SOCIAL IDENTITY ORIENTATION AND THE GENERATION OF COMPENSATORY EXPECTATIONS - SCHEMA MAINTENANCE THROUGH COMPENSATION

This research explored the role that motives to confirm or maintain gr oup stereotypes play in forming expectations about the future behavior s of ingroups. Participants who were high and low in social identity o rientation (SIO) were presented with inconsistent information about th e behavior of a member of their cohort group (i.e., college students). They then made predictions about the future behavior of either the de viant student (same target) or another student who was unrelated to th e deviant (different target). High SIO participants, who should be esp ecially motivated to confirm or maintain their group concept, generate d compensatory expectations about the future behavior of a different g roup member who was unrelated to the deviant. Participants who were lo w in SIO did not demonstrate these effects. These results extend previ ous work (Seta & Seta, 1993) by demonstrating the moderating role of i ndividuals' motivation to maintain group concepts. Results were also d iscussed in relation to Steele's research on self-affirmation (e.g., S teele & Lui, 1983) and our analysis of schema maintenance through comp ensation.