Readiness to deny group’s wrongdoing and willingness to fight for its members: the role of Poles’ identity fusion with the country and religious group

Abstract

<b>Background</b><br /> Identity fusion is a powerful visceral feeling of oneness with the group. Dozens of studies have demonstrated that identity fusion is a powerful predictor of endorsement of extreme behavior for the group. However, most research has been conducted with Spanish and/or North-American participants, and focused on the country as the target group. <br /> <b>Participants and procedure</b><br /> Two correlational studies were conducted with Polish participants, using measures of identity fusion, group identification, willingness to fight and die for ingroup members and readiness to deny group’s wrongdoing.<br /> <b>Results</b><br /> We replicate and extend previous findings by showing that fusion with the country also predicts endorsement of extreme pro-ingroup behaviors with Polish participants (Study 1). Interestingly, fusion with religious group predicts willingness to endorse pro-ingroup behaviors for the religion they practice (Study 2). In addition, the present research shows that strongly fused participants display high levels of readiness to deny the group’s wrongdoing, when the target group is the country (Study 1) or religious group (Study 2). <br /> <b>Conclusions</b><br /> These findings replicate and extend previous research and are a valuable contribution to the identity fusion theory.