Intergroup Emotions Theory Research Articles

Angry and Afraid: Exploring the Impact of Mixed Emotional Reactions to Hate Crimes With LGBT+ and Muslim Communities.

Hate crimes send messages of intolerance that can cause significant emotional and behavioral harm to entire identity groups. Previous research, based on intergroup emotions theory, has helped explain the psychological mechanisms that underpin the indirect effects of anti-LGBT+ hate crime, showing that incidents give rise to perceptions of threat among community members, which in turn elicit certain emotional reactions that trigger specific behavioral outcomes. This article provides two significant contributions to this developing knowledgebase. First, it provides an important replication of the theoretical model with another frequently targeted community: Muslim people. In addition, it offers the first quantitative analysis of how combinations of different emotions trigger discrete behavioral responses in the aftermath of hate crime, thereby providing much-needed nuance to the intergroup emotions theory model. Across two studies (Study 1: N = 589 LGBT+ participants; Study 2: N = 347 Muslim participants), we show that, for both LGBT+ and Muslim participants, indirect experiences of hate crimes are associated with greater perceptions of threat, which are then positively associated with anger, anxiety, and shame, that link to behavioral intentions: avoidance, pro-action, security behaviors, and retaliation. Latent class analyses further revealed that participants' emotional reactions tend to cluster into four distinct profiles in both communities: people scored mid-range on all emotions, or high anger with low shame, or high anger with high anxiety, or low shame. These combinations had direct implications for intended behaviors across both groups: experiencing high anger with high anxiety was a cogent motivator of action. Most significantly, we provide new insights into how and why different emotions interact to predict both similar and divergent behaviors in the aftermath of hate crime incidents. Our findings yield important new knowledge that holds the potential of shaping both public policies and practices aimed at addressing the impacts of hate crimes.

UGC’s self-deprecation humor and sustainable brand support attitude on social media: expansion of the perspective of affective events theory

ABSTRACT Utilising User Generated Content (UGC) on social media platforms like TikTok and Facebook can establish genuine connections between content creators and their audience. However, managing and maintaining long-term brand development remains a significant challenge. Research on the mechanisms behind sustainable brand support attitudes towards UGC is limited. This paper explores whether a self-deprecating style of humour affects audiences’ sustained brand support attitudes towards social media content creators. Theoretically, this study combines Affective Events Theory (AET) and Intergroup Emotion Theory (IET) to explore how individual attitudes extend to group reactions and the sustainability of personal brands. It aims to thoroughly investigate, in the context of social media, the cognitive and emotional changes in individuals towards themselves and their groups under the stimulus of UGC self-deprecating humour, as well as the process of forming sustainable brand support attitudes. Methodologically, this study employs a covariance-based structural equation model to establish the path mechanism of self-deprecating humour expression on sustainable brand support attitudes at both individual psychology and group attitude levels. Additionally, it analyzes the limitations of self-deprecating humour in UGC, considering users with varying levels of need for cognition. Lastly, the paper discusses the theoretical contributions and practical implications of this study.

‘We despair’: Examining the role of political despair for collective action and well‐being

AbstractAnecdotally, people often report feeling despair about the political status quo. We conceptualise these feelings as political despair. But what is political despair, and what are its effects? We adapt intergroup emotion theory to analyse political despair in the context of racial inequality (Studies 1 and 2) and climate change (Study 3). Three cross‐sectional studies (total N = 866) tested the measurement of political despair (relative to anger and hope), its pattern of appraisals and outcomes for conventional and radical actions along with well‐being (stress, burnout and optimism). Structural equation modelling differentiated political despair from anger and hope and found that despair is associated with evaluations that the situation is both illegitimate and intractable (unchangeable). Moreover, political despair consistently had a negative relationship with well‐being and positive relationships with conventional and radical collective action. The results suggest political despair is negatively associated with well‐being and impact people's engagement in action for social change.

The violent turn in non‐violent collective action: What happens?

AbstractCollective actions (e.g., protest marches, social movements) that begin peacefully sometimes turn into violent clashes between demonstrators and police, with alarming consequences. Research on the violent turn, informed by intergroup social psychology and micro‐sociology, has made significant but separate advances. We review them jointly to form an integrated, fuller understanding of the violent turn and promote interdisciplinary dialogue by discussing their respective strengths and identifying areas where they complement each other. For these purposes we first extract from the psychology of interpersonal aggression literature a three‐phase temporal pattern of aggression escalation to provide a common reference for reviewing representative studies and theories in intergroup social psychology (e.g., elaborated social identity model of crowd rioting, intergroup emotions theory) and micro‐sociology (e.g., micro‐sociological theory of violence, emotional dynamics and behavioural dynamics). The results of our analysis show a sequence of events beginning from instigators and their impellance in the early phase of the violent turn, psychological transformations forming a proclivity to aggress in the middle phase, and collective empowerment that disinhibits violence in the late phase. Group power and, to a less extent, group emotions permeate all phases. The sequence of events reveals transitional points where intervention may be applied to avert or abort violence.

Social Identity Signaling in Public Relations: Job Pursuit Intention among Students With Marginalized Racial and Ethnic Identities and Queer Identities

ABSTRACT This study is one of the first research investigations that examined the effectiveness of DEI cues on a fictitious public relations agency’s website in attracting early-career practitioners with marginalized racial and ethnic identities and queer identities by conducting a 2 (identify as marginalized or not) x 2 (high or low DEI cues) between-subject online experiment. By integrating social identity theory, intergroup emotions theory, and signaling theory, the present study provides an overview of the cognitive and affective process underlying how public relations students perceive DEI cues and evaluate a workplace. This study highlights the importance of DEI efforts and communication of such efforts and provides critical social-psychological insights for public relations research.

Intergroup emotions and intergroup attitudes in post-apartheid South Africa

This article investigates the relationships among intergroup emotions and intergroup attitudes among three South African ethno-linguistic groups. The sample included 1 658 respondents (350 Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans; 526 English-speaking white South Africans; and 782 black South African respondents). They completed surveys on intergroup attitudes and group-based emotions of pride, anger, disgust, fear, pity and envy. Multiple linear regression analyses were employed to investigate predictors of outgroup attitudes. The results indicate that attitudes of younger black South Africans were more negative towards Afrikaans-speaking white South Africans. Ingroup pride predicted more positive outgroup attitudes for all groups. Disgust predicted the more negative outgroup attitudes for all groups, while anger predicted more negative white South Africans’ attitudes towards black South Africans. Fear was negatively associated with black South Africans’ attitudes towards English-speaking white South Africans, while outgroup pity predicted more positive white South Africans’ attitudes towards black South Africans and black South Africans’ attitudes towards English-speaking white South Africans. The study confirms tenets of intergroup emotion theory that intergroup emotions serve a regulating function in intergroup attitudes and behaviour.

Group-based emotion processes generalize across group exemplars and types

We tested three hypotheses derived from intergroup emotions theory: that group-based emotions, emotions felt as a member of a group, (1) are influenced by group norms, (2) especially for highly identified group members, and (3) are relatively more positive for highly identified members. Hypothesis 4 tested the prediction that these self-categorization, normative influence, and identification processes hold across memberships in exemplars of intimacy, task, and social category groups, which differ from one another in structural and functional characteristics. Two studies using three different samples found strong consistent support for Hypotheses 1 and 3, and only partial support for Hypothesis 2 (high identification increased the power of group norms on group-based emotions about only negative events). These findings held across multiple exemplars of the three group types, regardless of whether group-based emotions were targeted or untargeted, and regardless of whether emotion norms were empirically derived or based on group members’ perceptions.

Cultural similarity predicts social inclusion of Muslims in Canada: A vignette-based experimental survey.

Based on acculturation psychology and intergroup emotions theory, the current experimental study assessed the effects of Muslims' perceived acculturation strategies by the majority group on social exclusion of Muslims in Canada, and to what extent religious resentment mediated the relationship between Muslims' perceived acculturation strategies and social exclusion. The experimental study used a vignette-based approach. This model was examined among 190 non-Muslim Canadians. Results showed that when Muslims were viewed as assimilated in Canadian society, social exclusion of Muslims and religious resentment toward Muslims decreased. Furthermore, religious resentment mediated the association between Muslims' perceived acculturation strategies and social exclusion only when Muslims were perceived as assimilated. Our findings suggest that Canadian majority-group members indicated positive attitude toward Muslims when they were identified as assimilated in Canadian society. Results are discussed in terms of implications for future studies and intergroup relations.

Moral Outrage and Public Shaming on Social Media: Role of Organizational Affiliation and Identification

With increasing public shaming incidents on social media that involve organizations and their members, its mechanisms in association with organizations are still not well known. We draw research attention to this phenomenon by spotlighting the role of the transgressor’s organizational affiliation and organizational members’ own organizational identification. Across two experimental studies, we first investigate an important mediation mechanism through which moral convictions triggered by social media posts lead to moral outrage and ensuing public shaming intentions. Using intergroup emotions theory as a theoretical guide, we further examine the role of organizational affiliation and identification. Specifically, we found that when the inter-organizational relationship is salient, organizational members with higher identification are likely to experience more outrage toward a transgressor from a different organization rather than their own organization. Moreover, we found that organizational members demonstrate less outrage when comments on the post are primarily made by those from a rival organization. We discuss the contributions of these findings to management theory and practice.

Precursory Prevention: Togetherness for Better Health

Precursory Prevention: Togetherness for Better Health

The effects of emotion-based group work on psychosocial functions of LGBT people

ABSTRACT The study aims to measure the effects of emotion-based group work containing approaches from the intergroup emotions theory on LGBT people where live in Turkey to provide emotion regulation and improve psychosocial functioning. 20 LGBT people (10 participants in experimental group, 10 participants in control group) were included for group work. The Need for Affect Scale (NAS) was implemented to both groups before and after the group work. After the group work, significant differences were found between the experimental and control groups. It was observed that emotion-based group work was effective in increasing the expression and the experience of LGBT people’s positive emotions and improved their psychosocial functioning.

Effects of online incivility and emotions toward in-groups on cross-cutting attention and political participation

ABSTRACT Incivility has been a primary concern of healthy debate in the online environment. Realising the individual and societal impacts of incivility, much research has investigated the role of incivility; however, a consensus has not yet been reached on how it plays a beneficial role in politics. In the current two-wave survey study (N = 933) of Americans in the context of the 2016 presidential election, we revisit the role of online incivility in cross-cutting attention and online/offline political participation with a focus on anxiety, outrage, and pride toward the candidate respondents’ support (i.e. emotions toward the in-group). Our results reveal that in general, online incivility directly increases cross-cutting attention. In addition, when encountering online incivility, people who are anxious about the in-group pay more attention to cross-cutting opinions. Inversely, however, those who feel pride over the in-group do not pay much attention to cross-cutting opinions when facing online incivility. Such cross-cutting attention ultimately leads to online/offline political participation. This study advances the current understanding of inter-group emotions theory by suggesting the intervening roles of distinct emotions toward the in-group.

Information anxiety, intergroup emotion, and rational coping in hotel employees under normalized pandemic prevention measures

This study applied the intergroup emotion theory framework to explore the internal driving framework of hotel employees' information anxiety and the internal correlation mechanism of intergroup emotions and coping actions under normal epidemic prevention conditions. In this study, a mixed research method was used. Based on 105 videos and 15 in-depth interview records, the internal driving framework of hotel employees' information anxiety identified in the qualitative research context and the internal correlation mechanism of hotel employees’ information anxiety, analysed within the framework of intergroup sentiment analysis, was examined based on 213 valid questionnaires. The results verified the internal relationship between information anxiety of hotel employees and behaviour tendency and intergroup relationship, and also confirmed information anxiety of employees as a mediating variable on intergroup relationship and cognitive evaluation.

Flagging difference: Identification and emotional responses to national flags

AbstractFlags can be thought of as representations designed to unite the national community. Emotional responses are seen as being particularly important in driving allegiances to flags. In societies affected by conflict, where the nation itself is contested, emotional responses to national symbols however, have the potential to be divisive. In this study, using a large scale sample in Northern Ireland, emotional responses to the in‐group and out‐group flags and their relationship to national identities are considered. 1,179 respondents reported their self‐categorized national identity, as well as explicit emotional responses to both in‐group and out‐group flags. The strength of identification with preferred national group, British, Irish, or Northern Irish, was also measured. Emotional responses to in‐group flags were significantly related to both strength of national identification and the type of emotion, annoyed, hopeful, satisfied, or uneasy, under consideration. Weaker emotional responses and different emotions were reported in response to out‐group flags. The results of the study are interpreted as consistent with appraisal and intergroup emotions theory which suggests the strongest emotional responses are evidenced in response to symbols of one's own group. The importance of emotions to understanding the dynamics of intergroup conflict, and in Northern Ireland in particular, is also discussed.

The Polarizing Potential of Intergroup Affect in Online Political Discussions: Evidence From Reddit R/Politics

Online political polarization — the idea that most online discussions take place in ideological silos — is a widespread source of concern among social scientists. Yet, there is still little understanding of the mechanisms that promote or mitigate insular patterns of discussion over time. Drawing on social identity and inter-group emotions theory, this paper examines the role of inter-group affective factors in driving like-minded and cross-ideological engagement in a political discussion forum. Results show that the presence of directed political incivility in interactions between dissimilar users tends to discourage further cross-ideological engagement. Conversely, interactions in which ideologically like-minded users engage in derogation of the out-group are less likely to be sustained in the short term. Implications for the study of online political communication dynamics are discussed.

The Problem With Protests: Emotional Effects of Race-Related News Media

It is well documented that news media’s coverage of social unrest is sensationalized; however, our knowledge is limited in understanding how the intersection of race with depictions of social unrest influences emotional responses to this content. By applying assumptions from the protest paradigm and intergroup emotions theory, the current set of studies experimentally examines this relationship. Results indicate that racialized news images of dramatized social unrest provoke heightened, complex group-based affective responses that vary based on aspects of psychological group identification among audiences. These outcomes suggest that journalistic practices, whether or not intentionally, may exacerbate race relations regarding social change.

Athletes' Social Identities: Their Influence on Precompetitive Group-Based Emotions.

This research studied the influence of multiple social identities on the emotions that athletes felt toward their teammates/partners and opponents. Athletes (N = 714) from individual and team-based sports reported their identification both as athletes of the sport and as athletes of their club before reporting their precompetitive emotions. The results showed that these multiple social identities influenced precompetitive emotions toward different targets, with higher levels of sport identification associated with increased positive and decreased negative emotions toward opponents and higher levels of club identification associated with increased positive and decreased negative emotions toward teammates/partners, although increased club identification was also associated with more positive emotions toward opponents. These findings extend intergroup emotions theory by showing its suitability and applicability to face-to-face task-oriented teams in sport. Particularly, they highlight the importance of investigating the simultaneous level of multiple social identities, rather than only a dichotomic self-categorization, on group-based emotions experienced toward multiple targets.

Considering Group‐level Emotions as a Factor for Change Amid Increasing Tensions in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)

Traumatic events such as wars and genocides generate powerful emotions, most notably fear and distrust. Based on analysis of in‐depth field interviews, this article aims to deepen our understanding of the role of emotion in the reconciliation process by means of concepts described in the intergroup emotions theory. This paper begins with an overview of the literature on intergroup emotions theory and then discusses the implications of group‐level emotions in regard to intergroup behavior and the reconciliation process in a context where trauma is prevalent and the social distance between groups is high such as is the case in BiH. It is then argued that including peacebuilding measures that take into account intergroup emotions—decreasing negative group‐based emotional experiences, especially trauma‐related emotions which can be easily manipulated such as fear—has become imperative in BiH. This article also aims to highlight the importance of developing trust as a crucial element in the reconciliation process.

Collective Emotions and Protest Vote

We leverage on important fi ndings in social psychology to build a behavioral theory of protest vote. An individual develops a feeling of resentment if she loses income over time while richer people do not, or if she does not gain as others do, i.e. when her relative deprivation increases. In line with the Intergroup Emotions Theory, this feeling is ampli fied if the individual identi fies with a community experiencing the same feeling. Such a negative collective emotion, which we de fine as aggrievement, fuels the desire to take revenge against traditional parties and the richer elite, a common trait of populist rhetoric. The theory predicts higher support for the protest party when individuals identify more strongly with their local community and when a higher share of community members are aggrieved. We test this theory using longitudinal data on British households and exploiting the emergence of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Great Britain in the 2010 and 2015 national elections. Empirical fi ndings robustly support theoretical predictions. The psychological mechanism postulated by our theory survives the controls for alternative non-behavioral mechanisms (e.g. information sharing or political activism in local communities).

Collective Emotions and Protest Vote

We leverage on important findings in social psychology to build a behavioral theory of protest vote. An individual develops a feeling of resentment if she loses income over time while richer people do not, or if she does not gain as others do, i.e. when her relative deprivation increases. In line with the Intergroup Emotions Theory, this feeling is amplified if the individual identifies with a community experiencing the same feeling. Such a negative collective emotion, which we define as aggrievement, fuels the desire to take revenge against traditional parties and the richer elite, a common trait of populist rhetoric. The theory predicts higher support for the protest party when individuals identify more strongly with their local community and when a higher share of community members are aggrieved. We test this theory using longitudinal data on British households and exploiting the emergence of the UK Independence Party (UKIP) in Great Britain in the 2010 and 2015 national elections. Empirical findings robustly support theoretical predictions. The psychological mechanism postulated by our theory survives the controls for alternative non-behavioral mechanisms (e.g. information sharing or political activism in local communities).