A personal touch to diversity: Self-anchoring increases minority members’ identification in a diverse group

Abstract

In diverse groups, minority members often indicate lower levels of identification and perceived acceptance than majority members. To date, we know relatively little about how the cognitive definition of the self may impact on identification with a diverse group. In this research, we argue that when minority members shape a cognitive group bond based on the personal self (i.e., self-anchoring) rather than the social self (i.e., self-stereotyping) this may boost their level of identification and perceived value in diversity. To test this, we assigned participants to a majority or minority position in a diverse group and manipulated self-anchoring and self-stereotyping via mindset priming (plus a control condition). As expected, only minority, but not majority members’ self-anchoring led to higher identification and value in diversity compared to self-stereotyping (and the control condition). Thus, a focus on the personal self in shaping a cognitive relation with a group enables minority members to belong while being different.