Perceived In-Group Homogeneity as a Function of Group Membership Salience and Stereotype Threat

Abstract

On the basis of Tajfel and Turner's social identity theory and Brewer's optimal distinctiveness model, salience of in-group membership and the nature of stereotypic expressions directed toward the recipient's in-group are proposed to determine perceptions of in-group homogeneity. The results of an experiment testing these hypotheses indicate that (a) cognitive priming of group membership or social identity produces an increase in perceived in-group homogeneity, (b) negative stereotypic threats that are inconsistent with the recipient's in-group autostereotype increase perceptions of in-group homogeneity, but (c) negative stereotypic expressions that are consistent with the recipient's in-group autostereotype engender a heterogeneous view of the in-group. Results are discussed in terms of a model that incorporates both the cognitive and motivational determinants of perceived in-group variation.