Angela T. Maitner

Arousal, Processing, and Risk Taking: Consequences of Intergroup Anger

Intergroup emotions theory (IET) posits that when social categorization is salient, individuals feel the same emotions as others who share their group membership. Extensive research supporting this proposition has relied heavily on self-reports of group-based emotions. In three experiments, the authors provide converging evidence that group-based anger has subtle and less explicitly controlled consequences for information processing, using measures that do not rely on self-reported emotional experience. Specifically, the authors show that intergroup anger involves arousal (Experiment 1), reduces systematic processing of persuasive messages (Experiment 2), is moderated by group identification (Experiment 2, posttest), and compared to intergroup fear, increases risk taking (Experiment 3). These findings provide converging evidence that consistent with IET, emotions triggered by social categorization have psychologically consequential effects and are not evident solely in self-reports.

Antecedents and Consequences of Satisfaction and Guilt Following Ingroup Aggression

Three studies investigated the role of intergroup satisfaction in intergroup conflict. After reading about real acts of aggression committed by an ingroup, participants reported how those actions made them feel and how much they would support similar aggression in the future. In all three studies, experiencing intergroup satisfaction increased support for similar aggression, whereas experiencing intergroup guilt decreased support for similar aggression. Study 2 showed that ingroup identification increased justification appraisals, which increased satisfaction and decreased guilt, and thus increased support for future aggression. Study 3 provided an experimental test of the model: when justification appraisals were manipulated, emotion and support for further aggression changed accordingly. These findings demonstrate conditions under which intergroup satisfaction can facilitate and sustain intergroup conflict.

Perceived Polarization: Reconciling Ingroup and Intergroup Perceptions Under Uncertainty

Two studies investigated how generalized uncertainty affects the tendency to coordinate perceptions of the ingroup with intergroup perceptions. Across two field studies, we found that uncertainty leads to a stronger association between the perceived entitativity of an ingroup and the extent of perceived attitude polarization between the ingroup and outgroup. Study 1 showed that, for striking grocery store employees, feelings of uncertainty were associated with enhanced coordination of ingroup entitativity and intergroup polarization. Study 2 primed Democrat and Republican partisans to feel either high uncertainty or high certainty. Those who felt uncertain associated their perceptions of their groups entitativity with perceived polarization of the two parties more strongly than did those who felt certain. Discussion centers on processes underlying the phenomena as well as the implications of the findings for political polarization in American society.

Dynamics of social comparison in counter‐stereotypic domains: Stereotype boost, not stereotype threat, for women engineering majors

Previous research has shown that when explicitly compared with men, womens performance on math tests is adversely affected (a “stereotype threat” effect). This research investigated the impact of such comparisons on a group of women who we expected to react differently to such comparisons. We hypothesized that women who have successfully entered a gender counter‐stereotypic quantitative domain would show enhanced, rather than deleterious, performance in a relevant testing situation. In two experiments that compared reactions to negative gender comparisons we observed lowered math performance for female psychology majors, but a performance boost for female engineering majors. We discuss the potential of these findings to inform the development of intervention strategies to combat the pernicious effects of negative stereotypes on performance.

Angry at the Unjust, Scared of the Powerful Emotional Responses to Terrorist Threat

The threat of terrorist attacks motivates emotional reactions that elicit functional behavioral responses to characteristics of a threatening group. We argue that the more the group is seen as unjust, the more anger arises, whereas the more it is seen as powerful, the more fear arises. In Experiment 1, British participants read about terrorist groups with varied levels of injustice and power. As expected, the manipulation of injustice increased anger, and power increased fear. Anger and fear predicted offensive and defensive reactions. Experiment 2 used a representative sample of U.S. residents and again found distinct effects of an injustice manipulation on anger, and a power manipulation on fear. Anger was a primary motivator of support for offensive and defensive measures in both experiments. Willingness to negotiate was reduced with more injustice and anger, but increased with more outgroup power and fear. These findings have implications on public reactions to terrorist organizations.

Anticipating partners' responses: Examining item and source memory following - interactive exchanges

Within the context of an interactive anagram-solving task, the present studies tested predictions about the role of cognitive anticipation in both source and item memory. After working in pairs to solve anagram problems, participants were surprised by a source-monitoring test focused on the source of solutions (self vs. partner, Experiment 1) or a standard recognition test focused on the solutions themselves (Experiment 2). With the intention of affecting the opportunity to anticipate partners’ solutions, two variables were manipulated: anagram difficulty (easy vs. hard) and the delay between the presentation of an anagram problem and the prompt that designated one member of each pair as the anagram solver. Consistent with predictions, as the opportunity to anticipate partners’ solutions increased, there was a decrease in source accuracy suggesting increased confusion about whether the solution had been self- or partner-generated. Generation-effect failures were observed in item memory. However, these failures reflected increases in item memory for partners’ responses rather than decreases in memory for self-generated ones. These studies suggest that when opportunities to anticipate partners’ responses are available, self-generative activities may be associated with both selfand partner-generated items, influencing the expression of the generation effect.

Social Identity and Peace in the Modern Middle East: Insights from the United Arab Emirates

Social identities in the United Arab Emirates are complex and vary in nationality, religion, culture, socio-economic status, and multiple other dimensions. Intergroup interaction is a part of daily life that shapes and is shaped by identity. This chapter focuses on the role of social identity in conflict and peace at multiple levels, first considering ways that the Emirati national identity has been created and protected, before exploring how identification with other Gulf and Arab nations has created overlapping patterns of international conflict and cooperation. We also explore the multicultural social hierarchy within the resident population of the UAE, and the role that stability, permeability, and legitimacy of the social system plays in regulating individuals’ reactions to their place in the social system. Finally, we consider how culture interacts with identity to create complex multicultural individuals whose goals, motives, and interests can shift dramatically along with shifts in self-categorization.

Emotional Reactions to Unequal Payment: The Impact of Meritocratic Ideology and Salary Negotiability

People respond to low-status inequality with feelings of anger and shame. This work investigates the impact of meritocracy beliefs and implied salary negotiability on individuals’ emotional reactions within a stable status hierarchy. When an unequal system appears negotiable, believing that hard work pays off may decrease anger felt in response to inequality. However, learning that a system is non-negotiable violates expectations associated with meritocratic beliefs, and may therefore increase negative emotion. In two experiments investigating participants’ emotional reactions to payment systems, the more participants endorsed meritocratic ideologies, the less anger they felt when unequal treatment appeared negotiable. Experiment 2 showed that endorsement of meritocracy beliefs increased negative emotions when individuals learned that the unequal payment was non-negotiable. Taken together, this work suggests that it is important to consider beliefs about individual agency alongside system parameters establishing opportunities for individual mobility to understand emotional reactions to unequal treatment.

The Impact of Culture and Identity on Emotional Reactions to Insults

People from honor cultures show heightened emotional responses to insults to their social image. The current research investigates whether people from honor cultures also show heightened protection of social identities. We find that honor concerns may be embedded in some social identities but not others, and that those identities associated with honor concerns are defended more than identities not associated with honor. Three experiments investigated participants’ emotional responses to insults to their ethnic or student identity. Results showed that compared with dignity culture (British) participants, participants from an honor culture (Arab) reported stronger anger responses both across and within cultures when their Arab identity, an identity explicitly linked to honor concerns, was insulted. In contrast, responses did not differ between dignity (American) and honor (Arab) cultures when participants received an insult to their student identity, a non-honor-oriented identity. These findings suggest that overarching cultural values are not applied to all identities, and therefore, that cultural variables influence psychological outcomes differently for different identities.

Perceptions of national wealth and skill influence pay expectations: replicating global hierarchy on a microscale

In highly multicultural societies, the economic status hierarchy may come to mimic the hierarchy of global wealth, reinforcing social inequality by tying pay scales to national wealth. We investigated how nationality influences expectations of payment in the UAE. Participants reported how much they expected people to be paid and how much skill they were perceived to have by nationality. They also reported their perceptions of the national wealth of different countries. Participants generally expected Westerners to be paid more than Arabs, who would be paid more than Sub-Saharan Africans and Asians. Expectations about payment in private sector employment were driven by both actual and stereotyped differences in national wealth and skill, with non-Gulf Cooperation Council Arabs most likely to see national wealth as a factor explaining the economic hierarchy. These results suggest that people expect payment to be tied to national wealth, reflecting the global hierarchy on a microscale.