Identity practices, ingroup projection, and the evaluation of subgroups: a study among Turkish-Dutch Sunnis

This research focuses on religious subgroup evaluations by examining the attitude of Turkish-Dutch Sunni Muslims towards Alevi and Shiite Muslims. Following the Ingroup Projection Model, it was expected that Sunni participants who practice Islam will project their self-defining subgroup practices on the superordinate Muslim category, which will be related to more ingroup bias towards Alevis, a Muslim subgroup that performs different religious practices. Two studies yielded consistent evidence that practicing Islam increased ingroup bias towards Alevis. Furthermore, in Study 2, we found evidence that the effect of practicing Islam on ingroup bias was mediated by relative ingroup prototypicality (RIP). Moreover, practicing Islam did not affect RIP in relation to Shiites who perform the same religious practices that we examined. These findings support the Ingroup Projection Model.     

The Hindu‐Muslim problem — A cooperative approach

This document, widely circulated in India, argues that the Hindu‐Muslim problem has political, socio‐economic and religious aspects. Here the emphasis is on the Muslim component. It was political hostility which assumed the form of religious hostility. The rise of religio‐cultural separatism and Islamization must be viewed not simply as a facet of ‘Muslim fanaticism’ but rather as a sociological process which resulted from the political struggles between the élites of the two communities and of a heightened political consciousness. But the identity of the Muslims of India remains. Their ‘Muslimness’ cannot completely submerge their ‘Indianness’. Whereas Hindus are asked to show respect for the Muslim minority's cultural‐religious sensibilities, Muslims should opt for a progressive and not a regressive indentity.     

内部竞争环境下内群体偏好的维持:群体认同和心理距离的影响

内群体偏好对群体及个人的生存发展都有重要价值。研究通过三个实验揭示了个体在内部竞争下维持内群体偏好的机制。实验一操纵内部竞争(有,无)和群体认同(高,低),发现内部竞争破坏了内群体偏好,而群体认同无法改变此破坏作用。实验二操纵内部竞争(有,无)和内群体心理距离(远、近),发现内部竞争破坏内群体偏好时,心理距离能够调节二者的关系,近心理距离有益于个体在内部竞争下维持内群体偏好。实验三进一步分析了心理距离维持内群体偏好的作用机制,发现心理距离通过个体知觉到的内部竞争感而影响内群体偏好。据此可认为,在内部竞争中维持内群体偏好需更多地关注成员间的关系(缩短心理距离),而非单纯地强调个体和群体间的联结(群体认同)。     

Individuating information influences partisan judgments

Three studies examined whether Democrats and Republicans expressed favoritism toward an ingroup political candidate, even when the candidates were presented as positive and bipartisan. Participants rated electability and traits, after reading party consistent (Passage 1) and positive, bipartisan information (Passage 2). Conservatism (Studies 1–3), the cognitive reflection test (Studies 2–3), and ingroup loyalty (Study 3) were examined. Republicans showed initially higher favoritism after the first passage. Both Republicans and Democrats showed lower ingroup favoritism after reading the second passage, although Republicans continued to show more favoritism than Democrats in some circumstances. Conservatism was associated with greater favorability toward the Republican candidate. Our results showed no evidence that CRT or ingroup loyalty mediated these associations.     

Group Merger Between Political Parties: The Role of the Ingroup Projection Process

In 2007, the two most important Italian left‐wing parties merged into a single political entity. This study intends to analyze the merging process. Specifically, and in line with the ingroup projection hypothesis of Mummendey & Wenzel, we have explored whether the identification and the favoritism toward the upcoming common group was affected by the perceivers' projection of specific and common stereotypical traits from the subordinate groups to the superordinate one. Political militants' (N = 132) levels of ingroup identification; their representations of the previous ingroup, outgroup, and of the new party; and their attitudes towards the common group were assessed. Results confirmed that the cognitive representation of the merged party was shaped much more on the basis of the typical traits of the ingroup than of the outgroup. Moreover, structural equation analyses showed that the identification with the superordinate category and the consequent favoritism toward the merger were related to the projection of ingroup attributes. The findings also suggested that the ingroup projection may be particularly crucial when the intergroup bias is high. Finally, political implications are discussed in terms of obstacles and resources inherent to the merging process.     

A Clash of Civilizations? Preferences for Religious Political Leaders in 86 Nations

Huntington claimed that today's major conflicts are most likely to erupt between religiously defined “civilizations,” in particular between Christianity and Islam. Using World Values Surveys from 86 nations, we examine differences between Christians and Muslims in preferences for religious political leaders. The results suggest a marked difference between Muslims and Christians in their attitudes toward religious politicians, with Muslims more favorable by 20 points out of 100. Devoutness, education, degree of government corruption, and status as a formerly Communist state account for the difference. Little support is found for the clash‐of‐civilizations hypothesis. Instead, we find that a clash of individual beliefs—between the devout and the secular—along with enduring differences between the more developed and less developed world explains the difference between Islam and Christianity with regards to preferences for religious political leaders.     

Religious identification and politicization in the face of discrimination: support for political Islam and political action among the Turkish and Moroccan second generation in Europe

Taking an approach from religion as a social identity and using large-scale comparative surveys in five European cities, we investigate when and how perceived discrimination is associated with religious identification and politicization among the second generation of Turkish and Moroccan Muslims. We distinguish support for political Islam from political action as distinct forms of politicization. In addition, we test the mediating role of religious identification in processes of politicization. Study 1 estimates multi-group structural equation models of support for political Islam in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Sweden. In line with a social identity model of politicization and across nine inter-group contexts, Muslims who perceived more discrimination identified (even) more strongly as Muslims; and high Muslim identifiers were most ready to support political Islam. In support of a competing social stigma hypothesis, however, negative direct and total effects of perceived discrimination suggest predominant depoliticization. Using separate sub-samples across four inter-group contexts in Belgium, Study 2 adds political action tendencies as a distinct form of politicization. Whereas religious identification positively predicts both forms of politicization, perceived discrimination has differential effects: Muslims who perceived more discrimination were more weary of supporting political Islam, yet more ready to engage in political action to defend Islamic values. Taken together, the studies reveal that some Muslim citizens will politicize and others will depoliticize in the face of discrimination as a function of their religious identification and of prevailing forms of politicization.     

Individual-collective primacy and ingroup favoritism: enhancement and protection effects

Individual-collective primacy refers to the extent to which people emphasize their individual interests (individual-primacy) vs. the interests of their ingroup (collective-primacy). This study examined the interactive effects of individual-collective primacy, ingroup performance, and outgroup performance on ingroup favoritism. Participants from two cultures completed a measure of their individual vs. collective-primacy orientation. Performance feedback (favorable or unfavorable) for themselves, their ingroup, and the outgroup were manipulated orthogonally. As predicted, greater collective-primacy led to more ingroup favoritism when the ingroup performed better or worse than the outgroup. However, when the ingroup and outgroup both performed well or both performed poorly, the relationship between collective-primacy and ingroup favoritism was not significant. Implications for analyses of ingroup favoritism and cross-cultural differences are discussed.     

From Mecca with tolerance: religion,social recategorisation and social capital

Does participation in mass religious rituals promote intergroup conflict or does it promote intergroup tolerance? We assess these claims by examining the effects of the annual pilgrimage to Mecca (the hajj) on sociopolitical views of Muslims in Russia’s North Caucasus. Participant observation during the hajj and a quasi-experimental focus group study of pilgrims and non-pilgrims produced paradoxical findings. While the hajj strengthened their ingroup pride as Muslims, the pilgrims came through as more outgroup-tolerant and prosocial than the non-pilgrims. We develop a synthetic theoretical solution: in high-identity-value, high-diversity common group settings social recategorisation and social capital become transitive – that is, inclusive views and social capital effects within an ingroup extend to outgroups. This means that intergroup conflict could be reduced by not only maximising contact across conflicting groups, but also by bringing together as many subgroups as possible within each conflicting group in settings where their common identity is positively affirmed in a non-discriminatory fashion.     

Attitudes and beliefs in a marching band: stereotyping and accentuation in a favorable intergroup context

Inter‐group perception was examined in a context characterized by positive interdependence and extensive contact across group boundaries. The attitudes and beliefs of the woodwind, brass, and percussion sections of a university marching band were examined using measures of ingroup favoritism, outgroup homogeneity, and 12 scales assessing adult temperament. Although there was no evidence of ingroup favoritism or outgroup homogeneity, and few actual temperament differences across groups, stereotypic expectations based on temperament characteristics were strong. For each target group, strength of stereotype was accentuated by ingroup judges and, most strongly, by outgroup judges. Accentuation of differences between groups occurred when the expectation, and not the reality, of group differences were present. Correlations between contact measures and individual measures of perceived ingroup–outgroup differences were generally low, but suggested that degree of contact correlated positively, rather than negatively, with the magnitude of perceived differences between groups. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religion and Anti-Immigration Sentiments in Context: Field Studies in Jerusalem

ABSTRACT

Political and social changes in the past decade have rendered questions about religion and immigration more salient than ever. However, we know very little about the potential impact of religion as it operates in the real world on attitudes toward immigrants. In this investigation, we tested whether and how contextual religious cues in the public sphere might affect tolerance toward immigrants. In two studies, we compared the effects of a religious and a secular context (Study 1: religious location; Study 2: religious attire) on attitudes toward Jewish immigrants (i.e., a religious ingroup) and non-Jewish immigrants (i.e., a religious outgroup). Across studies, contextual religious cues predicted ingroup favoritism, as expressed by less social rejection toward religious ingroups and less support for anti-immigration policies affecting religious ingroups. However, contextual religious cues were unrelated to anti-immigration attitudes toward religious outgroups. In Study 2, these patterns were moderated by participants’ religiosity, such that they were found among more (but not fewer) religious participants. These findings extend prior laboratory findings and shed light on how religion influences attitudes toward immigration in rich and complex real environments.     

Religious Diversity in a “Christian Nation”: The Effects of Theological Exclusivity and Interreligious Contact on the Acceptance of Religious Diversity

Using data from the nationally representative Religion and Diversity Survey, Americans’ responses to religious diversity are examined at the national and community levels. While an overwhelming majority of Americans agree that religious diversity has been good for the nation, support for the inclusion of non‐Christians in community life is mixed. Theological exclusivism is consistently and strongly associated with negative attitudes toward religious diversity and less willingness to include Muslims and Hindus in community life. Belief that the United States is a Christian nation is associated with a positive view of religious diversity but decreased willingness to include Muslims in community life. Prior contact with Muslims, Buddhists, and Hindus is predictive of more positive views of religious diversity; contact with Muslims is associated with greater tolerance for a mosque in one's community.     

Measures of Hindu pathways: development and preliminary evidence of reliability and validity

The authors examined religious practices of Hindus in the United States and developed measures of their religious pathways. Based on reviews of the psychology of religion, Hindu literature, and interviews with Hindus (N=15), 4 religious pathways were identified: devotion, ethical action, knowledge, and physical restraint/yoga. Items reflecting these pathways were generated and administered to a pilot sample (N=42) and then mailed to a sample across the United States (N=182). Consistent with Hindu theology, participants endorsed 4 religious pathways. Results indicated that the measures of the religious pathways possessed adequate psychometric properties and were predictive of mental and physical well-being. Additional findings emphasized the need to attend to age, marital status, and acculturation when studying religious practices among Hindus.     

Inequity in Hindu–Muslim Riots: A Test of Two Biases1

During the past 50 years, substantially more Muslims than Hindus have died in riots in India. This study examined and found support for 2 possible individual‐level reasons that are consistent with this disproportionate number of deaths. First, Hindus, compared to Muslims, considered historical incidents to be more important for contemporary Hindu–Muslim relations. Second, Hindus showed an ultimate group bias in that they generally valued Hindu lives more than Muslim lives, whereas Muslims showed no difference in the valuation of Hindu and Muslim lives. Together, these results are consistent with an equity notion that Hindus consider as relevant input factors both historical incidents and perceptions that in‐group members’ lives are more valuable than are out‐group members’ lives.     

Leaders and their treatment of subgroups: implications for evaluations of the leader and the superordinate group

This experiment examined members' evaluations of a group leader and the group in contexts where a superordinate group comprised two subgroups and the group leader was aligned with one or other subgroup. The design varied group leader (ingroup, outgroup) and leader behavior (ingroup favoring, outgroup favoring) as well as the broader comparative context (intragroup, intergroup). Across a number of measures, results indicated a consistent Group Leader × Leader Behavior interaction that was independent of comparative context. Although group members were most satisfied with an ingroup leader who favored the ingroup, ingroup leaders were perceived positively irrespective of their behavior. Outgroup leaders who unexpectedly favored the other subgroup were also perceived positively. However, outgroup leaders who favored their own subgroup were perceived as less fair and as more biased than other leaders. They also engendered less identification with the superordinate group and a less unified perception of the group. Results demonstrate the importance of social identity concerns to leadership in nested group contexts and emphasize the fact that perceptions of leader fairness and concern for the common group mediate responses to the superordinate category. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The loyal member effect: on the preference for ingroup members who engage in exclusive relations with the ingroup

The goal of this article was to investigate an indirect form of intergroup differentiation in children in the context of racial attitudes: the preference for ingroup members who interact positively with other ingroup members rather than with outgroup members. Study 1 confirmed this general hypothesis with preschool and 1st-grade children, demonstrating that respondents preferred the ingroup member who played only with other ingroup members, evaluated this child more positively, and felt more similar to him or her. Studies 2 and 3 tested the boundary conditions of the phenomenon. Study 4 analyzed developmental changes demonstrating that the effect is no longer observed among 9- to 11-year-old children. Overall, these studies suggest that engaging in positive interactions with the outgroup might have its costs in terms of a relative devaluation and rejection by one's peers. Results are discussed by stressing the importance of intragroup processes for the regulation of intergroup relations among very young children.     

Explaining Differences in Philanthropic Behavior Between Christians,Muslims, and Hindus in the Netherlands

Using survey data from the Netherlands, we find that Muslims have relatively high levels of religious philanthropic behavior and relatively low levels of secular philanthropic behavior, whereas Hindus have relatively low levels of religious philanthropic behavior and higher levels of secular philanthropic behavior. Results indicate that the community explanation and the conviction explanation of the relationship between religion and philanthropic behavior are both valid to some extent when it comes to differences in philanthropic behavior between Christians, Muslims, and Hindus. In addition, we find a relationship between group orientation in worship rituals on the relation between religion and philanthropic behavior. The more group-oriented the worship rituals, the stronger the relation between religion and philanthropic behavior. The results suggest that Durkheim’s theory (La Suicide: Etude de Sociologie. Presses Universitaires de France, Paris, 1897) may only be valid in a Christian context.     

Bounded Rationality's Account for the Influence of Group Identification on Ingroup Favoritism: A Field Investigation Using Jewish and Arab Populations in Israel

We used the bounded rationality approach to explore the impact of group identification on intergroup relations. 1,289 Jewish and Arab citizens completed assessments of group identification, functional relations, and indices of ingroup favoritism. Results provided evidence of (a) a positive relation between group identification and ingroup favoritism; (b) perceptions of more positive functional relations that were associated with less ingroup favoritism; and (c) that high-identifiers who evaluated relations as positive experienced the lowest levels of ingroup favoritism. We discuss how the results clarify the complex relation between group identification and ingroup favoritism.     

Non-conscious forms of system justification: Implicit and behavioral preferences for higher status groups

According to system justification theory, people internalize and perpetuate systemic forms of inequality, even though it sometimes means harboring preferences for members of higher status outgroups. In Study 1, students from a high status (but not a low status) university exhibited significant ingroup favoritism on the IAT, an automatic evaluative measure. Furthermore, for students at the high status university, implicit ingroup bias was positively correlated with implicit self-esteem. For students at the low status university, implicit acceptance of consensual stereotypes concerning academic and extracurricular characteristics was associated with implicit outgroup favoritism. In Study 2, Latinos and Asian Americans exhibited significant outgroup favoritism on an unobtrusive behavioral measure by choosing White interaction partners over members of their own groups. In Study 3, parents named newborn children disproportionately after their fathers (compared with their mothers) and published birth announcements for boys slightly more often than for girls. Thus, we observed evidence of system justification on implicit or unobtrusive measures in three different socially disadvantaged groups.