When Common Identities Reduce Between-Group Helping

Datos Bibliográficos

ID21208856
AutoresEsther Van Leeuwen (0000-0003-3048-1127, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam), Ali Mashuri (0000-0001-6543-8634, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam)
Año2012
Volumen3
Número3
Páginas259-265
Fecha de publicación2012-05-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaSocial Psychological and Personality Science (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1948-5506 • E-ISSN: 1948-5514
EditorialSAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1177/1948550611417315
OpenAlexW2025064456
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas8
Referencias citadas21

Emphasizing a common group identity is often suggested as a way to promote between-group helping. But recently, researchers have identified a set of strategic motives for helping other groups, including the desire to present the own group as warm and generous. When the motive for helping is strategic, a salient common identity should reduce the willingness to help another group, because the help no longer communicates a quality of the ingroup (only of the common group). The authors tested this hypothesis in two experiments, in which they assessed beliefs about helping (Study 1) and actual helping through behavioral observation (Study 2). The results fully supported the predictions, demonstrating that a common identity is not a universal tool for the promotion of prosocial behavior. The studies also illustrate the strategic nature of between-group helping, in which acts that appear prosocial on the surface are in fact intended to enhance the ingroup’s image

Collective identity · Epistemology · Helping behavior · Ingroups and outgroups · Prosocial behavior · Salient · Social group · Social identity theory · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior · Psychology · Psychology of Social Influence · Social and Intergroup Psychology · Social Psychology