Group Identity and Intergroup Discrimination: Does Importance to Identity Play a Special Role?

The purpose of this thesis is to evaluate the relationship between a specific dimension of collective identity, importance to identity, and intergroup discrimination. Three sets of studies explored this association. The first set (Studies 1a – 1d) assessed whether emphasising vs. de-emphasising the intergroup context affected the relationship between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination. Findings from Studies 1a – 1d revealed a significant positive relationship between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination when intergroup relations were emphasised. No such association was found when intergroup relations were de-emphasised. When the intergroup context was emphasised, New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward both Americans and Asians, than other New Zealanders. Both men and women whose gender identities were important to them showed more discrimination toward members of the opposite sex than members of their own sex. The second set of studies (Studies 2a – 2f) evaluated whether 12 potentially overlapping variables explained the relationship found between importance to identity and intergroup discrimination. In addition to completing measures of importance to identity and intergroup discrimination, participants in each of the 6 separate studies that comprised Study 2 responded to 2 measures assessing potentially overlapping variables (12 of these variables were assessed altogether, across the 6 studies). These were state (personal) self-esteem, private collective self-esteem (private CSE), public collective self-esteem (public CSE), membership collective self-esteem (membership CSE), perceived intergroup conflict, quality of social identity, group identification, trait self-esteem, affective commitment, categorisation, social dominance orientation (SDO) and right wing authoritarianism (RWA). Findings from Studies 2a – 2f revealed that importance to identity uniquely predicted intergroup discrimination. Northern Irish individuals whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward Polish immigrants, than other Northern Irish individuals. New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward both Asians and Americans, than other New Zealanders. Both men and women whose gender identities were important to them showed more discrimination toward members of the opposite sex than members of their own sex. None of these associations were explained by any of the 12 potentially overlapping constructs. The third set of studies (Studies 3a – 3b) investigated whether importance to identity served as a dependent variable, as well as an independent variable, in relation to intergroup discrimination. Findings from Studies 3a – 3b revealed that importance to identity both predicted and was predicted by intergroup discrimination. New Zealanders whose national identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward Americans than other New Zealanders and this discrimination in turn strengthened the importance of their national identity. Women whose gender identity was important to them showed more discrimination toward men than other women and this in turn strengthened the importance of their gender identity. The findings across all three sets of studies (1a – 1d, 2a – 2f and 3a – 3b) show that when a particular group identity is important to a person, they are more likely to engage in discrimination against outgroup members. This act of engaging in intergroup discrimination is, in turn, likely to increase the importance a person attaches to that group identity. The implications of these results are discussed and suggestions for future research directions are made