Physiological arousal and reactions to outgroup members during competitions that implicate an important social identity

Abstract

Exposure to sports competitions, especially those involving violence, can elevate physiological arousal, potentially setting the stage for transforming hostile inclinations into aggressive behavior. Personality and cognitive factors that influence the interpretation given to such competitions may influence the impact of these events. The effects of exposure to a sporting competition that had high or low importance for subjects' social identity on pre‐ to post‐film blood pressure and evaluations of outgroups were examined. Aggression may be particularly likely when arousal levels are elevated, and such arousal was expected to be determined by the importance of the identity at stake, regardless of the outcome of the competition. Individuals who were either strongly identified with America or were less identified viewed a boxing match where the American athlete lost the competition (and the Russian contestant won), or the Russian athlete lost (and the American won). Both diastolic and systolic blood pressure measures showed an increase pre‐ to post‐film in the highly identified persons while no such change was observed in the low identitied individuals. Cognitive measures assessing evaluations of the Russian boxer, and Russians in general, showed effects parallel to the arousal indexes with high identified persons expressing more derogation of threat‐relevant targets than did those low in identification. Arousal increases in only the highly identified viewers predicted derogation of Russians. Discussion centers on the role of identification with a sports team on physiological processes and their implications for spectator aggression.

Veg*ns’ and omnivores’ reciprocal attitudes and dehumanization: The role of social dominance orientation, ingroup identification, and anticipated reproach

“…On the other hand, indeed, veg*ns identified with their ingroup more than omnivores, and this ingroup identification was associated with a less positive attitude toward the outgroup. This consistently emerged in both samples and is in line with previous research showing that being part of a stigmatized social minority elicits strong ingroup identification (e.g., Abrams, 1994;Brewer & Weber, 1994;Ellemers & van Rijswijk, 1997) that, in turn, is associated with compensatory outgroup derogation (Appiah et al, 2013;Bettencourt et al, 1999;Moscatelli et al, 2017), especially when the majority group is perceived as a threat to minority members' self-esteem (Branscombe & Wann, 1992;1994).…”

Veg*ns’ and omnivores’ reciprocal attitudes and dehumanization: The role of social dominance orientation, ingroup identification, and anticipated reproach

“…On the other hand, indeed, veg*ns identified with their ingroup more than omnivores, and this ingroup identification was associated with a less positive attitude toward the outgroup. This consistently emerged in both samples and is in line with previous research showing that being part of a stigmatized social minority elicits strong ingroup identification (e.g., Abrams, 1994;Brewer & Weber, 1994;Ellemers & van Rijswijk, 1997) that, in turn, is associated with compensatory outgroup derogation (Appiah et al, 2013;Bettencourt et al, 1999;Moscatelli et al, 2017), especially when the majority group is perceived as a threat to minority members' self-esteem (Branscombe & Wann, 1992;1994).…”

Are you “fan” enough? The role of identity in media fandoms.

“…Another way of thinking of this result is that receiving threatening feedback can temporarily overpower fans' preexisting identification with their fandom, as even those fans who scored very highly on the Fanhood Measure wrote essays similar in length to weakly identified fans following the threat. This is consistent with research that has found that highly identified fans place greater emphasis on incorporating their fandom into their self-concept (Madrigal, 1995;Wann et al, 2000) and are, therefore, more sensitive to stimuli with the potential of affirming or threatening this aspect of their identity (Branscombe & Wann, 1992).…”

Behavioral Responses to Threatened Ethnic Identity in a Sports Setting

“…So behavioral competitiveness is higher when high ethnic identifiers met with a threatening context (an outcome contrary to their estimates), compared to a situation without threat. Such an effect replicates some links recently revealed between social identification and threat, to predict some attitudinal forms of out-group derogation when the context or the out-group is conflictual and competitive (Branscombe & Wann, 1992Brown et al, 2001;Duckitt et al, 2002;Mummendey, Klink, & Brown, 2001).…”

Veg*ns’ and omnivores’ reciprocal attitudes and dehumanization: The role of social dominance orientation, ingroup identification, and anticipated reproach

“…On the other hand, indeed, veg*ns identified with their ingroup more than omnivores, and this ingroup identification was associated with a less positive attitude toward the outgroup. This consistently emerged in both samples and is in line with previous research showing that being part of a stigmatized social minority elicits strong ingroup identification (e.g., Abrams, 1994;Brewer & Weber, 1994;Ellemers & van Rijswijk, 1997) that, in turn, is associated with compensatory outgroup derogation (Appiah et al, 2013;Bettencourt et al, 1999;Moscatelli et al, 2017), especially when the majority group is perceived as a threat to minority members' self-esteem (Branscombe & Wann, 1992;1994).…”

Are you “fan” enough? The role of identity in media fandoms.

“…Another way of thinking of this result is that receiving threatening feedback can temporarily overpower fans' preexisting identification with their fandom, as even those fans who scored very highly on the Fanhood Measure wrote essays similar in length to weakly identified fans following the threat. This is consistent with research that has found that highly identified fans place greater emphasis on incorporating their fandom into their self-concept (Madrigal, 1995;Wann et al, 2000) and are, therefore, more sensitive to stimuli with the potential of affirming or threatening this aspect of their identity (Branscombe & Wann, 1992).…”

Behavioral Responses to Threatened Ethnic Identity in a Sports Setting

“…So behavioral competitiveness is higher when high ethnic identifiers met with a threatening context (an outcome contrary to their estimates), compared to a situation without threat. Such an effect replicates some links recently revealed between social identification and threat, to predict some attitudinal forms of out-group derogation when the context or the out-group is conflictual and competitive (Branscombe & Wann, 1992Brown et al, 2001;Duckitt et al, 2002;Mummendey, Klink, & Brown, 2001).…”

Veg*ns’ and omnivores’ reciprocal attitudes and dehumanization: The role of social dominance orientation, ingroup identification, and anticipated reproach

“…On the other hand, indeed, veg*ns identified with their ingroup more than omnivores, and this ingroup identification was associated with a less positive attitude toward the outgroup. This consistently emerged in both samples and is in line with previous research showing that being part of a stigmatized social minority elicits strong ingroup identification (e.g., Abrams, 1994;Brewer & Weber, 1994;Ellemers & van Rijswijk, 1997) that, in turn, is associated with compensatory outgroup derogation (Appiah et al, 2013;Bettencourt et al, 1999;Moscatelli et al, 2017), especially when the majority group is perceived as a threat to minority members' self-esteem (Branscombe & Wann, 1992;1994).…”

Are you “fan” enough? The role of identity in media fandoms.

“…Another way of thinking of this result is that receiving threatening feedback can temporarily overpower fans' preexisting identification with their fandom, as even those fans who scored very highly on the Fanhood Measure wrote essays similar in length to weakly identified fans following the threat. This is consistent with research that has found that highly identified fans place greater emphasis on incorporating their fandom into their self-concept (Madrigal, 1995;Wann et al, 2000) and are, therefore, more sensitive to stimuli with the potential of affirming or threatening this aspect of their identity (Branscombe & Wann, 1992).…”

Behavioral Responses to Threatened Ethnic Identity in a Sports Setting

“…So behavioral competitiveness is higher when high ethnic identifiers met with a threatening context (an outcome contrary to their estimates), compared to a situation without threat. Such an effect replicates some links recently revealed between social identification and threat, to predict some attitudinal forms of out-group derogation when the context or the out-group is conflictual and competitive (Branscombe & Wann, 1992Brown et al, 2001;Duckitt et al, 2002;Mummendey, Klink, & Brown, 2001).…”