Identity and travel behaviour: A cross-sectional study on commute mode choice and intention to change

IntroductionSocial and self-identities have been conceptualised to prevent travel behaviour change, as threats to one’s identity may cause resistance to change. This study focuses on the role of social, transport, place, and self-identities on commute mode choice and intention to change mode choice.MethodData were collected in June 2015 in Utrecht, the Netherlands. Invitations to participate were distributed by mail using data from the municipality, resulting in 1062 adult participants.The outcome measures were the transport mode shares based on a 14-day travel-to-and-from-work record of trips (i) involving any car use, (ii) involving any bicycling, (iii) involving any walking, and (iv) involving any public transport use. The second series of outcome measures concerned the willingness to change the amount of car use, bicycle use and walking, determined by the question ‘to what extent do you intend to change the use of …?’. Identity was measured on a seven-point disagree/agree scale for 17 items by asking to what extent the respondent ‘sees him/herself as …’. Separate multinomial regression models were estimated stepwise adjusting for socioeconomic and transport characteristics.ResultsMultiple identity items were associated with the use of all commute modes. In the maximally adjusted models, identities associated with the respective modes remained significant. For example, whether someone identified themselves with being a cyclist corresponded with higher likelihood of cycling occasionally (relative risk ratio (RRR): 1.84; 95% confidence interval (CI):1.47–2.30), or always to work (RRR: 2.86; 95% CI: 2.16–3.79). In addition, we found that a family-oriented identity was negatively associated with occasional commuting by car, and a ‘sporty’ identity was negatively associated with always cycling to work.Transport identities were also associated with stated intentions to change as were several social, place, and self-identities. Identifying with being a car driver decreased the likelihood of intending to reduce car use, but it increased the likelihood of intending to increase car use, as did identifying with being career-oriented. Individuals that identified with being a cyclist were less likely to have an intention to reduce bicycle use, whereas countryside-lovers had greater intentions of increasing cycling. Individuals that identified themselves as pedestrians had a lower intention of decreasing their walking levels, and a higher intention of increasing them, as did those who identified themselves as being family-oriented.DiscussionThe results confirm limited previous findings that identifying with users of a transport mode correspond with its use. Nevertheless, questions around causality remain. The intention to change mode choice was associated with several identities, including transport-related identities, place-related identities, social/family-related identities, and self-identities. Future research should focus on the associations between identity and actual behaviour change to further our understanding of the effect of identity on travel behaviour.     

被信任者社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响

被信任者社会身份是单一的还是多样的, 这种数量差异可以体现其社会身份的复杂性。本研究探讨了被信任者社会身份复杂性(单一身份、多重身份)如何影响人们对其可信性的评价。实验1考察了被信任者社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响以及社会距离在其中的中介作用。实验2用于检验被信任者所属群体类型(内群体、外群体)是否调节他们的社会身份复杂性对其可信性的影响。研究结果表明：被信任者多重社会身份的凸显会提高人们对其可信性的评价, 社会距离在二者之间起着完全中介作用; 群体类型对社会身份复杂性的影响具有调节作用, 社会距离的中介作用在对外群体成员的可信性评价中更为明显。     

Intersectional Invisibility: The Distinctive Advantages and Disadvantages of Multiple Subordinate-Group Identities

The hypothesis that possessing multiple subordinate-group identities renders a person “invisible” relative to those with a single subordinate-group identity is developed. We propose that androcentric, ethnocentric, and heterocentric ideologies will cause people who have multiple subordinate-group identities to be defined as non-prototypical members of their respective identity groups. Because people with multiple subordinate-group identities (e.g., ethnic minority woman) do not fit the prototypes of their respective identity groups (e.g., ethnic minorities, women), they will experience what we have termed “intersectional invisibility.” In this article, our model of intersectional invisibility is developed and evidence from historical narratives, cultural representations, interest-group politics, and anti-discrimination legal frameworks is used to illustrate its utility. Implications for social psychological theory and research are discussed.     

Self-uncertainty,social identity prominence and group identification

Drawing on uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg, 2007) and referring to the concept of social identity complexity, we conducted two experiments to test the hypothesis that people would identify most strongly with their group if they felt both self-uncertain and that their group's identity was prominent relative to other identities, either because it was distinct from other identities or because they had few other identities. Self-uncertainty was primed in both experiments after participants had been primed to consider their group's attributes to overlap with or be distinct from the attributes of other identities of theirs (Experiment 1, N = 90) or to consider few or multiple other identities they had (Experiment 2, N = 87). As predicted, group identification was strongest under high uncertainty and when identity distinctiveness or few other identities had been primed. Implications of this research for how we conceptualize identity complexity are discussed.     

Young immigrants in Norway: The role of national and ethnic identity in immigrants’ integration

The present work investigates the endorsement, antecedents, relationships, and consequences of young immigrants’ social identities in Norway. Despite increasing numbers of refugees and immigrants entering Norway in recent years, little is known about the relationship between immigrants’ different social identities and their feeling of integration into Norwegian society. The main goal of the present research is to fill this gap by investigating whether relationships found in other European countries replicate in the Norwegian context. In line with theoretical considerations and earlier international findings, results from two studies with different immigrant groups (Study 1: high school students; N = 97; Study 2: university students; N = 93) show that the more young immigrants in Norway endorse their national (i.e., Norwegian) identity, the less they endorse their ethnic identity (e.g., Kurdish). We further show that perceived conflict between the two cultures cannot explain the negative relationship between national and ethnic identity. In addition, immigrants’ national identity endorsement is positively related to their dual identity endorsement (e.g., Kurdish-Norwegian). Positive contact with members of the receiving society predicts young immigrants’ feeling of being integrated in Norwegian society and this relationship is mediated by national identity. Results are discussed in terms of the crucial role social identities play in immigrants’ feeling of integration into European societies.     

The Many Faces of SocialIdentity: Implications for Political Psychology

Social identity is a concept that has been invented and reinvented across the social and behavioral science disciplines to provide a critical link between the psychology of the individual and the structure and function of social groups. This paper reviews the various definitions of social identity as it is used in different theoretical frameworks, drawing distinctions among person-based identities, relational (role-based) identities, group-based identities, and collective identities. The implications of these different conceptualizations of social identity for political psychology are discussed, with a call for integrative theory that draws on all four definitions interactively.     

Effects of trustors' social identity complexity on interpersonal and intergroup trust

Although previous literature has revealed the effect of a single social identity on trust, only few studies have examined how multiple social identities affect trust in others. The present research examined the effects of trustors' social identity complexity on their level of trust toward another person (interpersonal trust), outgroup members (outgroup trust), and ingroup members (ingroup trust). Study 1, which was a correlational study, indicated that trustors' social identity complexity was positively related to their interpersonal and outgroup trust. Three experimental studies were performed to identify causal relationships. Study 2 found that activating trustors' high social identity complexity produced high levels of interpersonal trust, and Studies 3 and 4 found that this effect was more pronounced when the trustee was an outgroup member (outgroup trust) rather than an ingroup member (ingroup trust). The implications of these results for social harmony are discussed.     

When the final whistle blows: Social identity pathways support mental health and life satisfaction after retirement from competitive sport

For many athletes, retirement from higher levels of competitive sport poses significant challenges. Research has shown that athletic identity is a key predictor of adjustment trajectories, but the mechanisms through which this affects outcomes are less clear. Added to this, there has been limited research on the role that wider social identities, and the resources they enable, play in adjustment. Addressing both these issues, we examined theoretically derived social identity pathways to retirement adjustment in athletes who had played sport at higher competitive levels and two potential mechanisms, or psychological resources, through which adjustment might be enabled. This was examined in two samples: retired athletes from countries in Western (n = 215) and Eastern (n = 183) regions. Loss of athletic identity, social group memberships (multiple, maintained and new), psychological resources (perceived meaning in life and control), and adjustment (life satisfaction, depression, and perceived physical health) were assessed. In both samples, the loss of athletic identity undermined adjustment by reducing meaning in life and perceived control. Path analysis showed that both maintained and gained social group memberships counteracted the negative effects of athletic identity loss on adjustment. Evidence that these pathways enabled access to psychological resources was found primarily in Chinese athletes, with maintained groups influencing personal control and new groups influencing meaning in life. These findings highlight the importance of social identity processes to retirement from higher levels of competitive sport and the mechanisms through which they can either support or undermine adjustment.     

Para athlete activism: A qualitative examination of disability activism through Paralympic sport in Ireland

ObjectivesLittle attention has been given to how Para athletes use their platforms for disability activism. This paper fills this gap by examining how Irish Para athletes take actions to create social change around disability.MethodsA qualitative methodology was adopted. 28 elite-level Irish Para athletes were recruited and participated in interviews. The data set was analysed using a reflexive thematic analysis.ResultsThree themes: ‘Para athlete activisms’ captures different ways of doing disability activism; ‘tensions between different activist identities’ concerns (hyper)critical discourses about various activist identities; ‘ableist influences on Para sport culture’ captures contexts that enable or prevent performing disability activism.ConclusionsThe central theoretical contribution is an interpretation of Para athlete activism in terms of a contextually informed continuum of behaviour change. This article is an evidence base for Para sport cultures that wish to connect with disability activism. Practical opportunities are discussed around the psychology of adversity, social legacy value, identity politics and challenging ableism.     

Negotiating Gender and Sexuality: A Qualitative Study of Elite Women Boxer Intersecting Identities and Sport Psychology Implications

There is a lack of research on the social construction of gender and sexuality in elite women's boxing and the social psychological implications. Building on research that theorizes gender and sexuality as intersecting identities, this study explored elite women boxers' (n = 10) identities in relation to inclusion and marginalization on the Canadian National Boxing Team. Constructionist thematic analysis identified a central theme, “boxing as empowering and constraining,” encompassing multiple meanings of gendered identities related to physicality and sexualities. These were tied to inclusion and exclusion. Sport psychology recommendations are made for facilitating sport climates that encourage intersecting identity expression.     

When multiple identities compete: The role of centrality in self‐brand connections

The current research provides a framework for understanding how centrality impacts people's choice of brands and related brand connectedness. Motivated by the need to validate their self‐image, individuals use brands to express and confirm their identities. The authors hypothesize that greater centrality of the identity to the self strengthens the connectedness an individual has for brands with value‐expressive properties. Three studies using experimental designs examined whether people whose identity is central to their self‐conception leads to stronger self‐brand connectedness than peripheral identities. In study 1, the results showed that people whose shopping identity was central (versus peripheral) to their self‐concept led to stronger self‐brand connections. Study 2 replicated the findings of study 1 employing brand symbolism as a moderator. Brands high in symbolic properties led to stronger brand connections for an individual's central identities compared with their peripheral identities. Study 3 replicated the influence of centrality on brand choice and self‐brand connections by generalizing this effect to reference group identities. Collectively, the studies provide evidence that individuals integrate brand associations into their self‐concept on the basis of both the centrality of the identity and the level of symbolism the brands holds for an identity. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Being different or being better? National stereotypes and identifications of Polish and Dutch students

This paper investigates two theoretical statements that are central to Social Identity Theory and Self-Categorization Theory: (1) when people identify as members of a social group, they are motivated to distinguish this group in a positive sense from relevant comparison groups, and: (2) in an hierarchically organized system of possible social identities, people may define their identity at various levels, but two levels cannot be salient in the same situation. Four studies investigate whether these hypothesized processes can be traced in natural social categories. Study 1 (N=150) found that Polish subjects had a more negative national stereotype than Dutch subjects. Study 2 (N=160) investigated whether these national stereotypes were related to the perceived distinctiveness of national traits, and to differential levels of national and European identification for Polish and Dutch subjects. Contrary to the expectations, it was found that Polish subjects identified more strongly with their national group than Dutch subjects. Both positive and negative national traits were considered more distinctive by Polish subjects than by Dutch subjects. Moreoever, Polish subjects expressed stronger European identity than Dutch subjects. Study 3 (N=161) replicated the findings of Study 2 under more controlled conditions. The Polish national stereotype was found to be largely based on negatively evaluated traits, and Polish subjects were more motivated to accentuate the distinctiveness of their national traits than Dutch subjects. Again, Polish subjects displayed stronger national and European identities. Further-more, no support was found for the expectation that Polish subjects would employ some self-protective strategy when such an opportunity was offered in this study. Similarly, in Study 4 (N=40) we found no evidence that Polish subjects utilized an alternative self-protective mechanism, namely ‘group-serving’ attributions, by means of which negative national traits could be ascribed to external circumstances. The results of these four studies are discussed in relation to Social Identity Theory, Self-Categorization Theory and political/historical developments in Europe.     

Testing the basic socio‐structural assumptions of social identity theory in the gender context: Evidence from correlational studies on women's leadership

Given negative social identity, different perceptions of the structure of an intergroup relation (i.e., stability, legitimacy, permeability) should be related to different identity‐management strategies (i.e., social competition, social creativity, or individual mobility) depending on group identification. This is among the basic tenets of social identity theory (SIT). There is surprisingly little empirical support for these postulates in the context of one of the most central group identities: gender. Using a sample of women in leadership positions in Spain (N = 649), we tested relations between structural perceptions and identity‐management strategies in a pilot study. Structural equation modeling yielded empirical support regarding social competition, but little for social creativity or individual mobility. Identity‐management strategies were related to one organizational outcome (i.e., identification with the organization). The preregistered main study is intended to replicate and extend these findings using a different sample while improving several of the measures used.     

Minority Identity Strategies Bound by Prejudice: Restricted Perspectives of People Categorized as Gypsies in Hungary

In this study, we explored the identity strategies of Hungarian Gypsies with different socialization backgrounds, including the degree of majority and minority identifications, the contents of Gypsy identity as well as coping with threatening social situations. Sampling was based on external social categorization: majority members were asked for contacts to Gypsy acquaintances. Questionnaire data were used to assess socialization background, group identification and preferred coping strategies at different levels, while contents of Gypsy identity were explored in an associative network. Results suggest that subjects make an exclusive choice between national and ethnic identities. While all subjects prefer ethnic identity, subjects with different socialization backgrounds follow different identity strategies. In sum, large‐family subjects are emotionally attached to their ethnic group, avoid interaction with the majority and prefer the idea of a multicultural society. Small‐family subjects are emotionally detached from their ethnic group and vote for a homogeneous society. Results are interpreted in terms of integration‐related social policies. While these are aimed at the foundation of a recognized active minority, members of these new generations find the way of recognition in individual assimilation due to the threat of prejudice. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Group identity and peer relations: A longitudinal study of group identity,perceived peer acceptance,and friendships amongst ethnic minority English children

This research examined whether peer relationships amongst ethnic minority status children reflect the social groups to which children belong and the degree to which they identify with these groups. A longitudinal study was conducted to investigate the influence of group identities (i.e., ethnic and national) on children's perceived peer acceptance and preference for same‐ethnic friendships. Measures of ethnic and English identification, perceived peer acceptance, and friendship choice were administered to 207 south‐Asian English children, aged between 5 and 11, at two time points 6 months apart. In line with predictions, longitudinal analysis showed that bicultural identification (i.e., higher ethnic and English identity) was related to higher perceived peer acceptance and less preference for same‐ethnic friendships. Importantly, as hypothesized, this finding was limited to the older children with more advanced social‐cognitive abilities. The results suggest that older children who adopted a bicultural identity were able to strategically ‘flag’ their multiple group identities, within their multicultural peer groups, to obtain acceptance amongst the maximum number of peers and show less preference for same‐ethnic friendships. This study extends previous peer relations research, which has typically focused on individual social deficits or classroom norms, by showing that group identities influence peer relationships amongst ethnic minority status children.     

Social identity theory: past achievements,current problems and future challenges

This article presents a critical review of Social Identity Theory. Its major contributions to the study of intergroup relations are discussed, focusing on its powerful explanations of such phenomena as ingroup bias, responses of subordinate groups to their unequal status position, and intragroup homogeneity and stereotyping. In addition, its stimulative role for theoretical elaborations of the Contact Hypothesis as a strategy for improving intergroup attitudes is noted. Then five issues which have proved problematic for Social Identity Theory are identified: the relationship between group identification and ingroup bias; the self‐esteem hypothesis; positive – negative asymmetry in intergroup discrimination; the effects of intergroup similarity; and the choice of identity strategies by low‐status groups. In a third section a future research agenda for the theory is sketched out, with five lines of enquiry noted as being particularly promising: expanding the concept of social identity; predicting comparison choice in intergroup settings; incorporating affect into the theory; managing social identities in multicultural settings; and integrating implicit and explicit processes. The article concludes with some remarks on the potential applications of social identity principles. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The conflicting choices of alternating selves

Participants made choices after the salience of their social identities was manipulated. Choices assimilated to the salient identity, whether that identity stemmed from a person’s role (e.g., student, family member) or culture (e.g., Chinese, American). Thus, the preferences that participants expressed depended on the identity that happened to be salient at the moment of choice, with participants expressing preferences when one identity was salient that conflicted with the preferences they would express were another identity salient. These effects only arose for those who held and identified with the evoked identity. Studies further revealed that such identity-congruent choices influence post-choice satisfaction and regret: participants were less satisfied with their prior choices when the identity salient during post-choice evaluation or consumption was different from the identity salient during choice, compared to when the “choosing” and “consuming” identities were the same. Implications of the findings are discussed.     

Social identity and worldview validation: the effects of ingroup identity primes and mortality salience on value endorsement

In this article, the authors report an investigation of the relationship between terror management and social identity processes by testing for the effects of social identity salience on worldview validation. Two studies, with distinct populations, were conducted to test the hypothesis that mortality salience would lead to worldview validation of values related to a salient social identity. In Study 1, reasonable support for this hypothesis was found with bicultural Aboriginal Australian participants (N = 97). It was found that thoughts of death led participants to validate ingroup and reject outgroup values depending on the social identity that had been made salient. In Study 2, when their student and Australian identities were primed, respectively, Anglo-Australian students (N = 119) validated values related to those identities, exclusively. The implications of the findings for identity-based worldview validation are discussed.     

多团队成员身份及其作用机制

多团队成员身份(multiple team membership)是指员工在一段时间内以正式身份参与多个团队的工作状态及工作模式。以往围绕“团队数量”和“团队成员身份多样性”展开的研究未能对多团队成员身份的效应形成一致的认识和研究结论。因此,在系统回顾发展历程、厘清概念内涵的基础上,提炼出多团队成员身份“多重团队情境”和“多重团队认同”两个关键特征,并从注意力资源视角、社会网络视角和社会身份视角梳理并发展多团队成员身份的作用机制。最后,针对以往研究对多团队成员身份关键特征的关注缺失、社会网络视角和社会身份视角下有意义却尚未被探索的问题,综合技术和时间等因素提出了未来研究建议。