An In-Group Becomes Part of the Self: Response Time Evidence

Abstract

Social identity theory holds that social group memberships become part of the psychological self; affecting thoughts, feelings, and behavior. However, tests of this hypothesis to date have mainly involved judgmental dependent measures. A method adapted from Aron and associates can provide more direct evidence. Subjects made speeded self-descriptiveness judgments for a variety of traits. Responses were slower and involved more errors for traits on which the individual believed he or she mismatched an in-group, compared with matching traits. Matches or mismatches between the self and a salient out-group had no effect. This evidence suggests that cognitive representations of the self and an in-group are directly linked, to the point where reports about the self are facilitated for traits on which the self and in-group are perceived as similar, and inhibited for dissimilar traits.