Conference Proceedings

2007 Social Psychology Section Annual Conference

Conference Venue: Department of Psychology, University of Kent
Social Psychology Section

From: 09 May 2007
To: 09 Jul 2007

 
Peer-Reviewed

Project to Protect

Brezo Cortes (1), Richard Crisp (1), & Michael Hogg (2)
(1) University of Kent & (2) Claremont Graduate College


Group membership promotes enhanced overlap between self-defining and group-defining attributes. In this paper we focus on the conditions under which identification with a group under threat is associated with projection (defining the group in terms of self-attributes).Self salience will lead to projection when the group is under threat but only where people are self-confident, certain. There is little to be gained from defining a threaten group in terms of an uncertain self. On the other hand, when someone is certain of their skills, projection can be used to protect group identity. In one 2x2 experiment (N = 100) we measured self confidence and self-ingroup overlap among British participants under threat or in a control condition. We found, as predicted, that participants in the threat condition with high self-confidence engaged in projection to enhance self-ingroup overlap, whereas low self-confidence participants did not. No effects were found in the control condition.