Shared Negative Experiences Lead to Identity Fusion via Personal Reflection

Identity fusion – a visceral feeling of oneness with a group – is thought to result from the sharing of emotional, often dysphoric, experiences. In this pre-registered longitudinal study, we address the impact of flashbulb memories of learning about the outcome of the Brexit referendum on both identity fusion and social identification. As predicted, the visceral quality of people’s flashbulb memories had a transformative effect on personal identity via processes of personal reflection and this, in turn, led to identity fusion via perceived sharedness with the group. Sharing personally transformative memories in this way did not lead to social identification, suggesting that perceived sharedness is key to identity fusion but not to social identification. Understanding how emotional public events impact personal identities and how they produce peculiar forms of group alignment have important implications for explaining and managing societal threats such as polarization and forms of political and religious extremism.

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The power of norms to sway fused group members

Behavioral and Brain Sciences ◽

10.1017/s0140525x18001644 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 41 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Winnifred R. Louis ◽

Craig McGarty ◽

Emma F. Thomas ◽

Catherine E. Amiot ◽

Fathali M. Moghaddam

Keyword(s):

Evolutionary Anthropology ◽

Normative Systems ◽

Violent Extremism ◽

Identity Fusion ◽

Group Members

AbstractWhitehouse adapts insights from evolutionary anthropology to interpret extreme self-sacrifice through the concept of identity fusion. The model neglects the role of normative systems in shaping behaviors, especially in relation to violent extremism. In peaceful groups, increasing fusion will actually decrease extremism. Groups collectively appraise threats and opportunities, actively debate action options, and rarely choose violence toward self or others.

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Minimizing Carry-Over Effects After Treatment Failure and Maximizing Therapeutic Outcome

Zeitschrift für Psychologie ◽

10.1027/2151-2604/a000180 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 222 (3) ◽

pp. 171-178 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Mareile Hofmann ◽

Nathalie Wrobel ◽

Simon Kessner ◽

Ulrike Bingel

Keyword(s):

Treatment Failure ◽

Human Subjects ◽

Subsequent Treatment ◽

Clinical Samples ◽

Administration Route ◽

Healthy Human ◽

Negative Experiences ◽

Analgesic Treatment ◽

Balanced Design ◽

Carry Over

According to experimental and clinical evidence, the experiences of previous treatments are carried over to different therapeutic approaches and impair the outcome of subsequent treatments. In this behavioral pilot study we used a change in administration route to investigate whether the effect of prior treatment experience on a subsequent treatment depends on the similarity of both treatments. We experimentally induced positive or negative experiences with a topical analgesic treatment in two groups of healthy human subjects. Subsequently, we compared responses to a second, unrelated and systemic analgesic treatment between both the positive and negative group. We found that there was no difference in the analgesic response to the second treatment between the two groups. Our data indicate that a change in administration route might reduce the influence of treatment history and therefore be a way to reduce negative carry-over effects after treatment failure. Future studies will have to validate these findings in a fully balanced design including larger, clinical samples.

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Emotional Impact Feedback Changes How We Remember Negative Autobiographical Experiences

Experimental Psychology (formerly Zeitschrift für Experimentelle Psychologie) ◽

10.1027/1618-3169/a000042 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 57 (5) ◽

pp. 354-359 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Melanie K. T. Takarangi ◽

Deryn Strange

Keyword(s):

Well Being ◽

The Other ◽

Personal Perspective ◽

Emotional Impact ◽

Potential Mechanism ◽

Negative Experiences ◽

Negative Memory ◽

The Relationship ◽

Negative Memories ◽

Over Time

When people are told that their negative memories are worse than other people’s, do they later remember those events differently? We asked participants to recall a recent negative memory then, 24 h later, we gave some participants feedback about the emotional impact of their event – stating it was more or less negative compared to other people’s experiences. One week later, participants recalled the event again. We predicted that if feedback affected how participants remembered their negative experiences, their ratings of the memory’s characteristics should change over time. That is, when participants are told that their negative event is extremely negative, their memories should be more vivid, recollected strongly, and remembered from a personal perspective, compared to participants in the other conditions. Our results provide support for this hypothesis. We suggest that external feedback might be a potential mechanism in the relationship between negative memories and psychological well-being.

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