It’s about valence: Historical continuity or historical discontinuity as a threat to social identity

National identity is underpinned by historical representations. Recent research shows that narratives presenting an in-group’s history as discontinuous rather than continuous raise collective angst, suggesting that historical discontinuity threatens social identity. This previous research has focused on positive aspects of an in-group’s past. The present research aims to extend the findings to go beyond positive histories. We suggest that when the in-group’s actions in the past are presented as negative, historical continuity instead of discontinuity will increase perceived identity threat because a negative, continuous history threatens group members’ need for a positive social identity in the present. In an experiment with a sample size of N = 316, we manipulated the narrated valence of in-group actions during the historical event of the approval of the German constitutional law by framing the group’s actions in either positive or negative terms. In addition, we presented the in-group’s history as connected or disconnected to the in-group’s present. Results demonstrate that historical continuity only decreased identity threat compared to historical discontinuity when the in-group’s past behavior was presented as positive. When the in-group’s past was presented as negative, continuity even increased identity threat compared to historical discontinuity. These results were particularly pronounced for people who strongly identified with their national in-group. We discuss implications of the findings for political communication and managing a nation’s perception of social identity threat.

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Coping With Intergroup Threat via Biased Attributions to Low Group Effort

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000083 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 47-59 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Sandro Costarelli

Keyword(s):

Social Identity ◽

Group Performance ◽

The Self ◽

Negative Group ◽

Identity Threat ◽

Group Outcomes ◽

Social Identity Threat ◽

Poor Group ◽

Group Members ◽

Over Time

Two studies demonstrate that, in order to cope with social identity threat, strongly but not weakly group-identified individuals make attributions of relatively poor group performance to low group effort rather than ability. However, this only takes place when such group members perceive negative group outcomes of intergroup comparisons as relatively illegitimate and unstable. Results demonstrate that such biased attributions were stronger for highly but not weakly identified participants when perceptions of the ingroup’s low status were induced to be illegitimate (but not when they were induced to be legitimate) – as their perceptions of the group low status as being unstable over time increased in parallel. This, in turn, ameliorated their subsequent affect. These findings point to a fairness-based account of coping with social identity threat through biased effort attributions: Perceived low effort on the part of the ingroup may suggest factors potentially within group control in the future ( Weiner, 1986 ) (as opposed to the less controllable low ability), which may in turn suggest that the ingroup does not deserve the self-threatening low status.

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Processing of Social Identity Threats

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000133 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 44 (6) ◽

pp. 361-372 ◽

Cited By ~ 23

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.

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Managing a Social Identity Threat

Social Psychology ◽

10.1027/1864-9335/a000079 ◽

2012 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 41-46 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

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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