Belle Derks

Working for the Self or Working for the Group: How Self- Versus Group Affirmation Affects Collective Behavior in Low-Status Groups

Experiencing social identity threat can lead members of stigmatized groups to protect their self-regard by withdrawing from domains that are associated with higher status groups. Four experiments examined how providing identity affirmation in alternative domains affects performance motivation in status-defining domains among stigmatized group members. Two forms of identity affirmation were distinguished: self-affirmation, which enhances personal identity, and group affirmation, which enhances social identity. The results showed that although self- and group affirmation both induce high performance motivation, they do so in different ways. Whereas self-affirmation induces a focus on the personal self, group affirmation induces a focus on the social self (Study 1). Accordingly, group affirmation elicited high performance motivation among highly identified group members (Studies 1 and 2) by inducing challenge (Study 2) and protected interest in group-serving behaviors that improve collective status (Studies 3 and 4). By contrast, low identifiers were challenged and motivated to perform well only after self-affirmation (Studies 1 and 2) and reported an even stronger inclination to work for themselves at the expense of the group when offered group affirmation (Studies 3 and 4).

Striving for Success in Outgroup Settings: Effects of Contextually Emphasizing Ingroup Dimensions on Stigmatized Group Members’ Social Identity and Performance Styles

For members of stigmatized groups, being confronted with highstatus outgroup members threatens social identity and undermines performance on status-relevant dimensions. Two experiments examined whether the negative effects of outgroup contexts are alleviated when value is expressed for a dimension on which the stigmatized ingroup excels. Specifically, the authors assessed whether ingroup versus outgroup context and contextual value for ingroup dimensions affects group members’ reactions to failure on status-relevant dimensions and subsequent performance. Experiment 1 showed that in comparison to ingroup contexts, outgroup contexts induce stigmatized group members to protect social identity and to feel more agitated following negative performance feedback. Experiment 2 showed that when others in the context emphasize the importance of a dimension on which the ingroup excels, the negative effects of outgroup contexts are alleviated, stigmatized group members feel more cheerful concerning an upcoming task, and task performance is characterized by a focus on success.

Gender-Bias Primes Elicit Queen-Bee Responses Among Senior Policewomen

Queen bees are senior women in male-dominated organizations who have achieved success by emphasizing how they differ from other women. Although the behavior of queen bees tends to be seen as contributing to gender disparities in career outcomes, we argue that queen-bee behavior is actually a result of the gender bias and social identity threat that produce gender disparities in career outcomes. In the experiment reported here, we asked separate groups of senior policewomen to recall the presence or absence of gender bias during their careers, and we measured queen-bee responses (i.e., masculine self-descriptions, in-group distancing, and denying of discrimination). Such gender-bias priming increased queen-bee responses among policewomen with low gender identification, but policewomen with high gender identification responded with increased motivation to improve opportunities for other women. These results suggest that gender-biased work environments shape women’s behavior by stimulating women with low gender identification to dissociate with other women and to display queen-bee responses as a way to achieve individual mobility.

Working Memory Load Reduces Facilitated Processing of Threatening Faces: An ERP Study

The present study tested the hypothesis that facilitated processing of threatening faces depends on working memory load. Participants judged the gender of angry versus happy faces while event-related brain potentials were recorded. Working memory load was manipulated within subjects by the mental rehearsal of one- versus eight-digit numbers. Behavioral results showed that the relative slow-down to angry compared to happy faces in the gender-naming task (i.e., the negativity bias) was eliminated under high working memory load. Under low (but not high) load, N2 amplitudes were smaller to angry compared to happy faces. Moreover, high load reduced LPP amplitude and eliminated the enhanced LPP to angry compared to happy faces that were present under low load. These results suggest that working memory load improves attentional control, and reduces sustained attention for distracting negative expressions. Taken together, these findings demonstrate that facilitated processing of threatening cues may be contingent on cognitive resources.

Moral concerns increase attention and response monitoring during IAT performance: ERP evidence

Previous research has revealed that people value morality as a more important person characteristic than competence. In this study, we tested whether people adjust their less explicit behavior more to moral than competence values. Participants performed an Implicit Association Test (IAT) that was either framed as a test of their morality or as a test of their competence. The behavioral results revealed a smaller IAT effect (i.e. a weaker negative implicit bias toward Muslims) in the morality condition than in the competence condition. Moreover, event-related potentials indicated increased social categorization of faces (as indexed by the N1 and P150) and enhanced conflict- and error monitoring (N450 and error-related negativity) in the morality condition compared to the competence condition. These findings indicate that an emphasis on morality can increase attentional and motivational processes that help to improve peoples task performance.

Motivation for Education and Work in Young Muslim Women: The Importance of Value for Ingroup Domains

Much work has focused on how stereotypes and discrimination negatively affect well-being, motivation, and performance in disadvantaged groups. Relatively little work has identified positive factors that contribute to motivation/performance. We focus on identity-affirmation as a positive force, presenting two studies on the effect of value by others for domains of importance to Muslims on young Muslim womens perspective on education/work. The results show how respecting identity domains that are central and salient for members of religious/ethnic minority groups maintains motivation in education/work, and secures majority-group identification. Rather than hampering societal integration, the results show that distinctive identities can be harnessed as positive sources.

Social identity modifies face perception: an ERP study of social categorization

Two studies examined whether social identity processes, i.e. group identification and social identity threat, amplify the degree to which people attend to social category information in early perception [assessed with event-related brain potentials (ERPs)]. Participants were presented with faces of Muslims and non-Muslims in an evaluative priming task while ERPs were measured and implicit evaluative bias was assessed. Study 1 revealed that non-Muslims showed stronger differentiation between ingroup and outgroup faces in both early (N200) and later processing stages (implicit evaluations) when they identified more strongly with their ethnic group. Moreover, identification effects on implicit bias were mediated by intergroup differentiation in the N200. In Study 2, social identity threat (vs control) was manipulated among Muslims. Results revealed that high social identity threat resulted in stronger differentiation of Muslims from non-Muslims in early (N200) and late (implicit evaluations) processing stages, with N200 effects again predicting implicit bias. Combined, these studies reveal how seemingly bottom-up early social categorization processes are affected by individual and contextual variables that affect the meaning of social identity. Implications of these results for the social identity perspective as well as social cognitive theories of person perception are discussed.

At the Heart of Egalitarianism: How Morality Framing Shapes Cardiovascular Challenge Versus Threat in Whites

Work on morality framing has demonstrated that emphasizing moral ideals (vs. obligations) elicits positive intergroup attitudes among Whites (Does, Derks, & Ellemers, 2011). The current research goes beyond self-reported attitudes, by examining the effect of morality framing on more automatic, less consciously controlled responses of Whites. We tested the hypothesis that morality framing affects Whites’ appraisals of equality as challenging (vs. threatening) by measuring cardiovascular reactivity. Thirty-seven native Dutch participants gave an oral presentation of social equality in terms of moral ideals versus obligations, while we measured their motivations with cardiovascular (i.e., challenge vs. threat; Blascovich & Tomaka, 1996) and behavioral (i.e., eager vs. vigilant goal pursuit; Higgins, 1997) indicators. As hypothesized, and in contrast to the obligations frame, the ideals frame was found to motivate advantaged group members to approach and view equality as more of a challenge than a threat.

Moral Impression Management : Evaluation by an In-Group Member During a Moral IAT Affects Perceptual Attention and Conflict and Response Monitoring

Previous research revealed that emphasizing morality increases motivational processes that improve people’s task performance. Here we examined whether this emphasis differentially affects people’s performance in the presence of an in-group compared to an out-group member. Ostensibly while being evaluated by another person, participants performed an Implicit Association Test that was framed as a test of either their morality or their competence. Results showed a smaller bias toward Muslim women in the morality compared to the competence condition, but this effect was more pronounced when participants were evaluated by a member of their minimal in-group. Moreover, in that same condition, event-related potentials revealed increased perceptual attention (N1) and affected conflict and response monitoring (N450 and error-related negativity). These findings suggest that being moral is especially important when monitored by the in-group and reveal the cognitive processes associated with controlling intergroup bias in a social situation.

Searching for acceptance: Prejudice expectations direct attention towards social acceptance cues when under a promotion focus

Prejudice expectations and other interpersonal rejection concerns have been found to direct attention towards social evaluative information. In some studies, rejection concerns have been found to direct attention towards social acceptance cues, whereas other studies have found an attention bias towards social rejection cues. In the present article we argue that these attention biases constitute promotion- (vs. prevention-) oriented strategies to deal with concerns about how one is evaluated. In support of this notion, a first study demonstrated that prejudice expectations direct attention towards male faces signaling happiness (vs. contempt) among women with a chronic promotion focus, but not among women with a chronic prevention focus. A second study demonstrated that the effect generalizes to subliminally presented acceptance-related (vs. nonsocial, sexist) words, and when a promotion (vs. prevention) focus had been experimentally induced. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.