STATUS PROTECTION IN HIGH STATUS MINORITY-GROUPS

The present study investigated the conditions under which group member s try to obtain membership in another group, or are motivated to prote ct their group membership when they risk losing it. One hundred and tw enty-nine high school students participated as subjects in a laborator y experiment. Subjects were divided into two groups, allegedly on the basis of their problem solving style. The relative size (minority/majo rity) and status position (high/low) of the subject's group, as well a s the permeability of group boundaries (permeable/impermeable) were ma nipulated as independent variables in a 2 x 2 x 2 factorial design. Th e main dependent variables were the extent to which individuals valued their group membership, and identified with their group. The main res ults are that membership in a group with high status is considered mor e attractive than membership in a low status group. This differential evaluation of high and low status groups is more extreme in minority g roups than in groups of majority size. Furthermore, when group boundar ies are permeable, members of high status minorities show relatively s trong ingroup identification, indicating a strengthening of ties with their own group when an alternative (majority) group affiliation is po ssible. However, our expectation that permeable group boundaries would result in diminished ingroup identification in low status minorities was not confirmed. Some additional data suggest that unsatisfactory me mbership in a low status group is resolved in a different way.