The Impact of Merger Status and Relative Representation on Identification with a Merger Group

Authors: Boen, Filip; Vanbeselaere, Norbert; Millet, Kobe

Source: Psychologica Belgica, Volume 45, Number 4, 2005 , pp. 257-270(14)

Publisher: Academia Press

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Abstract:

This experiment tested to what extent identification with a new merger group is determined by the status of that merger group and by the relative representation of the pre-merger ingroup. One hundred university students were assigned to a team of 'inductive' thinkers, and were later merged with a team of 'deductive' thinkers to form a team of 'analyst' thinkers. The status of the merger group (low, high) and the relative representation of the ingroup into the novel merger group (low, high) were manipulated. Participants identified more with the merger group in the high than in the low status condition, and they identified more in the high than in the low representation condition. The predicted interaction between relative representation and merger status was not significant. However, relative representation did interact with participants' pre-merger identification: Pre- and post-merger identification were positively related when the ingroup was highly represented, but negatively when the ingroup was lowly represented.

Document Type: Research article

Publication date: 2005-12-01

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Psychologica Belgica is the flagship journal of the Belgian Association for Psychological Science. It appears quarterly and publishes peer-reviewed scientific contributions to all domains of psychology as well as book reviews. Contributions take the form of full-length articles or short reports. Psychologica Belgica is listed in all major indexes, including Current Contents and Psychological Abstracts.
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