ETHNOCENTRISM IN RESPONSE TO A THREAT TO SOCIAL IDENTITY

Pairs of groups (one all male and the other all female) separately dis cussed an issue related to gender equality. Then threat to social iden tity and concern for the issue were manipulated. The results replicate those found in an earlier experiment using essentially the same exper imental procedure. Specifically threatened groups responded ethnocentr ically by differentiating the outgroup from their own group along fema le sex-role stereotype and attitude dimensions. The strength of group identification was significantly related to differentiation for these groups. Unexpectedly, groups in the high concern conditions tended to increase their group identity and cohesion under threat, while groups in the moderate concern conditions did the reverse. The importance of considering perceived threat to social identity as a motive for ethnoc entrism is discussed