Social Projection Vs. Self-Stereotyping
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Social projection vs. self-stereotyping The role of socio-cognitive mindsets in the activation of cognitive inferential processes Inauguraldissertation zur Erlangung des akademischen Grades eines Doktors der Sozialwissenschaften der Universität Mannheim vorgelegt von Dipl.-Psych. Florian Thurner geboren am 01.12.1984 in Stuttgart Dekan zum Zeitpunkt der Veröffentlichung: Prof. Dr. Michael Diehl Gutachter: Prof. Dr. Thorsten Meiser Prof. Dr. Jochen E. Gebauer Prof. Dr. Dagmar Stahlberg Tag der Disputation: 5. September 2018 Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 1 1 Theoretical Background .................................................................................................... 3 1.1 Social and Personal Identity: The Self and the Ingroup ............................................. 3 1.1.1 Social projection .......................................................................................................... 3 1.1.2 Self Categorization Theory and its implications ............................................. 5 1.1.3 The issue of directionality ....................................................................................... 7 1.2 Proposed Contexts and Constructs of Relevance for Social Projection or Self- Stereotyping ................................................................................................................................ 9 1.2.1 Social status ................................................................................................................ 10 1.2.2 Cross-cultural differences..................................................................................... 14 1.2.3 Conclusion .................................................................................................................. 16 2 Socio-cognitive Mindsets................................................................................................ 18 2.1 Main Hypothesis ..................................................................................................................... 20 2.2 Overview of Experiments 1 to 3 ....................................................................................... 21 3 Part I: Consequences of a Priming of Socio-Cognitive Mindsets for Social Projection and Self-Stereotyping ................................................................................ 22 3.1 Experiment 1 ........................................................................................................................... 22 3.1.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 22 3.1.2 Method ......................................................................................................................... 22 3.1.3 Results .......................................................................................................................... 27 3.1.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 32 3.2 Experiment 2 ........................................................................................................................... 35 3.2.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 35 3.2.2 Method ......................................................................................................................... 35 3.2.3 Results .......................................................................................................................... 39 3.2.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 41 3.3 Experiment 3 ........................................................................................................................... 44 3.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 44 3.3.2 Method ......................................................................................................................... 44 3.3.3 Results .......................................................................................................................... 48 3.3.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 50 3.4 Discussion of Part I ................................................................................................................ 54 4 Part II: Ironic Effects Following the Induction of Socio-cognitive Mindsets 56 4.1 Optimal Distinctiveness Theory ....................................................................................... 56 4.2 Alternative Hypotheses ....................................................................................................... 61 4.3 Experiment 4 ........................................................................................................................... 62 4.3.1 Introduction ............................................................................................................... 62 4.3.2 Method ......................................................................................................................... 62 4.3.3 Results .......................................................................................................................... 65 4.3.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................... 70 5 General Discussion ........................................................................................................... 73 5.1 Overview ................................................................................................................................... 73 5.2 Limitations of the Presented Experiments .................................................................. 80 5.3 Future Research...................................................................................................................... 82 5.4 Conclusion................................................................................................................................. 85 References................................................................................................................................. 87 Summary ................................................................................................................................. 100 Appendix A: Tables .............................................................................................................. 101 Appendix B: Priming Procedures ................................................................................... 107 Appendix C: Description of Research Paradigms ...................................................... 113 „Wir zwei, lieber Freund, sind Sonne und Mond, sind Meer und Land. Unser Ziel ist nicht, ineinander überzugehen, sondern einander zu erkennen und einer im andern das sehen und ehren zu lernen, was er ist: des andern Gegenstück und Ergänzung.“ [“We are sun and moon, dear friend; we are sea and land. It is not our purpose to become each other; it is to recognize each other, to learn to see the other and honor him for what he is: each the other's opposite and complement.”] ― Hermann Hesse: Narziss und Goldmund Introduction 1 Introduction For humans as social beings, it is important to belong to groups to satisfy basic needs as the need for safety, reproduction, and finally survival (Baumeister & Leary, 1995; Brewer, 1991). A quarter of a century ago, Social Identity Theory (SIT, Tajfel & Turner, 1986) and especially Self-Categorization Theory (SCT, Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987) introduced the idea that the group and the individual are intrinsically connected, implying that the group can become part of the self to a certain degree. This way, one cannot study people’s self-concepts without also taking into account their social group. One of SCT’s hypotheses is that salience of a comparative dimension on the ingroup-outgroup level will increase the perception of similarity with ingroup members. This process is called self-stereotyping and is defined as a depersonalization of the individual's self-perception. This means that the individual will fall back on stereotypes which describe the character of the ingroup membership, and will attribute ingroup stereotypic traits to the self. In the field of social cognition, also the opposite mechanism has drawn much attention: the attribution of characteristics of the self (preferences, attitudes, traits, or experiences) to another person or the ingroup. It is called social projection (Allport, 1924; e.g., Krueger & Clement, 1996), self-anchoring (e.g., Cadinu & Rothbart, 1996), or false consensus (e.g., Ross, Greene, & House, 1977), respectively. This process has, for the most part, been considered to be a cognitive phenomenon (e.g., Ames, 2004a, 2004b; Krueger & Clement, 1996). In contrast to cognition-based models of social projection, motivational accounts of social projection have received far less attention. Nevertheless, there is some empirical evidence for a motivational approach to social projection (Machunsky, Toma, Yzerbyt, & Corneille, 2014). It has been found that social projection serves a need for connectedness to others, a need for