Intergroup Threat and Experienced Affect: The Distinct Roles of Causal Attributions, Ingroup Identification, and Perceived Legitimacy of Intergroup StatusUniversity of Trento, Italy, sandro.costarelli{at}unitn.it Across three studies, it was predicted and found that in the case of intergroup threat, low ingroup identifiers experience greater negative affect when they make an ingroup-internal rather than an outgroup-internal attribution, and high ingroup identifiers experience greater negative affect when they make an outgroup-internal rather than an ingroup-internal attribution. These effects were mediated by the perceived legitimacy of ingroup— outgroup status differences that results from their reflecting social reality (i.e., actual differences in the groups' standing on a relevant comparison dimension). Combining the findings of two distinct literatures, the current work provides new insights into the yet-unexplored distinct roles played by intergroup attributions as a predictor and ingroup identification as a moderator of the affective responses produced by social identity threat.
Key Words: threat • attributions • legitimacy • group-based emotions • social identity • group identification • group processes
This version was published on November
1, 2007 Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, Vol. 33, No. 11,
1481-1491 (2007) |
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