Negative characterisations of social groups threaten group members’ social identities evoking various group-protective responses. Drawing on research about the functions of lay conceptions of humanness in social perception, the current research investigated a novel group-protective strategy: believing that an in group’s negative traits (flaws) are fundamental aspects of ‘human nature’ (HN). A similar protective strategy has been documented when acknowledging flaws in the individual self; this was extended to the acknowledgement of in group flaws in the current studies. In Study 1 (N = 77),participants’ in group-descriptiveness ratings of flaws were most strongly predicted by their HN ratings of flaws, suggesting that people may selectively acknowledge HN flaws as in group-descriptive. Study 2 (N = 51) demonstrated that flaws were rated higher on HN when attributed to an in group than to an out group. However, this effect was not found for positive traits, suggesting that it may reflect a motivation to protect a threatened in group-identity. Study 3 (N = 79) replicated this asymmetrical ‘humanising of in group flaws’ effect, and found that it was independent of desirability. In addition in group-identification was measured in Study 3 and found not to moderate the humanising of in group flaws. / Finally, in Study 3 participants also rated traits on an alternative sense of humanness, known as ‘human uniqueness’ (HU). The asymmetrical humanising of in group flaws effect was not found for the HU dimension, indicating that HN may be better suited to the protective function of mitigating flaws. These studies indicate that HN beliefs are systematically related to in group flaw-acknowledgement and suggest that in order to mitigate their in group’s flaws and thus protect the value of their social identities, people may be motivated to (a) selectively acknowledge HN flaws as in group-descriptive; and (b) ‘humanise’ flaws attributed to their in group Further more, the current research supports the claim that HN is an important dimension of social perception (e.g., Haslam et al., 2008); extends the relevance of this dimension to perceptions of in groups; and suggests that the HN concept should be understood as dynamic and flexible, rather than fixed.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/269929 |
| Date | January 2009 |
| Creators | Koval, Peter |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | Restricted Access: Abstract and Citation Only Available |
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