Abstract
In the present study we investigate the mutability of essentialist ingroup and outgroup attributions in relation to positive and negative ingroup trait priming for ethnic minority and majority members in two countries (Study 1 in Austria: with Austrians and Austrian Turks; Study 2 in Lithuania: with Lithuanians and Lithuanian Poles). Both studies demonstrate that essentialist ingroup-attributions were lower when both minority and majority members were encountering negative (as compared to neutral/positive) ingroup traits. Only minority members raised the level of essentialist ingroup-attributions with positive ingroup trait priming. Additionally, Study 2 compared essentialist attributions in two regions (typical and numerically reversed minority-majority groups). The typical majority Lithuanians and “reversed” Poles attributed a lower level of ingroup-essence than the typical minority Poles and “reversed” Lithuanians. With ingroup trait priming, the “reversed” groups showed the same pattern, changing the levels of self-attributed essence like the ethnic Lithuanians/Poles in typical regions. The results demonstrate the mutable use of group-based essentialist self-attributions as a response to manipulation of positive/negative trait presentation of the ingroup. Consequently, group-essentialization is not a static property of a group but situationally and strategically variable. Exploration of reversed minority-majority situations reveals additional aspects of this variability.
Highlights
When Jonas, for example, thinks that all his Lithuanian compatriots have something in common that makes them Lithuanian and they could never become anything else, he attributes them an essence, that is, an inherent and stable 'substance' that can be called Lithuanian-ness
What did the researchers do and find? We conducted two experiments: Study 1 with majority Austrians and minority Turks living in Austria; Study 2 with majority Lithuanians and minority Poles living in Lithuania
The purpose of this paper is to address four important issues pertaining to the potential mutability of essentialist group attributions: (1) how essentialist ingroup and outgroup attributions differ among minority and majority groups (Studies 1 and 2); (2) how essentialist attributions differ if participants are primed with positive, neutral or negative ingroup traits (Studies 1 and 2); (3) how such group trait priming is related to essentialist attributions of minority and majority group members (Studies 1 and 2); and (4) how these differences emerge in typical and numerically reversed minority-majority settings (Study 2)
Summary
When Jonas, for example, thinks that all his Lithuanian compatriots have something in common that makes them Lithuanian and they could never become anything else, he attributes them an essence, that is, an inherent and stable 'substance' that can be called Lithuanian-ness. This is an example of essentialist thinking that can be both useful and harmful. Participants were presented a list of statements that contained either positive or negative characteristics about their own group They read the statements, thought about them and probably
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