Champ or chump: strategic utilization of dual social identities of others

Abstract

The Jamaican-born, Canadian sprinter, Ben Johnson, won the gold medal at the 1988 Olympics, but afterward was disqualified for steroid use. At the time Johnson's identity in the Canadian media appeared to shift-he was 'Canadian' after winning the gold medal but 'Jamaican' after disqualification. We tested this hypothesis via an archival study of a newspaper database of Canadian newspapers. The results confirmed the speculation. In the second study with Canadian research participants, the nationality of a fictional athlete was experimentally manipulated. He either possessed CanadianAmerican (shared) or Belgian-American (non-shared) identity. The athlete's performance outcome at an Olympic event was also manipulated. In the shared identity condition the athlete was perceived as more Canadian when he won than when he lost. There were no significant differences in nationality judgment when neither of the athlete's dual nationalities was Canadian. Results regarding perceptions of similarity paralleled the nationality-ratings results. Findings from these two studies illustrate an interesting extension of BIRGing and CORFing strategies in which multiple social identities of others are used strategically to include or exclude others from the in-group.

Which Group to Credit (and Blame)? Whites Make Attributions about White-Minority Biracials’ Successes and Failures Based on Their Own (Anti-)Egalitarianism and Ethnic Identification

“…Controlling for social dominance orientation (and its interactions), we observed that Whites higher and lower in ethnic identification differed in the attributions they made about which background had been more formative in shaping a half-White/half-minority target as a function of whether that target had a positive or negative reputation. In particular, consistent with existing research on the desire to maintain the standing of one's ingroup, avoid its 'contamination', and to bask in its successes while cutting off reflected failures Cialdini et al, 1976;Snyder et al, 1986;Stelzl et al, 2008), highly identified Whites tended to see a target's White identity as more formative when he was reputable but his minority background as more formative when he was disreputable. Importantly, however, weakly identified Whites tended to show the exact opposite pattern, attributing targets' disreputable behavior to their Whiteness and reputable behavior to the minority outgroup.…”

“…For example, individuals-particularly those who strongly identify with their group-engage in "ingroup overexclusion," setting more stringent requirements before including a target into their own group versus other groups, in order to ensure that their group is not "contaminated" (Castano, Paladino, Coull, & Yzerbyt, 2002;Castano, Yzerbyt, Bourguignon, & Seron, 2002). And in one clever demonstration closely related to the current work, Canadians were more likely to describe Benjamin Jones-a Jamaican-born Canadian runner-as Canadian after he set a world record, but as Jamaican after he was disqualified for doping (Stelzl, Janes, & Seligman, 2008), suggesting that individuals used the status of an ambiguous target in order to determine whether or not they considered him to be a member of their group.…”

Mirror, Mirror on the Wall: Identity‐Image Interactions for the Sales Force in High Threat Situations

“…The restructuring of organizational identity might also seem similar to the ideas associated with dual identities (e.g., Simon and Ruhs, ; Stelzl et al ., ; Badea et al ., ; Hopkins, ). However, this is a misconception.…”

Actitud hacia los futbolistas nacionalizados: el rol de la ideología y la conveniencia

“…A continuación los participantes, todos canadienses, tení-an que evaluar cuál de las dos nacionalidades describía mejor al atleta. Como se esperaba, los resultados mostraron que en la condición en la que el atleta ganaba, en comparación con la que perdía, era percibido como más canadiense (Stelzl et al, 2008;Estudio 2).…”