PREJUDICE AND SELF-CATEGORIZATION - THE VARIABLE ROLE OF AUTHORITARIANISM AND IN-GROUP STEREOTYPES

In two experimental questionnaire studies among ethnic Dutch participa nts (N = 99 and N = 206), it was found that the factors predicting pre judice depend on the level of self-categorization: personal identity o r national identity In the personal-identity condition, it appeared th at individual differences in authoritarianism were related to prejudic e toward Turkish migrants living in the Netherlands and toward Germans , but there was no effect of in-group stereotypes. In the national-ide ntity condition, in-group stereotypes appeared to be related to prejud ice but not authoritarianism. These results suggest that individual at titudes affect evaluations of out-groups if a personal perspective is activated, whereas a representation of the typical characteristics of in-group members affects the out-group evaluations if a collective per spective is activated. These results are consistent with predictions d erived from self-categorization theory and show that self-categorizati on affects the relative importance of individual and group factors for prejudice.