Readiness to deny group’s wrongdoing and willingness to fight for its members: the role of Poles’ identity fusion with the country and religious group

Abstract

Identity fusion is a powerful visceral feeling of oneness with the group. Dozens of studies have demonstrated that identity fusion is a powerful predictor of endorsement of extreme behavior for the group. However, most research has been conducted with Spanish and/or North-American participants, and focused on the country as the target group. participants and procedureTwo correlational studies were conducted with Polish participants, using measures of identity fusion, group identification, willingness to fight and die for ingroup members and readiness to deny group's wrongdoing. resultsWe replicate and extend previous findings by showing that fusion with the country also predicts endorsement of extreme pro-ingroup behaviors with Polish participants (Study 1). Interestingly, fusion with religious group predicts willingness to endorse pro-ingroup behaviors for the religion they practice (Study 2). In addition, the present research shows that strongly fused participants display high levels of readiness to deny the group's wrongdoing, when the target group is the country (Study 1) or religious group (Study 2). conclusionsThese findings replicate and extend previous research and are a valuable contribution to the identity fusion theory. key words social identity; identity fusion; extremism; attitudes Tomasz Besta 1·A

“Out of Place” in the City: Development of Sociospatial Disorder Sensitivity Scale in Urban Settings

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Temporal dynamics of partisan identity fusion and prosociality during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election

“…This view has the advantage of offering a simple explanation for even quite extreme sacrifice for a group: defending the group is actively conceptualized as defending the self . Supporting this perspective, several studies have found that identity fusion fosters extreme ingroup behavior, including the willingness to fight and die for one's country (Besta, Gómez, & Vázquez, 2014;Swann, Gómez, Huici, Morales, & Hixon, 2010;Swann et al, 2014;Whitehouse et al, 2017), as well as less extreme behavior like ingroup helping (Buhrmester, Fraser, Lanman, Whitehouse, & Swann, 2015;Gómez, Morales, Hart, Vázquez, & Swann, 2011).…”

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