Networks as Self-Defense: Identity and Compensatory Network Activation (WITHDRAWN)

Abstract

We argue that social networks function as more than pipes and prisms that transmit tangible and intangible resources interpersonally: they also serve people’s intrapersonal goals of identity maintenance. Three experiments considered how identity primes affected people’s representations of their networks. People who received feedback that disconfirmed their gender (Study 1) and political/ideological (Study 2) identities, subsequently recalled, or cognitively activated, networks that were smaller, denser, more emotionally supportive, more likely to be composed of people they have known for longer, and more likely to be composed of people associated with their disconfirmed identity. While identity-disconfirming information unsurprisingly triggered negative affect, people who then cognitively activated the types of networks mentioned above reported elevated moods. These results are indicative of an affirmational, compensatory function of (cognitive) social networks that allows people a psychological respite from situations that disaffirm self-perception. A final study (Study 3) investigated how this psychological process could affect more instrumental networking goals such as information search. By utilizing networks to serve identity-related goals, people may distort and block the network pipes that service effective network mobilization.