Uncertainty reduction and control restoration are independent motives for group identification

Evidence

In a study including orthogonal manipulations of self-concept uncertainty and personal lack of control, both threats independently increased in-group bias in the evaluation of East and West Germans (Fritsche et al., 2013), an indication that uncertainty reduction and control motivation are independent social-identity motives. … It is difficult to say whether these outcomes in fact represent people’s support of systems and agents external to the self (i.e., compensatory control) or rather their support of representatives, norms, or structures of their own social self as a group member (i.e., groupbased control). — Immo Fritsche, Agency Through the We, 37

Categorization

• XREF: Directly maps onto the reading purpose: distinguishes group-based control from general social-identity uncertainty-reduction motives, and from compensatory (system-level) control theory. — connects to: Uncertainty reduction pushes Mixed individuals toward whichever group offers the clearest prototype — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 86; Identification with extreme groups may be unstable and needs-driven — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 741; Distinguishing identification dimensions improves prediction of intergroup outcomes — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt: Modes…, 143 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Distinguishing identification dimensions improves prediction of intergroup outcomes #expands (0.85) — Sonia Roccas and Yechiel Klar and Ido Liviatan, The Paradox of Group-Based Guilt, 143
• Identification with extreme groups may be unstable and needs-driven #qualifies (0.75) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 741