ON BEING MORE THAN JUST A PART OF THE WHOLE - REGIONAL IDENTITY AND SOCIAL DISTINCTIVENESS

This article reports the results of a questionnaire study that examine d the relationship between regional identification and perceptual acce ntuation of ingroup distinctiveness in a natural field setting. Respon dents were male inhabitants of the Saarland which is a small German st ate. Half the respondents were members of the leading political party of the Saarland, while the other respondents were members of the major opposition party. As expected, the former showed more pronounced regi onal identification than the latter. Our main prediction was that a hi gher level of regional identification would be accompanied by stronger accentuation of positive distinctiveness of the regional ingroup rela tive to the national ingroup. The prediction was confirmed both in ter ms of intergroup differentiation and perceived group homogeneity. Addi tional results suggest that, depending on the level of social identifi cation, perceived group homogeneity may be either positively or negati vely related to familiarity with the ingroup. Finally, we discuss the applicability of social identity theory to social contexts comprising differentially inclusive in groups instead of mutually exclusive in gr oups and outgroups.