When my group is under attack: The development of a Social Identity Threat Scale

Abstract

Drawing on Branscombe et al.’s conceptualization of social identity threat, we developed and validated a multidimensional measure of this concept: the Social Identity Threat Scale (SITS). We conducted three studies that examined social identity threat to U.S. Americans (Study 1, N = 468; Study 2, N = 457) and e-cigarette users (Study 3, N = 395) when they read negative messages directed at their social groups. Results provided evidence for the reliability, criterion-related validity, and construct validity of the SITS. Moreover, findings showed that social identity threat can be represented by five types of threat—categorization, distinctiveness, competence, morality, and generalized threats. The measure can be an essential tool for future research on social identity threat and for studies of intergroup relations more broadly.

Keywords

intergroup communication message processing scale development social identity threat

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abrams

Hogg

M. A.

(2010). Social identity and self-categorization. In Dovidio

J. F.

Hewston

Glick

Esses

V. M.

(Eds.), The Sage handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 179–193). Sage.

Akoglu

(2018). User’s guide to correlation coefficients. Turkish Journal of Emergency Medicine, 18, 91–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tjem.2018.08.001

Al-Delaimy

W. K.

Myers

M. G.

Leas

E. C.

Strong

D. R.

Hofstetter

C. R.

(2015). E-cigarette use in the past and quitting behavior in the future: A population-based study. American Journal of Public Health, 105, 1213–1219. https://doi.org/10.2105/ajph.2014.302482

Aronson

McGlone

M. S.

(2009). Stereotype and social identity threat. In Nelson

T. D.

(Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 153–178). Psychology Press.

Atwell Seate

Chien

H.-Y.

Mastro

(2018). Cultivating intergroup emotions: An intergroup threat theory approach. Mass Communication and Society, 21(2), 178–197. https://doi.org/10.1080/15205436.2017.1381262

Badea

Jetten

Czukor

Askevis-Leherpeux

(2010). The bases of identification: When optimal distinctiveness needs face social identity threat. British Journal of Social Psychology, 49(1), 21–41. https://doi.org/10.1348/000712608X397665

Barnett

Hamlin

D. N.

Danowski

(1981). The use of fractionation scales for communication audits. Annals of the International Communication Association, 5(1), 455–471. https://doi.org/10.1080/23808985.1981.11923858

Belmi

Barragan

R. C.

Neale

M. A.

Cohen

G. L.

(2015). Threats to social identity can trigger social deviance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 41(4), 467–484. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167215569493

Bessarabova

Miller

C. H.

Russell

(2017). A further exploration of the effects of restoration postscripts on reactance. Western Journal of Communication, 81(3), 385–403. https://doi.org/10.1080/10570314.2016.1254815

10.

Blascovich

Spencer

S. J.

Quinn

Steele

(2001). African Americans and high blood pressure: The role of stereotype threat. Psychological Science, 12(3), 225–229. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9280.00340

11.

Brambilla

Sacchi

Pagliaro

Ellemers

(2013). Morality and intergroup relations: Threats to safety and group image predict the desire to interact with outgroup and ingroup members. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 49(5), 811–821. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2013.04.005

12.

Branscombe

N. R.

Ellemers

Spears

Doosje

(1999). The context and content of social identity threat. In Ellemers

Spears

Doosje

(Eds.), Social identity: Context, commitment, content (pp. 35–58). Wiley.

13.

Brehm

S. S.

Brehm

J. W.

(1981). Psychological reactance: A theory of freedom and control. Academic Press.

14.

Case

Crook

Lazard

Mackert

(2016). Formative research to identify perceptions of e-cigarettes in college students: Implications for future health communication campaigns. Journal of American College Health, 64(5), 380–389. https://doi.org/10.1080/07448481.2016.1158180

15.

Cronbach

L. J.

Meehl

P. E.

(1955). Construct validity in psychological tests. Psychological Bulletin, 52(4), 281–302. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0040957

16.

de Hoog

(2013). Processing of social identity threats: A defense motivation perspective. Social Psychology, 44(6), 361–372. https://doi.org/10.1027/1864-9335/a000133

17.

Derks

Inzlicht

Kang

(2008). The neuroscience of stigma and stereotype threat. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 11(2), 163–181. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430207088036

18.

Dillard

J. P.

Meczkowski

Yang

(2018). Defensive reactions to threatening health messages: Alternative structures and next questions. International Journal of Communication, 12, 973–995. https://ijoc.org/index.php/ijoc/article/view/7538

19.

Dillard

J. P.

Shen

(2005). On the nature of reactance and its role in persuasive health communication. Communication Monographs, 72(2), 144–168. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750500111815

20.

Elder

T. J.

Sutton

R. M.

Douglas

K. M.

(2005). Keeping it to ourselves: Effects of audience size and composition on reactions to criticisms of the ingroup. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 8(3), 231–244. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430205053940

21.

Ellemers

Pagliaro

Barreto

(2013). Morality and behavioural regulation in groups: A social identity approach. European Review of Social Psychology, 24(1), 160–193. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2013.841490

22.

Ellemers

Spears

Doosje

(2002). Self and social identity. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 161–186. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.53.100901.135228

23.

Fink

E. L.

(2009). The FAQs on data transformation. Communication Monographs, 76(4), 379–397. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750903310352

24.

Fink

E. L.

(2017). Measurement of validity. In Allen

(Ed.), The SAGE encyclopedia of communication research methods (pp. 1827–1833). Sage.

25.

Fischer

A. R.

Tokar

D. M.

Mergl

M. M.

Good

G. E.

Hill

M. S.

Blum

S. A.

(2000). Assessing women’s feminist identity development: Studies of convergent, discriminant, and structural validity. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 24(1), 15–29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1471-6402.2000.tb01018.x

26.

Gagné

Hancock

G. R.

(2006). Measurement model quality, sample size, and solution propriety in confirmatory factor models. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41(1), 65–83. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr4101_5

27.

Hamblin

R. L.

(1974). Social attitudes: Magnitude measurement and theory. In Blalock

H. M.

(Ed.), Measurement in the social sciences (pp. 61–120). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351329088

28.

Harwood

Sparks

(2003). Social identity and health: An intergroup communication approach to cancer. Health Communication, 15(2), 145–159. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327027hc1502_3

29.

Hayes

A. F.

Coutts

J. J.

(2020). Use omega rather than Cronbach’s alpha for estimating reliability. But. . . Communication Methods and Measures, 14(1), 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1080/19312458.2020.1718629

30.

Hornsey

M. J.

(2005). Why being right is not enough: Predicting defensiveness in the face of group criticism. European Review of Social Psychology, 16(1), 301–334. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463280500436040

31.

Hornsey

M. J.

Jetten

(2003). Not being what you claim to be: Impostors as sources of group threat. European Journal of Social Psychology, 33(5), 639–657. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.176

32.

Bentler

P. M.

(1999). Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 6(1), 1–55. https://doi.org/10.1080/10705519909540118

33.

Iyer

Schmader

Lickel

(2007). Why individuals protest the perceived transgressions of their country: The role of anger, shame, and guilt. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 33(4), 572–587. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167206297402

34.

Jetten

Postmes

McAuliffe

B. J.

(2002). “We’re all individuals”: Group norms of individualism and collectivism, levels of identification and identity threat. European Journal of Social Psychology, 32(2), 189–207. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.65

35.

Kline

R. B.

(2011). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling (3rd ed.). Guilford Press.

36.

Lazarus

R. S.

(1991). Emotion & adaptation. Oxford University Press.

37.

Lodge

(1981). Magnitude scaling: Quantitative measurement of opinions. Sage.

38.

Atwell Seate

(2017). Reexamining the use of tentative language in emails: The effects of gender salience and gender typicality. Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 36(6), 694–714. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X17706941

39.

(2021). What if I tell you e-cigarette users are inferior? An investigation of social identity threat in health messaging. Journal of Health Communication, 26(5), 289–298. https://doi.org/10.1080/10810730.2021.1933654

40.

Maass

Cadinu

Guarnieri

Grasselli

(2003). Sexual harassment under social identity threat: The computer harassment paradigm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85(5), 853–870. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.85.5.853

41.

Mackie

D. M.

Maitner

A. T.

Smith

E. R.

(2009). Intergroup emotions theory. In Nelson

T. D.

(Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 285–308). Taylor & Francis Group.

42.

McNeish

(2018). Thanks coefficient alpha, we’ll take it from here. Psychological Methods, 23(3), 412–433. https://doi.org/10.1037/met0000144

43.

Nabi

R. L.

Moyer-Gusé

Byrne

(2007). All joking aside: A serious investigation into the persuasive effect of funny social issue messages. Communication Monographs, 74(1), 29–54. https://doi.org/10.1080/03637750701196896

44.

O’Keefe

D. J.

(2003). Message properties, mediating states, and manipulation checks: Claims, evidence, and data analysis in experimental persuasive message effects research. Communication Theory, 13(3), 251–274. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2885.2003.tb00292.x

45.

Quick

B. L.

Stephenson

M. T.

(2008). Examining the role of trait reactance and sensation seeking on perceived threat, state reactance, and reactance restoration. Human Communication Research, 34(3), 448–476. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2008.00328.x

46.

Raftery

A. E.

(1995). Bayesian model selection in social research. Sociological Methodology, 25, 111–163. https://doi.org/10.2307/271063

47.

Reysen

Snider

J. S.

Branscombe

N. R.

(2012). Corporate renaming of stadiums, team identification, and threat to distinctiveness. Journal of Sport Management, 26(4), 350–357. https://doi.org/10.1123/jsm.26.4.350

48.

Riek

B. M.

Mania

E. W.

Gaertner

S. L.

(2006). Intergroup threat and outgroup attitudes: A meta-analytic review. Personality and Social Psychology Review, 10, 336–353. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327957pspr1004_4a

49.

Rindskopf

Rose

(1988). Some theory and applications of confirmatory second-order factor analysis. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 23(1), 51–67. https://doi.org/10.1207/s15327906mbr2301_3

50.

Rosseel

(2012). Lavaan: An R package for structural equation modeling. Journal of Statistical Software, 48(2), 1–36. https://doi.org/10.18637/jss.v048.i02

51.

Scheepers

Ellemers

(2005). When the pressure is up: The assessment of social identity threat in low and high status groups. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 41(2), 192–200. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2004.06.002

52.

Scheepers

Ellemers

Sintemaartensdijk

(2009). Suffering from the possibility of status loss: Physiological responses to social identity threat in high status groups. European Journal of Social Psychology, 39(6), 1075–1092. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.609

53.

Schmader

Block

Lickel

(2015). Social identity threat in response to stereotypic film portrayals: Effects on self-conscious emotion and implicit ingroup attitudes. Journal of Social Issues, 71(1), 54–72. https://doi.org/10.1111/josi.12096

54.

Schmitt

M. T.

Branscombe

N. R.

(2001). The good, the bad, and the manly: Threats to one’s prototypicality and evaluations of fellow in-group members. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37, 510–517. https://doi.org/10.1037/e413782005-588

55.

Shadish

Cook

Campbell

(2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Houghton Mifflin.

56.

Shen

Monahan

J. L.

Rhodes

Roskos-Ewoldsen

D. R.

(2009). The impact of attitude accessibility and decision style on adolescents’ biased processing of health-related public service announcements. Communication Research, 36, 104–128. https://doi.org/0093650208326466

57.

Steele

C. M.

Aronson

(1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797–811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797

58.

Steele

C. M.

Spencer

S. J.

Aronson

(2002). Contending with group image: The psychology of stereotype and social identity threat. In Zanna

M. P.

(Ed.), Advances in experimental social psychology (Vol. 34, pp. 379–440). Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0065-2601(02)80009-0

59.

Stephan

W. G.

Ybarra

Morrison

K. R.

(2009). Intergroup threat theory. In Nelson

T. D.

(Ed.), Handbook of prejudice, stereotyping, and discrimination (pp. 43–59). Taylor & Francis.

60.

Stout

J. G.

Dasgupta

(2013). Mastering one’s destiny: Mastery goals promote challenge and success despite social identity threat. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 39(6), 748–762. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167213481067

61.

Swim

J. K.

Hyers

L. L.

Cohen

L. L.

Ferguson

M. J.

(2001). Everyday sexism: Evidence for its incidence, nature, and psychological impact from three daily diary studies. Journal of Social Issues, 57(1), 31–53. https://doi.org/10.1111/0022-4537.00200

62.

Tajfel

Turner

J. C.

(1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Worchel

Austin

W. G.

(Eds.), Psychology of intergroup relations (2nd ed., pp. 7–24). Nelson-Hall.

63.

Voci

(2006). The link between identification and in-group favouritism: Effects of threat to social identity and trust-related emotions. British Journal of Social Psychology, 45(2), 265–284. https://doi.org/10.1348/014466605x52245

64.

Wohl

M. J. A.

Branscombe

N. R.

Reysen

(2010). Perceiving your group’s future to be in jeopardy: Extinction threat induces collective angst and the desire to strengthen the ingroup. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 36(7), 898–910. https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167210372505

65.

Zhao

Nan

(2010). Influence of self-affirmation on responses to gain-versus loss-framed antismoking messages. Human Communication Research, 36(4), 493–511. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.2010.01385.x

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.02 MB