D.H.J. Wigboldus

I feel for us: the impact of categorization and identification on emotions and action tendencies.

Building upon the social emotion model (Smith, 1999), we examined the combined impact of categorization context and social identification on emotional reactions and behavioural tendencies of people confronted with the victims of harmful behaviour. Depending on conditions, participants were led to categorize the victims and themselves in the same common group or in two distinct subgroups of the larger common group. We also measured participants level of identification with the group that was made contextually salient. As predicted, emotional reactions of anger and their associated offensive action tendencies were more prevalent when participants were induced to see the victims and themselves as part of the same group and when they were highly identified with this common group. In line with appraisal theories of emotion, we also found that the emotional reaction fully mediated the impact of categorization context and identification on action tendencies. We discuss the data with respect to their implications for the role of emotion in improving intergroup relations.

Social Categorization and Fear Reactions to the September 11th Terrorist Attacks

Two experiments were run in The Netherlands and Belgium 1 week after the terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center in New York on September 11, 2001. The aim was to investigate whether social categorization affected emotional reactions, behavioral tendencies, and actual behaviors. Results showed that focusing participants’ attention on an identity that included American victims into a common ingroup led them to report more fear and stronger fear-related behavioral tendencies and to engage more often in fear-related behaviors than when victims were categorized as outgroup members. Results are discussed with respect to appraisal theories of emotion and E. R. Smith’s model of group-based emotions.

When stereotypes get in the way: Stereotypes obstruct stereotype-inconsistent trait inferences

There is a growing body of evidence indicating that people spontaneously make trait inferences while observing the behavior of others. The present article reports a series of 5 experiments that examined the influence of stereotypes on the spontaneous inference of traits. Results consistently showed weaker spontaneous trait inferences for stereotype-inconsistent behavioral information than for stereotype-consistent and stereotype-neutral information. Taken together, the current results suggest that specific spontaneous trait inferences become obstructed by inhibitory processes when behavior is inconsistent with an already activated stereotype. These findings are discussed in relation to stereotype maintenance processes and recent models of attribution in social judgment.

Children's communication of the Linguistic Intergroup Bias and its impact upon cognitive inferences.

The hypotheses that children use language strategically (e.g. as in the Linguistic Intergroup Bias) and with increasing strength with age were supported in an experiment with participants ranging in age from 8 to 19 years. In a second experiment, the impact of biased language use on participants inferences was examined in a sample ranging in age from 5 to 11 years. It was shown for all age groups that participants inferences were systematically influenced by the abstractness or concreteness of a message. The implications of these findings for the communication and transmission of stereotypes at an early age are discussed.

Unpacking atitudes towards genetically modified food.

The present study investigates the structure of attitudes towards genetically modified (GM) food. A total of 431 respondents completed a questionnaire measuring their overall attitude, cognition and affect towards GM food. A model with distinct positive and negative, affective and cognitive components and a separate factor for perceived risk and worry best accounted for the data. Negative--but not positive--components directly affected behavioural intentions. Implications of these findings for our understanding of attitudes towards GM food and their impact on behaviour are discussed.