Prominence and Salience Effects on Identity Nonverification

Abstract

Identity verification occurs when individuals’ situational identity meanings match the meanings in their identity standard. When a person verifies an identity, they feel understood, and they feel good. When an identity is not verified, people feel misunderstood, and they feel bad. Two identity characteristics that may moderate people’s negative reactions to identity nonverification are identity prominence or importance and identity salience or time spent in the identity. We study these moderating effects on a national sample of adults who had problems verifying their identities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The identities included worker, friend, romantic partner, and family member. The results show, as hypothesized, that identity prominence increases the negative responses to nonverification, while identity salience decreases the negative responses to identity nonverification. We discuss how these countervailing effects advance our understanding of identity prominence and salience.