Managing a threatening social identity: implicit and explicit social class self-categorization in childhood

• In Event: Cognition and Bias

Abstract

Poor people, including children, often feel ashamed for their socioeconomic condition and avoid situations where they might be labelled as poor (Chase & Walker, 2012; Walker et al., 2013). Actually, it has been shown that children perceive the condition of being poor as stigmatizing (e.g., Horwitz, Shutts, & Olson, 2014; Sigelman, 2012). From a social identity perspective (Tajfel & Turner, 1979; Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987), and social developmental research (Nesdale, 1999, 2004), the negativity of the poor category may urge children to avoid situations in which they could be categorized as poor. Social Identity Theory proposes that individuals strive to maintain a positive image of themselves (Tajfel & Turner, 1979) and when they fail to evaluate themselves positively they may feel motivated to manage their threatening and stigmatizing identity (Branscombe, Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 1999; Ellemers, Spears, & Doosje, 2002), for instance by engaging in individual mobility (Nesdale & Flesser, 2001). The present paper investigates children’s social class self-categorization as non-poor as a social identity management strategy.
A first correlational study with 532 Portuguese children aged from 6 to 12 years, investigated the role of children’s objective socioeconomic status in the development of implicit and explicit social class self-categorization in childhood. Results reveal that children explicitly and implicitly self-categorize as non-poor, but less so with older age and lower socio-economic status. Children’s lower SES is associated to implicit and explicit self-categorization as poor, showing that children integrate objective social-economic conditions in their self-concept. Unexpectedly, implicit non-poor self-categorization was stronger when explicit self-categorization was measured before.
A second experimental study (N=321) examined the impact of acceptance and categorization threat on 9-12-year-old children’s implicit self-categorization as poor vs. non-poor. Acceptance threat was manipulated by depicting the exclusion of a poor child vs. exclusion of a non-poor child vs. inclusion of a poor child in a ball tossing game (Cyberball). Categorization threat was manipulated by explicitly asking children to self-categorize according to their socioeconomic standing either before or after the implicit self-categorization assessment. Implicit and explicit social class self- categorization were measured. As predicted younger children’s implicit self-categorization with the non-poor was amplified under conditions of social identity threat. Older children that implicitly self-categorized as poor self-distanced from the stigmatizing group by showing less inclusion of the poor. Findings are discussed in light of a developmental social identity perspective on children’s social class self-categorization.

Authors

• Leonor Pereira Costa, Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias
  Presenting Author

• Ricardo Borges Rodrigues, ISCTE-IUL
  Non-Presenting Author

• Sven Waldzus, Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL)
  Non-Presenting Author