Looking for my self: Identity-driven attention allocation

Abstract

This research builds on the motivational aspects of identity salience, finding that social identities direct the allocation of attention in identity-syntonic ways. Drawing from identity-based motivation (Oyserman, 2009; Reed, et al., 2012) we suggest individuals use attention to enhance identity-fit; selectively focusing on cues and stimuli that are identity-consistent. In two studies we find that activating a social identity drives preferential attention toward identity-relevant stimuli. Using a novel paradigm, Study 1 demonstrates that individuals strategically focus attention on identity-consistent emotional stimuli, while also shifting attention away from identity-inconsistent emotional stimuli. Using a dot-probe paradigm, Study 2 extends these results to show that individuals allocate attention toward both emotional and non-emotional (semantic associates) stimuli that are identity-consistent, and away from those that are incompatible. Consistent with theories suggesting cognition and perception are constructed (James, 1890/1983) and that identities direct and influence meaning-making (Oyserman, 2009; Reed et al., 2012), we find that social identities drive attention allocation, with identity-consistent stimuli receiving greater attention; suggesting that an identity’s sense-making begins with motivated attention toward perceiving an identity-consistent environment.