In this article, we review the different functions that language and symbols (in particular clothing) fulfill in group life; language and clothing are rarely, if ever, discussed together in the same conceptual space. Our review includes a consideration of how social identities are communicated and discredited, boundaries crossed, and group norms established, maintained, and regulated. Throughout, we integrate motivational and social-cognitive approaches, ending with proposals for future research and theory in intergroup communication.
BangaC. S. I. L. L. A.SzabóZ. P.LászlóJ. (2012). Implicit measures of ingroup favoritism. In PaukovićD.PavlakovićV.RaosV. (Eds.), Confronting the past: European experiences (Vol. 10, pp. 67–81). Zagreb, Croatia: Political Science Research Center Forum.
2.
Bar-TalD.HammackP. L. (2012). Conflict, delegimization, and violence. In TroppL. R. (Ed.), Oxford handbook of intergroup conflict (pp. 29–52). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
3.
BelavadiS. (in press). Norm talk. In GilesH.HarwoodJ. (Eds.), The Oxford research encyclopedia of intergroup communication. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
4.
BoccatoG.CapozzaD.FalvoR.DuranteF. (2008). The missing link: Ingroup, outgroup and the human species. Social Cognition, 26, 224–234. doi:10.1521/soco.2008.26.2.224
5.
BoroditskyL.SchmidtL. A.PhillipsW. (2003). Sex, syntax, and semantics. In GentnerD.Goldin-MeadowS. (Eds.), Language in mind: Advances in the study of language and thought (pp. 61–79). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
6.
BraunF.SczesnyS.StahlbergD. (2005). Cognitive effects of masculine generics in German: An overview of empirical findings. Communications, 30, 1–21. doi:10.1515/comm.2005.30.1.1
7.
BussD. M.DeddenL. A. (1990). Derogation of competitors. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 7, 395–422. doi:10.1177/0265407590073006
8.
CarnaghiA.MaassA.FasoliF. (2011). Enhancing masculinity by slandering homosexuals: The role of homophobic epithets in heterosexual gender identity. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 37, 1655–1665. doi:10.1177/0146167211424167
9.
CarnaghiA.MaassA.GrestaS.BianchiM.CadinuM.ArcuriL. (2008). Nomina sunt omina: On the inductive potential of nouns and adjectives in person perception. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 839–859. doi:10.1037/0022–3514.94.5.839
10.
ClémentR.BielajewC.SampasivamS. (2016). Towards a social neuroscience of intergroup communication. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 285–300). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
11.
CooperW. E.RossJ. R. (1975). Word order. In GrossmanR. E.SanL. J.VanceT. J. (Eds.), Papers from the parasession on functionalism (pp. 63–111). Chicago, IL: Chicago Linguistic Society.
12.
DonnellyP.YoungK. (1988). The construction and confirmation of identity in sport subcultures. Sociology of Sport Journal, 5, 223–240. doi:10.1123/ssj.5.3.223
13.
DouglasK. M.SuttonR. M. (2014). “A giant leap for mankind” but what about women? The role of system-justifying ideologies in predicting attitudes toward sexist language. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 33, 667–680. doi:10.1177/0261927X14538638
14.
DragojevicM. (2016). Language attitudes as intergroup terrain. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 51–66). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
15.
EverettJ. A. C.SchellhaasF. M. H.ErapB. D.AndoV.MemarziaJ.PariseC. V.. . . HewstoneM. (2015). Covered in stigma? The impact of differing levels of Islamic head-covering on explicit and implicit biases toward Muslim women. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 45, 1–15. doi:10.1111/jasp.12278
16.
FasoliF.MaassA.SulpizioS. (2016). Communication of the “invisible”: Disclosing and inferring sexual orientation through visual and vocal cues. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 193–208). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
17.
FurnhamA.ChanP. S.WilsonE. (2014). What to wear? The influence of attire on the perceived professionalism of dentists and lawyers. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 43, 1838–1850. doi:10.1111/jasp.12136
18.
GabrielU.GygaxP. (2016). Gender and linguistic sexism. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 177–192). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
19.
GalinskyA. D.WangC. S.WhitsonJ. A.AnicichE. M.HugenbergK.BodenhausenG. V. (2013). The reappropriation of stigmatizing labels: The reciprocal relationship between power and self-labeling. Psychological Science, 24, 2020–2029. doi:10.1177/0956797613482943
20.
GasiorekJ. (2016). The “dark side” of CAT: Nonaccommodation. In GilesH. (Ed.), Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts (pp. 13–35). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
21.
GilesH. (Ed.). (2012a). The handbook of intergroup communication. New York, NY: Routledge.
22.
GilesH. (2012b). Principles of intergroup communication. In GilesH. (Ed.), The handbook of intergroup communication (pp. 3–16). New York, NY: Routledge.
23.
GilesH. (Ed.). (2016). Communication accommodation theory: Negotiating personal relationships and social identities across contexts. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
24.
GilesH.HajdaJ. M.HamiltonD. L. (Eds.). (2009). Harmony and discord: The music of intergroup relations. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 12, 291–412. doi:10.1177/1368430209102207
25.
GilesH.JohnsonP. (1987). Ethnolinguistic identity theory: A social psychological approach to language maintenance. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 68, 69–99. doi:10.1515/ijsl.1987.68.69
26.
GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.). (2016a). Advances in intergroup communication. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
27.
GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.). (2016b). Advances in and prospects for intergroup communication. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 1–16). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
28.
GilesH.ReidS. (2005). Ageism across the lifespan: Towards a self-categorization model of ageing. Journal of Social Issues, 61, 389–404. doi:10.1111/j.1540–4560.2005.00412.x
29.
HaslamN.HollandE.StratemeyerM. (2016). Intergroup metaphors. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 103–118). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
30.
HaslamN.LoughnanS.SunP. (2011). Beastly: What makes animal metaphors offensive?Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 30, 311–325. doi:10.1177/0261927x11407168
31.
HaslamN.RothschildL.ErnstD. (2000). Essentialist beliefs about social categories. British Journal of Social Psychology, 39, 113–127. doi:10.1348/014466600164363
32.
HegartyP.WatsonN.FletcherL.McQueenG. (2011). When gentlemen are first and ladies are last: Effects of gender stereotypes on the order of romantic partners’ names. British Journal of Social Psychology, 50, 21–35. doi:10.1348/014466610x486347
33.
HoggM. A. (2001). A social identity theory of leadership. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 5, 184–200. doi:10.1207/S15327957PSPR0503_1
34.
HoggM. A.GilesH. (2012). Norm talk and identity in intergroup communication. In GilesH. (Ed.), The handbook of intergroup communication (pp. 373–388). New York, NY: Routledge.
35.
HoggM. A.ReidS. A. (2006). Social identity, self-categorisation, and the communication of group norms. Communication Theory, 16, 7–30. doi:10.1111/j.1468–2885.2006.00003.x
36.
HoggM. A.TindaleR. S. (2005). Social identity influence and communication in small groups. In HarwoodJ.GilesH. (Eds.), Intergroup communication: Multiple perspectives (pp. 141–164). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
37.
HoggM. A.van KnippenbergD.RastD. E.III (2012). The social identity theory of leadership: Theoretical origins, research findings, and conceptual developments. European Review of Social Psychology, 23, 258–304. doi:10.1080/10463283.2012.741134
38.
HülsseR.SpencerA. (2008). The metaphor of terror: Terrorism studies and the constructivist turn. Security Dialogue, 39, 571–592. doi:10.1177/0967010608098210
39.
JonasE.FritscheI. (2013). Destined to die but not to wage war: How existential threat can contribute to escalation or de-escalation of violent intergroup conflict. American Psychologist, 68, 543–558. doi:10.1037/a0033052
40.
KeblusekL.GilesH. (in press). Dress style code and fashion. In GilesH.HarwoodJ. (Eds.), The Oxford research encyclopedia of intergroup communication. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
41.
LeetsL.GilesH. (1997). Words as weapons—When do they wound? Investigations of harmful speech. Human Communication Research, 24, 260–301. doi:10.1111/j.1468–2958.1997.tb00415.x
42.
MaassA.MilesiA.ZabbiniS.StahlbergD. (1995). Linguistic intergroup bias: Differential expectancies or in-group protection?Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 68, 116–126. doi:10.1037//0022–3514.68.1.116
43.
MaassA.SuitnerC.ArcuriL. (2014). The role of metaphors in intergroup relations. In LandauM.RobinsonM. D.MeierB. P. (Eds.), The power of metaphor: Examining its influence on social life (pp. 153–177). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
44.
McGuireW. J.McGuireC. V. (1992). Psychological significance of seemingly arbitrary word-order regularities: The case of kin pairs. In SeminG. R.FiedlerK. (Eds.), Language, interaction and social cognition (pp. 214–236). London, UK: SAGE.
45.
Mendoza-DentonN. (1996). “Muy macha”: Gender and ideology in gang-girls’ discourse about makeup. Ethnos, 61, 47–63. doi:10.1080/00141844.1996.9981527
46.
MullenB.JohnsonC. (1993). Cognitive representation in ethnophaulisms as a function of group size: The phenomenology of being in a group. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 19, 296–304. doi:10.1177/0146167293193006
47.
MullenB.SmythJ. M. (2004). Immigrant suicide rates as a function of ethnophaulisms. Psychosomatic Medicine, 66, 343–348. doi:10.1097/00006842–200405000–00009
48.
NewheiserA. K.BarretoM. (2014). Hidden costs of hiding stigma: Ironic interpersonal consequences of concealing a stigmatized identity in social interactions. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 52, 58–70. doi:10.1016/j.jesp.2014.01.002
49.
PinesR.GilesH. (in press). Intergroup communication and dance. In GilesH.HarwoodJ. (Eds.), Oxford research encyclopedia of intergroup communication. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
50.
PintoI. R.MarquesJ. M.LevineJ. M.AbramsD. (2010). Membership status and subjective group dynamics: Who triggers the black sheep effect? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 99, 107–119. doi:10.1037/a0018187
51.
RakićT.SteffensM. C.MummendeyA. (2011). Blinded by the accent! The minor role of looks in ethnic categorization. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100, 16–29. doi:10.1037/a0021522
52.
RothbartM.TaylorM. (1992). Category labels and social reality: Do we view social categories as natural kinds? In SeminG. R.FiedlerK. (Eds.), Language, interaction and social cognition (pp. 11–36). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE.
53.
RudmanL. A.MescherK. (2012). Of animals and objects: Men’s implicit dehumanization of women and likelihood of sexual aggression. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 38, 734–746. doi:10.1177/0146167212436401
54.
SchallerM.NeubergS. L. (2012). Danger, disease, and the nature of prejudice(s). In OlsonJ. M.ZannaM. P. (Eds.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 46, pp. 1–54). San Diego, CA: Elsevier.
55.
SteffensN. K.HaslamS. A. (2013). Power through “us”: Leaders’ use of we-referencing language predicts election victory. PloS One, 8, e77952. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0077952
56.
StohlC.GilesH.MaassA. (2016). Social networks and intergroup communication. In GilesH.MaassA. (Eds.), Advances in intergroup communication (pp. 317–340). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
57.
TajfelH.TurnerJ. C. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. In AustinW. G.WorchelS. (Eds.), The social psychology of intergroup relations (pp. 33–47). Monterey, CA: Brooks/Cole.
58.
TaylorD. M.KingM.UsborneE. (2010). Towards theoretical diversity in intergroup communication. In GilesH.ReidS.HarwoodJ. (Eds.), The dynamics of intergroup communication (pp. 263–276). New York, NY: Peter Lang.
59.
ThompsonC. J.HaytkoD. L. (1997). Speaking of fashion: Consumers’ uses of fashion discourses and the appropriation of countervailing cultural meanings. Journal of Consumer Research, 24, 15–42. doi:10.1086/209491
60.
TurnerJ. C.HoggM. A.OakesP. J.ReicherS. D.WetherellM. S. (1987). Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory. Oxford, UK: Blackwell.
61.
TwiggJ. (2007). Clothing, age and the body: A critical review. Ageing and Society, 27, 285–305. doi:10.1017/s0144686x06005794
62.
Van der ToornJ.JostJ. T. (2014). Twenty years of system justification theory: Introduction to the special issue on “Ideology and system justification processes.”Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 17, 413–419. doi:10.1177/1368430214531509
63.
VolpatoC.DuranteF.GabbiadiniA.AndrighettoL.MariS. (2010). Picturing the other: Targets of delegitimization across time. International Journal of Conflict and Violence, 4, 269–287. doi:10.4119/UNIBI/ijcv.71
64.
WaltmanM.HaasJ. (2011). The communication of hate. New York, NY: Peter Lang.
65.
WicklundR. A.GollwitzerP. M. (2013). Symbolic self-completion. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum. (Original work published in 1982)