SOCIAL IDENTITY COMPLEXITY AND INCLUSIVENESS AS PREDICTORS OF INTERGROUP EMOTIONS

Marija Branković; Maša Pavlović; Iris Žeželj; Marko Vladisavljević; Olja Jovanović; Nebojša Petrović

doi:10.19090/pp.2015.4.363-378

Autori

Marija Branković Social Psychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade Faculty of Media and Communications, Belgrade
Maša Pavlović Social Psychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
Iris Žeželj Social Psychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
Marko Vladisavljević Social Psychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
Olja Jovanović Social Psychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade
Nebojša Petrović Social Psychology Laboratory, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Philosophy, University of Belgrade

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.19090/pp.2015.4.363-378

Ključne reči:

social identity complexity, social identity inclusiveness, religion, ethnicity, intergroup emotions

Apstrakt

As we belong to a host of groups, we have a multitude of social identities that are interdependent. Social identity complexity refers to the degree of overlap between cross-cutting group memberships while social identity inclusiveness to the range of people a person identifies with through shared group membership. In this paper, we explored the relationship between the complexity and inclusiveness of social identity, and feelings toward ethnic/religious in-groups, as well as feelings toward out-group members. The research was conducted in two cities in Serbia: Belgrade and Novi Pazar (N = 178; average age 23), allowing for comparisons between young Serbs and Bosniaks, who belonged to the groups with a recent history of conflict. We found that social identity complexity was unrelated, whilst social identity inclusiveness was systematically and positively related to more positive feelings toward religious and ethnic out-groups. This effect was significant across different ethnic groups (Serbs and Bosniaks) and local contexts (Belgrade and Novi Pazar). Both social identity complexity and inclusiveness were unrelated to emotions toward members of the own group. We related these results with the existing data on the social identity structure and intergroup relations, and discussed the importance of inclusive identities for building tolerant societies.

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