The Effects Of Social Identity On Local Dominance

The theory of local dominance is that when multiple comparison standards are available for self-evaluation, people rely on the most local comparison information while deemphasizing more general, and typically more diagnostic, forms of comparison feedback. In this study, the Group Identification Questionnaire was revised among the college students firstly, and the effects of social identity on local dominance were discussed through three experiments. Using 2(social identity: high vs. low) x 2(general comparison information: positive feedback vs. negative feedback) between-subjects design, their effects on self-evaluation, group-evaluation, affect, self-esteem and implicit self-esteem were explored in experiment 1; in experiment 2, local comparison information was added as an independent variable on the basis of experiment 1 in order to explore the role of social identity in local dominance; experiment 3 further examined the effects of social identity on local dominance in the situation of intergroup threat. Results showed that:(1) When only general comparison information existed, the general comparison information could affect self-evaluation; the interaction on self-evaluation between social identity and general comparison information was significant, so that the people with high social identity evaluated themselves relying on general comparison information less than the ones with low social identity.(2) Local dominance in self-evaluation was existed among the Chinese college students; the interaction on self-evaluation between social identity and general comparison information was significant, so that the people with high social identity evaluated themselves relying on general comparison information less than the ones with low social identity.(3) In the situation of intergroup threat, the local dominance in self-evaluation still existed; however, the interaction on self-evaluation between social identity and general comparison information was not significant, showing that the difference between the people with high and low social identity in the degree of relying on the general comparison information when they evaluated themselves was related to group status.(4) Under the experimental paradigm in this research, comparison information had no effects on self-esteem and implicit self-esteem.