To belong or not to belong, that is the question: terror management and identification with gender and ethnicity.
The terror management prediction that reminders of death motivate in-group identification assumes people view their identifications positively. However, when the in-group is framed negatively, mortality salience should lead to disidentification. Study 1 found that mortality salience increased women's perceived similarity to other women except under gender-based stereotype threat. In Study 2, mortality salience and a negative ethnic prime led Hispanic as well as Anglo participants to derogate paintings attributed to Hispanic (but not Anglo-American) artists. Study 3 added a neutral prime condition and used a more direct measure of psychological distancing. Mortality salience and the negative prime led Hispanic participants to view themselves as especially different from a fellow Hispanic. Implications for understanding in-group derogation and disidentification are briefly discussed.
Arndt
Jamie
J
Department of Psychological Sciences, University of Missouri, Columbia 65211, USA. arndtj@missouri.edu
Greenberg
Jeff
J
Schimel
Jeff
J
Pyszczynski
Tom
T
Solomon
Sheldon
S
D003469:Culture; D005006:Ethnicity; D005239:Fear; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010555:Personality Inventory; D012649:Self Concept; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D013240:Stereotyping