The Relationship Between Group Identity And Inter-group Discrimination Under Multidimensional Perspective

Group identity and inter-group discrimination are the research hot spots in current social psychology.However,the relationship between the two has not yet reached a consensus conclusion.There are two reasons for this:First,group identity and inter-group discrimination can not be linked in any situation,and may only be linked under certain conditions.Second,group identity is multidimensional,and inter-group discrimination might be associated with some dimensions of group identity.Therefore,the purpose of this paper is to explore the universal relationship between group identity and inter-group discrimination from a multidimensional perspective by exploring the structure of group identity and manipulating situations.The pre-research explores and validates the structure of group identity through literature analysis and questionnaire surveys,and proves that it is reasonable to divide group identity into three dimensions of importance to identity,group self-esteem,and quality of identity,and can be used as a tool for follow-up research.The first set of studies(Studies 1a-1c)examine the relationship between group identity and inter-group discrimination from a multidimensional perspective by manipulating the threat of social identity.There are two situations in this study,one is that the group identity is threatened(the negative evaluation of the out-group to the in-group),the other is that the group identity is not threatened(the positive evaluation of the out-group to the in-group).The results show that when assessing national identity,the importance to identity,group self-esteem can significantly predict inter-group discrimination,social identity threat has a significant positive predictive effect on inter-group discrimination,and social identity threat can regulate the impact of identity quality on inter-group discrimination.When assessing gender identity,group self-esteem and identity quality can significantly predict inter-group discrimination,social identity threat has a significant positive predictive effect on inter-group discrimination,and social identity threat can regulate the impact of identity quality on inter-group discrimination.This shows that when individuals assessing the national identity and gender identity,the cognitive,evaluative and emotional elements of group identity are different for individuals.The second set of studies(Studies 2a-2b)examine the influence of personality variables(social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism)on the relationship between group identity and inter-group discrimination,reveals a more general and pure relationship between group identity and inter-group discrimination and then from the perspective of social context and group identity to find measures to reduce inter-group discrimination.The results show that whether assessing national identity or gender identity.social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism can significantly predict inter-group discrimination;the importance to identity and group self-esteem are still have a significant positive predictive effect on inter-discrimination after controlling for the two personality variables of social dominance orientation and right-wing authoritarianism.This shows that personality is not the only factor that influences inter-group discrimination,but it is still in need of further study on the form of its influence on inter-group discrimination.