Reaching Across the DMZ: Identity Uncertainty and Reunification on the Korean Peninsula

Drawing on uncertainty‐identity theory (Hogg, 2012), we explore the effects of uncertainty concerning a specific social identity on group identification and attitudes toward subgroup integration and separation in South Koreans' nested identity context (N = 148). All variables were measured. Path analysis revealed, as predicted, that superordinate identity uncertainty weakened superordinate identification and subgroup identity uncertainty weakened subgroup identification. We also found that subgroup identity uncertainty strengthened superordinate identification. This effect was stronger for those who perceived their superordinate group prototype and subgroup prototype to be distinct and nonoverlapping. Furthermore, superordinate identity uncertainty decreased reunification intentions by weakening superordinate identification. Subgroup identity uncertainty increased reunification intentions by strengthening superordinate identification only for those who perceived their superordinate group prototype and subgroup prototype to be distinct and nonoverlapping. Implications for uncertainty identity theory and intergroup relations are discussed.     

United we win,divided we fail? Effects of cognitive merger representations and performance feedback on merging groups

Research has shown that cognitive representations of mergers influence intergroup evaluations. This paper extends this research by studying how cognitive representations of mergers (one group, dual identity, and two groups) interact with performance feedback (success and failure) to affect intergroup evaluations. Two competing hypotheses were tested, which made different predictions in case of superordinate group salience combined with subgroup salience after merger failure: The subgroup‐salience‐hypothesis predicts that subgroup salience during a merger generally results in pre‐merger ingroup bias toward the pre‐merger outgroup (i.e., two groups and dual identity). The superordinate‐ salience‐hypothesis predicts that subgroup salience only results in pre‐merger ingroup bias if superordinate group salience is low (i.e., two groups). Both hypotheses predict low levels of ingroup bias after merger success. Study 1 confirmed the second hypothesis using a 3 (merger representation: one group, dual identity, and two groups) × 2 (merger feedback: failure and success) design with interacting groups. Study 2 replicated the results in an adapted minimal group paradigm. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Generalization of positive attitude as a function of subgroup and superordinate group identifications in intergroup contact

The role of category salience in mediating the effects of intergroup contact was examined. One theoretical model proposes that some psychological salience of subgroup categories is necessary to facilitate the generalization of attitude change beyond the immediate contact situation. Another argues that a re‐categorization of the subgroups into a new superordinate category is more beneficial, whilst a third suggests that de‐categorizing the situation entirely is optimal. An alternative view, which combines the first two models, proposes a Dual Identity strategy (simultaneous high superordinate and high subgroup categorization) as an important mediator of the relationship between contact variables and intergroup attitudes. In the study, participants (N = 114) undertook a cooperative intergroup task under four conditions of category salience: ‘subgroup’, ‘superordinate’, ‘superordinate and subgroup’, and ‘no group salience’. Evaluative ratings and symbolic reward allocations both for the groups encountered (contact) and those outside the situation (generalization) provided measures of intergroup bias. Bias within the contact situation was mainly eliminated in all conditions. However, on the more generalized bias measures, only the ‘superordinate’ and ‘superordinate and subgroup’ (Dual Identity strategy) conditions maintained this low level; in the other two conditions intergroup bias resurfaced. A combination of the first two models is proposed. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The divisive potential of differences and similarities: The role of intergroup distinctiveness in intergroup differentiation

In this article we examine the relationship between perceptions of intergroup distinctiveness and intergroup differentiation. Research in this area has highlighted two contrasting hypotheses: high distinctiveness is predicted to lead to increased intergroup differentiation (self-categorisation theory), while low distinctiveness or too much similarity can also underlie positive differentiation (social identity theory). We argue for a theoretical integration of these predictions and outline their domains of applicability. In addition to empirical studies from our own laboratory, support for these hypotheses in the literature is examined meta-analytically, and we assess the power of a number of moderators of the distinctiveness ‐ differentiation relation. We focus on group identification and salience of the superordinate category as the most powerful moderators of this relation. We report evidence that low group distinctiveness leads to more differentiation for high identifiers, while high group distinctiveness leads to more differentiation for low identifiers. In addition, our meta-analysis revealed that when the superordinate category was not salient, low distinctiveness tended to lead to differentiation (albeit not significantly so) while high distinctiveness led to differentiation when the salience of the superordinate category was high. A model is proposed integrating our predictions concerning moderators of the distinctiveness ‐ differentiation relation. Theoretical implications of these findings are discussed and we suggest directions for future research.     

Islamist terrorism as identity threat: the case of ambivalent identification and self‐stereotyping among Turkish Muslims

Terrorist attacks committed in 2003 by Turkish Islamist extremists threatened the social identity of Turkish Muslims by associating them with terrorism. Using a 2 × 3 experimental design, we categorized Turkish respondents and terrorists as members of a shared superordinate group (“Muslims”) or as members of separate subgroups. When sharing superordinate group membership with terrorists, less identified Turkish respondents experienced ambivalent identification, i.e., they sought to maintain attachment to their group while simultaneously seeking distance from it. Ambivalent identification was reduced when respondents emphasized their typicality as members of a Muslim subgroup that did not include terrorists. The discussion focuses on ambivalent identification as a response to identity threat, and the implications for Islamist terrorism for the social identity of Muslims.     

Status differenttals and intergroup behaviour

This study investigated the independent effects of status differential on intergroup behaviour. Using a variant of the minimal group paradigm (Tueland Turner, 1979), subjects were categorized into groups of differing status (high, equal, low) with two levels of category salience (high, low). Using Tajfel's matrices subjects rated the creativity of products ostensibly produced by ingroup and outgroup members. Own group identification, intergroup perceptions and self-reported strategies on the matrices constituted the other dependent measures. Results indicated a main effect for group status but none for salience. Equal status groups discriminated against each other thus replicating the minimal intergroup discrimination effect. High and equal status group members were more discriminatory against outgroups and more positive about their own group membership than were low status group members. In contrast, low status group members engaged in significant amounts of outgroup favouritism. Results also showed that social categorization per se was sufficient to elicit more ingroup than outgroup liking amongst all group members regardless of status differentials between groups. Overall, the results illustrate important aspects of the interplay between group status, social identity, prejudice and discrimination.     

Nationality Versus Humanity? Personality,Identity, and Norms in Relation to Attitudes Toward Asylum Seekers1

Right‐wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, Australian and human identity salience, and perceived Australian and human norms were related to the attitudes, feelings and behaviors toward asylum seekers of 242 Australian students and activists. Those high in right‐wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation were less welcoming, as were participants who identified strongly as Australians and perceived hostile national norms. Independently, participants who identified strongly as humans were significantly more welcoming to asylum seekers, and an interaction was found such that those who identified strongly as Australians were more welcoming when they also identified strongly as humans. Implications for theories of identity and prejudice are examined, and interventions to reduce conflict by utilizing the human level of identification are discussed.     

Procedural justice and social regulation across group boundaries: does subgroup identity undermine relationship-based governance?

The relational model of authority suggests that people are inclined to accept the decisions of ethnic outgroup authorities when they identify with a superordinate category they share with the authority, and when the authority satisfies their relational justice concerns. Using responses from a random sample of African Americans, Latinos, and Whites about their cross-ethnic interactions with legal authorities, the findings indicated that those who are highly identified with the superordinate category of America indicate greater reliance on relational concerns and less on instrumental concerns when evaluating the authority's decision. In contrast, identification with one's ethnic subgroup did not moderate the linkage between relational concerns and acceptance. Across all ethnic groups, there were positive rather than negative correlations between measures of American and ethnic identity. Together, these findings indicate that subgroup identity does not undermine the relational basis of social regulation and that relationship-based governance is compatible with multiculturalism.     

Subgroup differentiation as a response to an overly‐inclusive group: a test of optimal distinctiveness theory

Optimal distinctiveness theory (ODT; Brewer, 1991, 1993a,b) argues that people can respond to membership of an overly inclusive group by engaging in a drive for subgroup distinctiveness. To test this, 280 subgroup members (humanities and maths‐science students) rated the extent to which they perceived their superordinate group (University of Queensland) to be inclusive. After performing a task designed to activate their superordinate category membership, participants completed a questionnaire assessing inter‐subgroup attitudes. Consistent with ODT, ratings of superordinate inclusiveness explained a moderate amount of variance in subgroup bias (5–8 per cent), such that the more inclusive the superordinate category was seen to be, the more bias was demonstrated. The results are discussed in terms of their relevance for ODT and their implications for promoting subgroup harmony. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Religious identification and interreligious contact in Indonesia and the Philippines: Testing the mediating roles of perceived group threat and social dominance orientation and the moderating role of context

This study integrates three theoretical perspectives provided by social identity theory, realistic group conflict theory, and social dominance theory to examine the relationship between religious identification and interreligious contact. It relies on a unique dataset collected among Christian and Muslim students in ethnically and religiously diverse regions of Indonesia and the Philippines, where social cleavages occur along religious lines. Religious identification directly predicts a higher quality of interreligious contact, whereas it indirectly predicts a lower quantity and quality of contact, mediated by higher perception of group threat, and a higher quality of contact, mediated by lower social dominance orientation. Furthermore, these direct and indirect relationships are moderated by religious group membership and relative group size. We conclude that religious identification functions as a ‘double‐edged sword’ predicting both higher quality and lower quantity and quality of interreligious contact through various pathways and with a varying strength depending on intergroup context.     

Perceiving expatriate coworkers as foreigners encourages aid: social categorization and procedural justice together improve intergroup cooperation and dual identity

We propose that social categorization can encourage particular forms of intergroup cooperation because it differentiates a group in need from a group that can give aid. Moreover, social categorization is most likely to occur when individuals perceive procedural justice (i.e., fair treatment) from authorities in a superordinate group that includes the individuals' subgroup. Two field studies investigating relations between local and foreign coworkers tested not only this prediction, but also whether high social categorization and procedural justice would yield a dual identity, in which group members identify simultaneously with their social category and the superordinate group. Both studies supported our predictions: Local employees engaged a dual identity and offered knowledge to aid a foreign coworker's adjustment more often when local-foreign categorization and procedural justice from organizational authorities were high than when these variables were low. These discoveries point to controllable mechanisms that enable intergroup cooperation, and our findings have important implications for intergroup aid, expatriate adjustment, immigration, and multiculturalism.     

Intergroup and Intragroup Aspects of Leadership in Social Dilemmas: A Relational Model of Cooperation

Two experiments investigated how leadership shapes individual contributions in small groups facing public goods dilemmas. We predicted that the influence of leaders would be determined by their ability to fulfill both instrumental needs (solve the free-rider problem) and relational needs (contribute to the identity) of group members. The relative importance of these two needs was expected to vary with the salience of group membership (social vs personal identity). This hypothesis was supported in two experiments. Experiment 1 revealed that leaders showing group commitment and fairness toward members were more effective at raising contributions when social identity was salient. Furthermore, Experiment 2 showed that highly committed leaders were more influential when social identity was salient, whereas leaders with intrinsic leadership skills were more influential when personal identity was salient. This suggests that the effectiveness of leader solutions to social dilemmas depends upon the fit between leader characteristics and member expectations.     

Who is watching over you? The role of shared identity in perceptions of surveillance

Two studies were conducted to investigate the role of social identity in appraisals of the purpose and acceptance of surveillance. In Study 1 (N = 112), a survey study demonstrated that there is a negative relationship between identification with one's city and the extent to which public closed circuit television (CCTV) surveillance is perceived as an invasion of privacy. This relationship was mediated by perceptions that the purpose of surveillance is to ensure safety. Study 2 (N = 139) manipulated identity salience at the sub‐group and superordinate level and the source of surveillance. Results demonstrated that surveillance originating from fellow sub‐group members was perceived as less privacy invading than surveillance originating from the superordinate group, but only when that sub‐group identity was salient. No differences in perceptions of privacy invasion were found when the more inclusive identity was made salient. We argue that whether surveillance is perceived as an invasion of privacy depends on the perceived social relationship with the source of the surveillance—surveillance is perceived as more acceptable when it originates from a group with which one identifies or shares an identity. Practical implications are discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. This article was published online on 25 February 2009. An error was subsequently identified. This notice is included in the online and print versions to indicate that both have been corrected 12 January 2010.     

身份凸显性：启动自我的开关

当意识到自己特定的身份时, 个人往往在这个身份的框架内来感知周围的世界。身份凸显性指特定身份在社会情境中启动的可能性。相关研究者分别从人格, 自我归类和社会建构的角度来认识身份凸显性, 它与自我概念整合存在紧密关系。身份凸显性的影响因素主要包括：身份承诺水平, 情绪, 群体规模和地位, 以及情境中相关线索的优势水平。另外, 阐述了几个抑制或干扰身份凸显性的策略：去类别化、再类别化和次类别化。未来研究需关注不同水平身份如何相互作用, 自我概念整合, 从社会构建的角度探索抑制或干扰身份凸显性的策略, 以及跨文化研究。     

Solidarity Not Homogeneity: Constructing a Superordinate Aboriginal Identity That Protects Subgroup Identities

Superordinate identities formed around shared oppression provide political and psychological resources for marginalized groups. However, superordinate identities can also threaten the identities of the subgroups they attempt to bring together. We examined how a superordinate identity was constructed to protect subgroup identities using data from 31 urban Aboriginal participants who strongly identified with both their subgroup (heritage cultures) and superordinate Aboriginal identities. Participants defined the superordinate Aboriginal identity as a fundamentally diverse category where no one subgroup was more representative of the wider category than others. Participants also put their respect for subgroup diversity into practice by regularly engaging with Aboriginal (subgroup) cultures other than their own. Finally, participants felt that representations of the superordinate Aboriginal category should prioritize local cultures. We discuss these findings in relation to research in social psychology on superordinate and subgroup identities, multiculturalism, and collective resistance and provide some suggestions for how this work may be extended.     

Merging on mayday: subgroup and superordinate identification as joint moderators of threat effects in the context of European Union's expansion

Threat has been proposed as an important cause of prejudice with social identification moderating its effects. In the context of the expansion of the European Union, two studies (N = 216 students and N = 107 non‐students) examined how people with different levels of subgroup and superordinate identification respond to threats from an outgroup nested within the same superordinate category as the ingroup. Across experiments, a consistent finding was that participants who strongly identified with the subgroup (Germany) and the superordinate group (Europe) at the same time were most susceptible to a subtle manipulation of threat. Among these participants, threat increased prejudice (Studies 1 and 2) and ingroup projection (Study 2). Findings are discussed with regard to theoretical models of subgroup relations, especially the ingroup projection model, as well as the European integration process. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

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.     

On being both with us and against us: a normative conflict model of dissent in social groups.

Although past research has demonstrated a positive relationship between collective identification and normative conformity, there may be circumstances in which strongly identified members do not conform but instead choose to challenge group norms. This article proposes a normative conflict model, which distinguishes between nonconformity due to dissent (challenging norms to change them) and nonconformity due to disengagement (distancing oneself from the group). The normative conflict model predicts that strongly identified members are likely to challenge group norms when they experience conflict between norms and important alternate standards for behavior, in particular when they perceive norms as being harmful to the group. Data in support of the model are reviewed, mechanisms by which external variables may influence dissent in social groups are elaborated, and the model is linked to contemporary perspectives on collective identity.     

Negative intergroup contact makes group memberships salient: explaining why intergroup conflict endures

Drawing from the intergroup contact model and self-categorization theory, the authors advanced the novel hypothesis of a valence-salience effect, whereby negative contact causes higher category salience than positive contact. As predicted, in a laboratory experiment of interethnic contact, White Australians (N = 49) made more frequent and earlier reference to ethnicity when describing their ethnic contact partner if she had displayed negative (vs. positive, neutral) nonverbal behavior. In a two-wave experimental study of retrieved intergenerational contact, American young adults (N = 240) reported age to be more salient during negative (vs. positive) contact and negative contact predicted increased episodic and chronic category salience over time. Some evidence for the reverse salience-valence effect was also found. Because category salience facilitates contact generalization, these results suggest that intergroup contact is potentially biased toward worsening intergroup relations; further implications for theory and policy making are discussed.     

Predicting the different profiles of organizational identification: A case of shipyard subcontractors

The primary aim of this study was to investigate the predictors of different organizational identification profiles. Hypotheses based on the social identity approach and the literature on organizational commitment were formed and tested in a sample gathered from employees of 20 shipyard subcontractors. The results supported the idea that different subgroup characteristics (prestige, contact, and size) may be used to explain four different combinations of subgroup identification (with the subcontractor) and superordinate identification (with the shipyard). However, contrary to our hypotheses, none of the variables concerning relationships between the subgroups (intergroup competition, intergroup contact and perceived discrimination) emerged as significant predictors.