Social Change and Collective Identity Lab

Research

Distinctiveness threat and horizontal hostility among Dominican-American immigrants

While social psychologists have studied intergroup attitudes between minority groups extensively, relatively little research has addressed the topic of attitudes between different minority groups.  The primary aim of this research project is to understand the role of distinctiveness threat – specifically the threat of being categorized as a member of another low-status group – in influencing Dominican-American immigrants’ attitudes towards African Americans.  The experiment will be conducted with Dominican students at John Jay College in New York City.

Multiculturalism and collective action: The role of group affirmation

Multiculturalism helps people to feel better about themselves and their group, but sometimes at the expense of any motivation to address their group’s disadvantaged position in society.  Whereas its benefits for the self are well documented, less attention has been paid to the impact of multiculturalism on the political behavior of minority group members.  On the one hand, affirming cultural identities helps group members manage the negative effects of prejudice, discrimination, and disadvantage on their sense of group pride.  On the other hand, it increases the likelihood people will take collective responsibility for their groups’ poor outcomes, reducing the sense of anger and injustice that motivate collective action.    The primary aim of this research is to examine two factors that are likely to influence the relationship between multiculturalism and support for political action among members of minority groups: (1) how groups view their disadvantage and (2) the audience to which they express their values.  The experiment will be conducted at TCNJ with Latino participants from the PIPER pool and student clubs.

Dog whistling: How redefining the comparative context allows leaders to gain widespread support for subgroup-serving policies

How do leaders gain widespread support for a policy that favors a particular subgroup in society without being seen as “selling out”?  The process depends on creating a shared social identity with different subgroups in society.  In this research we examine how shifts in the comparative context allow leaders to build solidarity with wider society without alienating people whose subgroup identity is relatively accessible.  The experiment will be run with participants from the TCNJ PIPER pool. 

Are you in or out?: The role of group identification and perceived discrimination in the categorization of multiracial targets

Current census data show that 1 in 40 (6.8 million) people identify as multiracial. It is estimated that by the year 2050, the multiracial population may be as high as 1 in 5 Americans (Lee & Bean, 2004). However, research on stereotyping in social psychology has focused almost exclusively on monoracial targets.  Little empirical work has investigated how others perceive multiracial people and what these perceptions mean for how they are valued and treated in society.  The primary aim of this survey research is to understand the factors that influence how multiracial individuals are categorized.  This online survey will be conducted with participants from the TCNJ PIPER pool.