orientations. Experiment 1 demonstrated that learning that ingroup members categorized the ingroup (Spaniards) and outgroup (Eastern European immigrants) within a common identity (European) produced more positive intergroup orientations toward immigrants. By contrast, learning that outgroup members held the same position elicited less positive orientations compared with a condition in which the information came from a neutral source. The effects were mediated by one-group representations. Experiment 2 also found that endorsement of a common identity generated more positive intergroup orientations when it was expressed by ingroup than outgroup members and revealed how this effect may be sequentially mediated by personal one-group representations and symbolic threat.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
  • Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S.

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Emigrants and Immigrants / psychology
  • Ethnicity / psychology*
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Interpersonal Relations*
  • Male
  • Models, Psychological
  • Psychological Distance
  • Psychology, Social
  • Racial Groups / psychology*
  • Self Concept
  • Social Discrimination / psychology
  • Social Identification*
  • Social Support*
  • Spain
  • Stereotyping
  • Young Adult