Group Identification and Outgroup Attitudes in Four South African Ethnic Groups: A Multidimensional Approach

Abstract

Although Sumner's ethnocentrism hypothesis, which expects stronger group identification to be associated with more negative outgroup attitudes, has been widely accepted, empirical findings have been inconsistent. This research investigates the relationship of four dimensions of ethnocultural group identification previously proposed by Phinney, that is, salience, evaluation, attachment, and involvement, with attitudes to ethnic outgroups in four South African ethnocultural groups (Africans, Afrikaans Whites, English Whites, Indians). The findings supported the factorial independence of the four identification dimensions and indicated that only one, ethnocultural evaluation (ingroup attitudes), was systematically related to outgroup attitudes, but the association could be positive, negative, or zero. Both functionalist and similarity-dissimilarity approaches to intergroup relations seemed to provide plausible explanations for the pattern of relationships obtained between ingroup and outgroup attitudes.

Ethnocultural identification and naturally occurring interethnic social interactions: Muslim minorities in Europe

“…These results support Allport's (1954) suggestion that a stronger attachment to the ingroup does not necessarily lead to more negativity toward outgroups. These findings are noteworthy, given that it has often been argued (e.g., Brewer, 1999;Duckitt et al, 2005) that ingroup identification should be associated with greater outgroup negativity when intergroup relations are more conflictual, as was certainly the case in the Netherlands. In combination with the fact that we found positive relationships between attachment to the majority culture and quality of interethnic contact, our results suggest that for ethnic minorities, the quality of interactions with members of the majority culture are determined by how much they feel part of the majority culture, not by how much they feel part of their ethnic ingroup.…”

“…Empirical studies on the relationships between ingroup identification and outgroup attitudes and experiences have provided inconsistent results as well, sometimes finding a negative relationship, sometimes a positive one, and sometimes no relationship (Duckitt et al, 2005). For example, Lee and Gudykunst (2001) in one sample (non-European Americans) found a positive relationship between strength of ethnic ingroup identity and how positive people's expectations were about interactions with members of other ethnic groups, whereas in another sample (European Americans) they found no relationship between identification and such expectations.…”

The use of traits and contextual information in free personality descriptions across ethnocultural groups in South Africa.

“…The interplay of personality and context has also attracted renewed interest (e.g., Donnellan, Lucas, & Fleeson, 2009;Funder, 2008;Mischel & Shoda, 1995), with some moves to incorporate culture in this interplay (e.g., Church, Katigbak, & Del Prado, 2010;Matsumoto, Yoo, Fontaine, & 56 Even though research is sometimes conducted on the level of the four ethnic groups (Duckitt, Callaghan, & Wagner, 2005) and recent studies have sought to account for the linguistic diversity of South Africa (Meiring, Van de Vijver, Blacks and Whites. There is evidence for differences between the two groups, which points to Blacks being more collectivistic and Whites more individualistic (Allik & McCrae, 2004;Eaton & Louw, 2000;Watkins et al, 1998).…”

Collective Identity and Intergroup Discrimination: Outcomes in Contexts that Emphasize and do not Emphasize Intergroup Relations

“…The idea that collective identity and intergroup discrimination are associated may be derived from a number of theoretical perspectives [1][2][3][4]. The most prominent of these perspectives is social identity theory (SIT).…”

“…Other work reports little evidence of such relationships [15][16][17][18][19][20]. Likewise investigations that examine multiple associations (e.g., amongst various groups, positive and negative forms of discrimination, ingroup and outgroup ratings, or diverse aspects of identity) have reported correlations that are sometimes positive, sometimes negative and sometimes essentially zero [3,[21][22][23][24][25][26][27][28].…”