Group Processes & Intergroup Relations

 

Advanced Search

Journal Navigation

Journal Home

Subscriptions

Archive

Contact Us

Table of Contents

Sign In to gain access to subscriptions and/or personal tools.
This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dietz-Uhler, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?
Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, Vol. 2, No. 1, 17-29 (1999)
DOI: 10.1177/1368430299021002

Defensive Reactions to Group-Relevant Information

Beth Dietz-Uhler

Miami University, Ohio, uhlerbd{at}muohio.edu

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that possession of a strong social identity would motivate people to arrive at a conclusion which supported their previous beliefs when responding to information that threatened their group. In a pre-measure, participants were classified as either weak or strong in social identity. After reading a threatening or non-threatening (fictitious) report about their group, participants were asked to evaluate the report. The results showed that participants with a strong social identity evaluated the threatening information more negatively than those with a weak social identity. Participants who had a strong social identity evaluated the non-threatening information more positively than those with a weak social identity. These results are discussed in the context of motivated reasoning and social identity theory.

Key Words: social identity • threat

References

  • Abrams, D., & Hogg, M. A. (1988) Comments on the motivational status of self-esteem in social identity and intergroup discrimination. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 317-334.
  • Abrams, D., Thomas, J., & Hogg, M. A. (1990). Numerical distinctiveness, social identity and gender salience. British Journal of Social Psychology, 29, 87-92.
  • Bazerman, M. H., Giuliano, T., & Appelman, A. (1984). Escalation in individual and group decision making. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance, 33, 141-152.
  • Branscombe, N. R., & Wann, D. L. (1991). The positive social and self-concept consequences of sports team identification. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 15, 115-127.[Abstract]
  • Branscombe, N. R. & Wann, D. L. (1992). Physiological arousal and reactions to outgroup members during competitions that implicate an important social identity. Aggressive Behavior, 18, 85-93.
  • Branscombe, N. R., & Wann, D. L. (1994). Collective self-esteem consequences of outgroup derogation when a valued social identity is on trial. European Journal of Social Psychology, 24, 641-657.[ISI]
  • Branscombe, N. R., Wann, D. L., Noel, J. G., & Coleman, J. (1993). In-group or out-group extremity: Importance of the threatened social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 381-388.[Abstract]
  • Brewer, M. B. (1979). Ingroup bias in the minimal intergroup situation: A cognitive-motivational analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 86, 307-324.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Brown, J. D., Collins, R. L., & Schmidt, G. W. (1988). Self-esteem and direct versus indirect forms of self-enhancement. Journal of Personality and Society Psychology, 55, 445-453.[CrossRef]
  • Cialdini, R. B., Borden, R. J., Thorne, A., Walker, M. R., Freeman, S., & Sloan, L. R. (1976). Basking in reflected glory: Three (football) studies. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 34, 366-375.[CrossRef]
  • Cialdini, R. B., & DeNicholas, M. E. (1989). Self-presentation by association. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 57, 626-631.[CrossRef]
  • Cialdini, R. B., & Richardson, K. D. (1980). Two indirect tactics of impression management: Basking and blasting. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39, 406-415.[CrossRef]
  • Crocker, J., & Schwartz, I. (1985). Prejudice and ingroup favouritism in a minimal intergroup situation: Effects of self-esteem. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11, 379-386.[Abstract]
  • Crocker, J., Thompson, L. L., McGraw, K. M., & Ingerman, C. (1987). Downward comparison, prejudice and evaluations of others: Effects of self-esteem and threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 52, 907-916.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Diehl, M. (1990). The minimal groups paradigm: Theoretical explanations and empirical findings. In W. Stroebe & M. Hewstone (Eds.), European review of social psychology (Vol. 1, pp. 263-292). Chichester: Wiley.
  • Dietz-Uhler, B. (1996). The escalation of commitment in political decision-making groups: A social identity approach. European Journal of Social Psychology, 26, 611-629.[CrossRef]
  • Dietz-Uhler, B., & Murrell, A. (1998). Effects of social identity and threat on self-esteem and attributions. Group Dynamics: Theory, Research, and Practice, 2, 1-12.
  • Ditto, P. H., & Lopez, D. F. (1992). Motivated skepticism: Use of differential decision criteria for preferred and nonpreferred conclusions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63, 568-584.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Doosje, B., & Ellemers, N. (1997). Stereotyping under threat: The role of group identification. In R. Spears, P. J. Oakes, N. Ellemers, & S. A. Haslam (Eds.), The social psychology of stereotyping and group life (pp. 257-272). Cambridge, MA: Blackwell.
  • Doosje, B., Ellemers, N., & Spears, R. (1995). Perceived intragroup variability as a function of group status and identification. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 31, 410-436.[CrossRef]
  • Doosje, B., Spears, R., & Koomen, W. (1995). When bad isn't all bad: Strategic use of sample information in generalization and stereotyping. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69, 642-655.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Eagly, A. H., & Chaiken, S. (1992). The psychology of attitudes. San Diego, CA: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich.
  • Ellemers, N., Doosje, B., van Knippenberg, A., & Wilke, H. (1992). Status protection in high status minority groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 123-140.
  • Ellemers, N., Rijswijk, W. V., Roefs, M., & Simons, C. (1997). Bias in intergroup perceptions: Balancing group identity with social reality. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 186-198.[Abstract]
  • Ellemers, N., Spears, R., & Doosje, B. (1997). Sticking together or falling apart: In-group identification as a psychological determinant of group commitment versus individual mobility. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 72, 617-626.[CrossRef]
  • Ethier, K. A., & Deaux, K. (1994). Negotiating social identity when contexts change: Maintaining identification and responding to threat. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 67, 243-251.[CrossRef]
  • Finch, J. F., & Cialdini, R. B. (1989). Another indirect tactic of (self-)image management. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 15, 222-232.[Abstract]
  • Hogg, M. A., & Abrams, D. (1990). Social motivation, self-esteem and social identity. In D. Abrams & M. A. Hogg (Eds.), Social identity theory: Constructive and critical advances (pp. 28-47). New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Hogg, M. A., & Abrams, D. (1993). Toward a single-process uncertainty-reduction model of social motivation in groups. In M. A. Hogg & D. Abrams (Eds.), Group motivation: Social psychological perspectives (pp. 173-190). New York: Prentice-Hall.
  • Hogg, M. A., & Hains, S. C. (1996). Intergroup relations and group solidarity: Effects of group identification and social beliefs on depersonalized attraction. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70, 295-309.[CrossRef]
  • Hogg, M. A., & Turner, J. C. (1985). Interpersonal attraction, social identification and psychological group formation. European Journal of Social Psychology, 15, 51-66.
  • Janis, I. L. (1972). Victims of groupthink. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
  • Janis, I. L. (1982). Groupthink: Psychological studies of policy decisions and fiascoes. Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin.
  • Kameda, T., & Sugimori, S. (1993). Psychological entrapment in group decision making: An assigned decision rule and a groupthink phenomenon. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 65, 282-292.[CrossRef]
  • Karasawa, M. (1991). Toward an assessment of social identity: The structure of group identification and its effects on in-group evaluations. British Journal of Social Psychology, 30, 293-307.
  • Kowalski, R. M., & Wolfe, R. (1994). Collective identity orientation, patriotism, and reactions to national outcomes. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 20, 533-540.[Abstract]
  • Kunda, Z. (1987). Motivation and inference: Self-serving generation and evaluation of evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 53, 636-647.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Lalonde, R. N. (1992). The dynamics of group differentiation in the face of defeat. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 336-342.[Abstract]
  • Lalonde, R. N., & Silverman, R. A. (1994). Behavioral preferences in response to social injustice: The effects of group permeability and social identity salience. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 66, 78-85.[CrossRef]
  • Lee, M. J. (1985). Self-esteem and social identity in basketball fans: A closer look at basking-in-reflected glory. Journal of Sport Behavior, 8, 210-223.
  • Lemyre, L., & Smith, P. M. (1985). Intergroup discrimination and self-esteem in the minimal group paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 49, 660-670.[CrossRef]
  • Liberman, A., & Chaiken, S. (1992). Defensive processing of personally relevant health messages. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 669-679.[Abstract]
  • Long, K. M., Spears, R., & Manstead, A. S. R. (1994). The influence of personal and collective self-esteem on strategies of social differentiation. British Journal of Social Psychology, 33, 313-329.
  • Luhtanen, R., & Crocker, J. (1992). A collective self-esteem scale: Self-evaluation of one's social identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 18, 302-318.[Abstract]
  • Marques, J. M. (1990). The black-sheep effect: Out-group homogeneity in social comparison settings. In D. Abrams & M. A. Hogg (Eds.), Social identity theory: Critical and constructive advances (pp. 131-151). New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Marques, J. M., Robalo, E. M., & Rocha, S. A. (1992). Ingroup bias and the `black sheep' effect: Assessing the impact of social identification and perceived variability on group judgments. European Journal of Social Psychology, 22, 331-352.
  • Marques, J. M., & Yzerbyt, V. Y. (1988). The black sheep effect: Judgmental extremity in inter- and intra-group situations. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 287-292.
  • Marques, J. M., Yzerbyt, V. Y., & Leyens, J. -P. (1988). The `Black Sheep Effect': Extremity of judgments towards ingroup members as a function of group identification. European Journal of Social Psychology, 18, 1-16.
  • Matthews, D., & Dietz-Uhler, B. (1998). The black sheep effect: How positive and negative advertisements affect voters' perceptions of the sponsor of the advertisement. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 28, 1902-1914.
  • Oakes, P., & Turner, J. C. (1980). Social categorization and intergroup behavior: Does the minimal intergroup discrimination make social identity more positive?European Journal of Social Psychology, 10, 295-301.
  • Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1979). Issue involvement can increase or decrease persuasion by enhancing message-relevant cognitive responses. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 37, 1915-1926.[CrossRef][ISI]
  • Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1984). The effects of involvement on responses to argument quantity and quality. Central and peripheral routes to persuasion. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 46, 69-81.[CrossRef]
  • Petty, R. E., & Cacioppo, J. T. (1986). Communication and persuasion: Central and peripheral routes to attitude change. New York: Springer-Verlag.
  • Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Holt, K. (1985). Maintaining consistency between self-serving beliefs and available data: A bias in information evaluation following success and failure. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 11, 179-190.[Abstract]
  • Schneider, D. J. (1969). Tactical self-presentation after success and failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 262-268.[CrossRef][ISI][Medline] [Order article via Infotrieve]
  • Snyder, C. R., Lassegard, M., & Ford, C. E. (1986). Distancing after group success and failure: Basking in reflected glory and cutting off reflected failure. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 51, 382-388.[CrossRef]
  • Spears, R., Doosje, B., & Ellemers, N. (1997). Self-stereotyping in the face of threats to group status and distinctiveness: The role of group identification. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 23, 538-553.[Abstract]
  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In W. G. Austin & S. Worchel (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33-47). Monterey, CA: Brooks-Cole.
  • Tajfel, H., & Turner, J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In S. Worchel & W. Austin (Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed., pp. 7-24). Chicago, IL: Nelson-Hall.
  • Turner, J. C., & Oakes, P. (1989). Self-categorization theory and social influence. In P. B. Paulus (Ed.), Psychology of group influence (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
  • Turner, J. C., Hogg, M. A., Turner, P. J., & Smith, P. M. (1984). Failure and defeat as determinants of group cohesiveness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 23, 97-111.
  • Wann, D. L. (1996). Seasonal changes in spectators' identification and involvement with and evaluations of college basketball and football teams. Psychological Record, 46, 201-215.
  • Wann, D. L., & Branscombe, N. R. (1990). Die-hard and fair-weather fans: Effects of identification on BIRGing and CORFing tendencies. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 14, 103-117.
  • Wann. D. L., & Branscombe, N. R. (1991). Sports fans: Measuring degree of identification with their team. International Journal of Sport Psychology, 24, 1-17.
  • Wann, D. L., & Branscombe, N. R. (1995). Influence of level of identification with a group and physiological arousal on perceived intergroup complexity. British Journal of Social Psychology, 34, 223-235.
  • Wann, D. L., & Dolan, T. J. (1994). Attributions of highly identified sports spectators. Journal of Social Psychology, 134, 783-792.
  • Wann, D. L., Hamlet, M. A., Wilson, T. M., & Hodges, J. A. (1993). Basking in reflected glory, cutting off reflected failure, and cutting off future failure: The importance of group identification. Social Behavior and Personality, 23, 377-388.[CrossRef]
  • Whyte, G. (1991). Diffusion of responsibility: Effects on the escalation tendency. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 408-415.[CrossRef]
  • Whyte, G. (1993). Escalating commitment in individual and group decision making: A prospect theory approach. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 54, 430-455.[CrossRef]

Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?



This Article
Right arrow Abstract Freely available
Right arrow Free Full Text (Free PDF) Free
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Right arrow Citation Map
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to Saved Citations
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Right arrow Request Reprints
Right arrow Add to My Marked Citations
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Dietz-Uhler, B.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us   Add to Digg   Add to Reddit   Add to Technorati  
What's this?