Michael J. Platow

A Social Identity Analysis of Leadership Endorsement: The Effects of Leader Ingroup Prototypicality and Distributive Intergroup Fairness

This study (N = 216) measured the strength of endorsements for ingroup leaders who varied in both their relative ingroup prototypicality and distributive intergroup fairness. Leadership endorsement overall was positively related to group members’ levels of social identification and negatively related to their levels of reported self-interest. Among low identifiers, however, leaders’ distributive behavior reliably predicted endorsements, with stronger endorsements provided for distributively fair than unfair leaders. Among high identifiers, in contrast, both leaders’ distributive behavior and relative ingroup prototypicality were important. Leaders high in ingroup prototypicality received strong endorsements from high identifiers regardless of the leaders’ ingroup-favoring, outgroup-favoring, or fair intergroup behavior. Leaders low in ingroup prototypicality and who were relatively similar to the outgroup received strong endorsements from high identifiers only when the leaders made ingroup-favoring distributions. These data are interpreted within a social identity theory framework.

The Link between Leadership and Followership: How Affirming Social Identity Translates Vision into Action

Two experiments test the hypothesis that support for leaders is enhanced when their decisions affirm a distinct social identity that is shared with followers. In Experiment 1, participants showed less support for a leader who favored ingroup members who were relatively sympathetic to an outgroup position than for one who favored ingroup members who opposed an outgroup position. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, which also showed that this pattern extended to support for the leader’s novel plans. Although participants indicated that they supported a leader who behaved evenhandedly toward all ingroup members as much as one whose behavior was identity-affirming, they were unwilling to back up the evenhanded leader with written comments and arguments. These data suggest that leaders’ capacity to engender active followership is contingent on their ability to promote collective interests associated with a shared ingroup identity.

Group-Based Trust in Strangers The Role of Stereotypes and Expectations

Across two studies, we provide evidence for group-based trust in strangers. Specifically, when we offered participants a choice between an unknown monetary allocation made by an in-group (university or major) or an out-group allocator, both of whom had total control over the distribution of an identical sum of money, participants strongly preferred the in-group allocator. This preference occurred regardless of whether the stereotype of the in-group was relatively more positive or more negative than that of the out-group. However, this preference did not persist when participants believed that the allocator was unaware of their group membership. Measures of expected share of the allocators funds support our hypothesis that differential trust of in-group members results from expectations of altruistic and fair behavior toward fellow in-group members rather than from positive stereotypes of the in-group.

Social identity and the romance of leadership: The importance of being seen to be 'doing it for us'

Previous research by Meindl (e.g. 1993) on the ‘romance of leadership’ suggests that individuals in leadership roles are perceived to be more charismatic to the extent that the organization they lead undergoes a crisis turnaround (e.g. moving from loss to profit) rather than a crisis decline (e.g. moving from profit to loss). Building on a social identity approach to leadership and previous research by Haslam and Platow (in press-a), this paper argues that this pattern should be tempered by the degree to which a leader’s behavior serves to affirm and promote an ingroup identity shared with followers. Consistent with this analysis, an experimental study (N = 120) revealed that, independent of organizational performance, a (male) leader was seen as more charismatic in an intergroup context when his previous behavior had been identity-affirming or even-handed rather than identity-negating. Even-handed leaders also tended to be seen as particularly charismatic when they were associated with crisis turnaround, while identity-affirming leaders were protected from negative attributions in the context of crisis decline. These results suggest that social identity and self-categorization processes have a complex role to play in the emergence and perception of charismatic leadership.

The effects of social context, source fairness, and perceived self-source similarity on social influence: a self-categorisation analysis

Based upon a self-categorisation analysis of social influence (Turner, 1991), we predicted that individuals who self-categorise with the source of a communication would align their own private attitudes more closely with the source when that source was distributively fair rather than unfair in an intragroup context. We expected this pattern to reverse in an intergroup context when the unfairness was ingroup favouring. These expectations were confirmed in a laboratory experiment (N=101). The data suggest that neither source similarity nor source fairness serve simply as persuasion cues to which individuals thoughtlessly conform. We argue, instead that, once self-categorised, individuals: (1) actively attend to an ingroup members behaviours and the context in which they occur, and (2) are influenced only by a source who provides some form of social identity enhancement, either by being fair in an intragroup context (Lind & Tyler, 1988) or ingroup favouring in an intergroup context (Tajfel & Turner, 1986). Copyright

Leadership Endorsement: The Role of Distributive and Procedural Behavior in Interpersonal and Intergroup Contexts

Previous research (Platow, Hoar, Reid, Harley, & Morrison, 1997) showed that the difference in the strength of endorsements provided for a distributively fair over an unfair leader in interpersonal contexts attenuates when the unfairness is ingroup-favoring in intergroup contexts. We extended this to the realm of procedural fairness, and manipulated a leaders distributive fairness, procedural fairness, and the interpersonal versus intergroup context of these behaviors. Results revealed independent intergroup attenuation effects as a function of distributive and procedural fairness; procedural fairness did not moderate the distributive fairness by social context interaction. These findings are discussed within a social identity framework.

Self-categorization, status, and social influence

The domain of social influence is central to social psychology, and is claimed as a core aspect of the explanatory domain of two important theories: self-categorization theory and the theory of status characteristics and expectation states. In this paper we contrast predictions derived from each theory about the relative influence of group members who differ both on shared category membership and on status characteristics. In the first of two experiments, participants were asked to decide which of four people were most likely to know the correct answer to a task; shared group membership, relative group status, and relevant/irrelevant expertise were varied. We found both status and in-group identity effects. A second experiment provided evidence about the importance of perceptions of relative competence and similarity, as related to shared identity and status, in the influence process.

PhD experience and subsequent outcomes: a look at self-perceptions of acquired graduate attributes and supervisor support

The literature examining graduate attributes remains unclear regarding their value to work within and outside of the university context. The current article sought clarity through a quantitative analysis of the relationship between self-perceptions of PhD-related graduate attribute acquisition and both objective (e.g. productivity) and subjective outcomes (i.e. evaluations of PhD experience). The perceived acquisition of graduate attributes was related to post-PhD productivity and subjective evaluations, but not duration of PhD study, productivity during PhD study, time seeking employment post-PhD or current gross salary. Perceptions of supervisor support, as well as a variety of demographic variables, were also related to several of the current outcome measures. Overall, the results speak to the role that university graduate education has in providing for the development of attributes that can be successfully brought to fruition in post-graduation employment through enhanced productivity.

Beyond prevalence to process : the role of self and identity in medical student well-being

Problematic stress levels among medical students have been well established. This stress can lead to depression, suicidal ideation, substance abuse, burnout and cynicism, having a negative effect on students and their patients.

Discipline Social Identification, Study Norms and Learning Approach in University Students.

Adopting a deep approach to learning is associated with positive academic outcomes. In the current paper, we extend this analysis in a university context by recognising that learners are not isolated individuals, but share important social identifications with others. Using online surveys at an Australian university, we examine the effects of discipline social identification and educational norms on the adoption of learning approaches. Students from a range of academic disciplines indicated their social identification with their discipline, their perceptions of peer norms within their discipline of study, and what their own learning approaches were. Results demonstrate a significant role of discipline-related social identification in predicting learning approaches, even after controlling for personal factors and quality of teaching. Moreover, perceived norms moderated this effect. Students’ approaches to learning are affected not simply by their salient self-concepts, but by their salient discipline-related self-concepts and the norms embodied in the learning environment.