title: 'More than skin-deep': biological essentialism in response to a distinctiveness threat in a stigmatized fan community.
abstract: We investigated how group distinctiveness threats affect essentialist beliefs about group membership in a stigmatized fan community. An experiment conducted on 817 members of the fan community revealed that highly identified fans who perceived significant stigmatization were the most likely to endorse essentialist beliefs about group membership when exposed to a distinctiveness threat via comparison to a highly similar (vs. dissimilar) outgroup. These results bridge essentialism research and research on distinctiveness threat by demonstrating the mutability of group essentialism beliefs as a defensive response to distinctiveness threats. Implications for future research are discussed.
authors.affiliation: University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Courtney N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Plante
authors.affiliation: Renison University College, University of Waterloo, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Sharon E
authors.initials: SE
authors.lastname: Roberts
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University - Commerce, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Jamie S
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Snider
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University - Commerce, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Schroy
authors.affiliation: Texas A&M University - Commerce, Texas, USA.
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Reysen
authors.affiliation: Niagara County Community College, Sanborn, New York, USA.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Gerbasi
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001290:Attitude; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012933:Social Identification; D012938:Social Perception; D057545:Social Stigma; D013240:Stereotyping; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: distinctiveness; essentialism; fandom; furry; marginalization; social identity