Chi-Yue Chiu

Social comparison during political transition: Interaction of entity versus incremental beliefs and social identities

Abstract The relation between intergroup perceptions and peoples implicit theories of the malleability of human attributes or character was examined. We predicted that people who believe that human attributes are fixed (entity theorists) may also view a group as an entity and thus would rely on trait-based dimensions in social comparison to achieve group distinctiveness. By contrast, people who believe that human attributes are malleable (incremental theorists) may focus on the dynamic aspects of social groups (e.g., group goals) and thus would be less likely to rely on trait-based dimensions in social comparison. Moreover, such differential tendency was expected to become more salient as the day of the handover approached. These predictions were tested in a longitudinal study conducted in Hong Kong during the 1997 political transition. Implicit theories, social identities and group categorization strategies of 242 university students were assessed first in March, 1996, and then in September, 1996 and March, 1997. The findings supported our predictions and were discussed in terms of their implications for intergroup relations.

How Are Social Identities Linked to Self-Conception and Intergroup Orientation? The Moderating Effect of Implicit Theories

Social identity approaches assume that social identification affects both self-conception and intergroup orientation. The authors contend that such social identification effects are accentuated when people hold a fixed view of human character and attribute immutable dispositions to social groups. To these individuals, social identities are immutable, concrete entities capable of guiding self-conception and intergroup orientation. Social identification effects are attenuated when people hold a malleable view of human character and thus do not view social identities as fixed, concrete entities. The authors tested and found support for this contention in three studies that were conducted in the context of the Hong Kong 1997 political transition, and discussed the findings in terms of their implications for self-conceptions and the meaning of social identification.

Social identification in a political transition: the role of implicit beliefs

Abstract The optimal distinctiveness model posits that social identificaion is a social psychological expression of the universal needs for connectedness and differentiation. We propose that compared to individuals who believe that the social world is malleable (malleable theorists), individuals who believe that the social world is a fixed reality (fixed theorists) may feel more strongly that people should harmonize the self with, rather than differentiate it from, the fixed social world. Fixed theorists may thus have a relatively stronger connectedness motivation and a relatively weaker differentiation motivation. This proposal was tested in an experimental study (Study 1) and a longitudinal study (Study 2), both set in the context of the 1997 political transition in Hong Kong, in which Hong Kong people faced the social identification issue of whether to identify themselves with the more inclusive Chinese group or to affirm their distinctive Hong Konger identity. The results supported our proposal and were discussed in terms of their implications for several theoretical models of social identification and for the social identification processes in transitional Hong Kong.

Temporal causal links between outgroup attitudes and social categorization: The case of Hong Kong 1997 transition

Social identity theories have posited that peoples social categorization renders ingroup favoritism and outgroup discrimination. However, studies conducted during political transitions (South Africas democratic election and East-West German unification) have revealed mixed directions of the causal links between social categorization and intergroup attitudes. To further address this issue, we conducted two longitudinal studies during the handover of Hong Kong in 1997. Study 1 revealed mixed temporal causal links between Hong Kong participants social categorization and their attitudes toward Chinese Mainlanders across four waves. In Study 2, we conducted a summer camp in which Hong Kong participants came into contact with new immigrants from Mainland China. In this condition, Hong Kong participants prior attitudes toward Mainlanders predicted their subsequent social categorization. These findings were interpreted in terms of intergroup relations during political transitions.

Lay Theories and Evaluation-Based Organization of Impressions: An Application of the Memory Search Paradigm

People may believe that personal attributes are fixed entities that cannot be changed (hold an entity theory). Alternatively, they may believe that qualities of a person are malleable (hold an incremental theory). In the present research, the authors used Sternberg’s (1966) memory search task to examine entity and incremental theorists’ cognitive strategies in memory search. It was hypothesized that entity theorists, who have a greater tendency to make spontaneous evaluation of people, would organize impressions in short-term memory according to whether the stimulus persons are positively or negatively evaluated. Next, they might compare the probe only to the stimulus persons with matched valence or discard the ones that did not match the probe in valence. By comparison, incremental theorists, who tend not to make immediate evaluative trait judgments, should be less likely to use these evaluation-based strategies. These hypotheses were confirmed in two memory search experiments, in which the names of positive or negative persons were used as stimuli.