You Can’t Always Do What You Want: Social Identity and Self-Presentational Determinants of the Choice to Work for a Low-Status Group

Abstract

Group members’ choice to work on individual or on group status improvement was examined as a function of degree of ingroup identification (low, high) and accountability of responses (anonymous, accountable to the ingroup). In Experiment 1 (N = 73), in line with the authors’ predictions, accountability elicited progroup behavior among low identifiers, whereas individualistic behavior was displayed when participants were anonymous. No similar effect of accountability was observed for high identifiers, who always chose for group status improvement. Experiment 2(N = 118) replicated and extended these findings. Degree of identification with the ingroup was shown to determine which contextual cues are likely to influence group members’ responses. The integration of traditionally separate models of social influence (self-presentation and social identity) is proposed. It is suggested that degree of identification with a group functions as a moderator of which type of influence the group is able to exert.

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