The effects of social identity threat and social identity affirmation on laypersons’ perception of scientists

2016 ◽  
Vol 26 (7) ◽  
pp. 754-770 ◽  
Author(s):  
Peter Nauroth ◽  
Mario Gollwitzer ◽  
Henrik Kozuchowski ◽  
Jens Bender ◽  
Tobias Rothmund
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Identity ◽  
Public Engagement ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
The Public ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Public Engagement With Science ◽  
Public Debates ◽  
Social Identity Approach

Public debates about socio-scientific issues (e.g. climate change or violent video games) are often accompanied by attacks on the reputation of the involved scientists. Drawing on the social identity approach, we report a minimal group experiment investigating the conditions under which scientists are perceived as non-prototypical, non-reputable, and incompetent. Results show that in-group affirming and threatening scientific findings (compared to a control condition) both alter laypersons’ evaluations of the study: in-group affirming findings lead to more positive and in-group threatening findings to more negative evaluations. However, only in-group threatening findings alter laypersons’ perceptions of the scientists who published the study: scientists were perceived as less prototypical, less reputable, and less competent when their research results imply a threat to participants’ social identity compared to a non-threat condition. Our findings add to the literature on science reception research and have implications for understanding the public engagement with science.

scholarly journals I am afraid, so I buy it! The effects of anxiety on consumer assimilation and differentiation needs amongst individuals primed with independent and interdependent self-construal

PLoS ONE ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (9) ◽  
pp. e0256483
Author(s):  
Dariusz Drążkowski ◽  
Maciej Behnke ◽  
Lukasz D. Kaczmarek
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Physiological Reactivity ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Self Construal ◽  
Interdependent Self ◽  
The Impact

Individuals tend to satisfy their assimilation needs by purchasing products that bear a specific group identity. Such products might be preferred when an individual is threatened because anxiety increases affiliative needs. In contrast, individuals might be more attracted to unique-design products when they feel less anxious. We examined the impact of anxiety on assimilation and differentiation needs amongst consumers primed with independent and interdependent self-construal. We expected that anxiety would produce stronger assimilation needs and show a weaker preference for unique products. In Study 1 (N = 110), we found that individuals in the anxiety-inducing condition decreased their evaluation of unique products and exhibited stronger assimilation needs. Independents who felt anxiety reacted with a reduced preference for group-linked products. Study 2 (N = 102) found that introducing an anxiety-decreasing agent (vanilla scent) after a social identity threat reduced differentiation needs and preference for unique products. Physiological data showed that the social identity threat increased sympathetic arousal, but the vanilla scent did not have a soothing effect on physiological reactivity. Overall, this work showed that both anxiety and vanilla scent reduced consumer need for differentiation. Furthermore, for independents, anxiety reduced assimilation needs. We found novel determinants of assimilation/differentiation needs with implications for advertising and retailing products with a unique design.

scholarly journals The Queen Bees and the Women's Team - A contextual examination of enmity and friendship between military women

2018 ◽  
pp. 32-48 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nina Rones ◽  
Frank Brundtland Steder
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Gender Stereotypes ◽  
Armed Forces ◽  
Military Women ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Queen Bees ◽  
A Performance

In several studies of women in the Norwegian Armed Forces, we have found an assertion that female groups are so riddled with conflicts and enmity that it is preferable to keep women few in number and mixed up with men, even in dormitories (Hellum 2014; Lilleaas and Ellingsen 2014; Rones 2015). Yet, when the Norwegian Special Operations Command (NORSOC) organized an all-female Special Reconnaissance Platoon, the NORSOC leadership would conclude that they had seen “almost disappointingly little of the conflicts that allegedly should occur in groups of females” (Rones and Steder 2017). Accordingly, this article will critically explore the assertion that women are often so quarrelsome that it is preferable to keep them few in number and mixed with men 24/7.It will be argued that women’s alleged tendency towards enmity is a myth that is made ‘true’ by ‘queen bee behavior’. Queen bee behavior is seen as an act of recognition, whereby women comply with existing gender stereotypes, evaluate women negatively, but set themselves apart from the category of ‘women’ as someone who fits better with men, i.e. a performance of complicit masculinity. It is further argued that queen bee behavior is a response to the social-identity threat women experience when they enter a unit in which their gender has a low reputation and status, and where it is expected that a woman should fit seamlessly in as one of the guys, and accordingly have to make a symbolic ‘change of gender’.

I am afraid, so I buy it! The effects of anxiety on consumer assimilation and differentiation needs amongst individuals primed with independent and interdependent self-construal.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dariusz Drążkowski ◽  
Maciej Behnke ◽  
Łukasz D. Kaczmarek
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Physiological Data ◽  
Physiological Reactivity ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Specific Group ◽  
The Social ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Self Construal ◽  
Interdependent Self ◽  
The Impact

Individuals tend to satisfy their assimilation needs by purchasing products that bear a specific group identity. Such products might be preferred when an individual is threatened because anxiety increases affiliative needs. In contrast, individuals might be more attracted to unique-design products when they feel less anxious. We examined the impact of anxiety on assimilation and differentiation needs amongst consumers primed with independent and interdependent self-construal. We expected that anxiety would produce stronger assimilation needs and show a weaker preference for unique products. In Study 1 (N = 110), we found that anxious consumers decreased their evaluation of unique products and exhibited stronger assimilation needs. Independents who felt anxiety reacted with a reduced preference for group-linked products. In Study 2 (N = 102), we found that introducing an anxiety-decreasing agent (vanilla scent) after a social identity threat reduced differentiation needs and preference for unique products. Physiological data showed that the social identity threat increased sympathetic arousal, but the vanilla scent did not have a soothing effect on physiological reactivity. This work showed that both anxiety and vanilla scent reduced consumer need for differentiation. Furthermore, for independents, anxiety reduced assimilation needs. We found novel determinants of assimilation/differentiation needs with implications for advertising and retailing products with a unique design.

Processing of Social Identity Threats

2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (6) ◽  
pp. 361-372 ◽  
Author(s):  
Natascha de Hoog
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Social Identification ◽  
Negative Group ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Neutral Group ◽  
Threat Perceptions ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Identity Threats ◽  
Group Information ◽  
Source Study

The underlying process of reactions to social identity threat was examined from a defense motivation perspective. Two studies measured respondents’ social identification, after which they read threatening group information. Study 1 compared positive and negative group information, attributed to an ingroup or outgroup source. Study 2 compared negative and neutral group information to general negative information. It was expected that negative group information would induce defense motivation, which reveals itself in biased information processing and in turn affects the evaluation of the information. High identifiers should pay more attention to, have higher threat perceptions of, more defensive thoughts of, and more negative evaluations of negative group information than positive or neutral group information. Findings generally supported these predictions.

Managing a Social Identity Threat

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefano Pagliaro ◽  
Francesca Romana Alparone ◽  
Maria Giuseppina Pacilli ◽  
Angelica Mucchi-Faina
Keyword(s):  
Social Identity ◽  
Identity Threat ◽  
Status Group ◽  
Social Identity Threat ◽  
Social Creativity ◽  
Threatening Situation

We examined how members of a low status group react to a social identity threat. We propose that expressing an ambivalent evaluation toward the ingroup may represent a way to manage such a threatening situation. For this study, 131 undergraduates’ identification with Italians was assessed. Participants were divided into groups, according to a situational identity threat (high vs. low). In line with hypotheses, low identifiers expressed more ambivalence toward the ingroup in the high (vs. low) threat condition. The reversed pattern emerged for high identifiers. This effect was mediated by the perception of intragroup variability, a well-known social creativity strategy. Results confirmed our interpretation of ambivalence as a form of social creativity, and are discussed in terms of social identity concerns.

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