Toeing the party line: Identity misclassification and behavorial inflexibility in political decision making.

Although social role norms serve as helpful guides to appropriate social behavior, they can also limit people's behavioral flexibility. When role violators expect to be mistaken as a member of a devalued out-group (i.e., identity misclassification), they experience negative affect. However, if role violators forestall identity misclassification by disclaiming stigmatized status, then they should experience less discomfort violating group norms. In the current set of studies, I applied the identity misclassification framework to people's political decision making. In Study 1, Republicans who were randomly assigned to endorse an out-of-party candidate experienced threats to belonging and coherence. Wearing a ''Proud to be a Republican'' shirt reduced participants' experience of coherence threat, yet did little to quell their belonging threat. In Studies 2 and 3, the political affiliation of candidates influenced Republicans' choice of political candidate and evaluation of political speeches, respectively, regardless of their ability to disclaim. Discussion focuses on the limited utility of disclaimers for political partisans

Defending the Self Against Identity Misclassification

When people perform role-violating behaviors that are diagnostic of membership in a stigmatized group, they risk identity misclassification—i.e., being mistaken for a member of that group. Because false stigmatization raises the possibility of interpersonal punishment, role violators who wish to avoid it must communicate their non-stigmatized status to others. Conversely, self-protective strategies such as self-affirmations (Steele, 1988Steele, C. M. 1988. “The psychology of self-affirmation: Sustaining the integrity of the self”. In Advances in experimental social psychology, Edited by: Berkowitz, L.Vol. 21, 261–302. San Diego, CA: Academic Press.[Crossref], [Google Scholar]) that do not communicate non-stigmatized status should fail to reduce role violators\u27 discomfort. Consistent with this assumption, heterosexual men who publicly violated a gender role norm—and thereby risked misclassification as gay—reported heightened discomfort and diminished implicit self-evaluation, unless they directly or indirectly communicated their heterosexual status to their ostensible audience. Moreover, a standard self-affirmation task failed to protect heterosexual role violators from discomfort. Discussion highlights the implications of these findings for research on social role adherence, stigmatization, and self-affirmation

Role Rigidity: A Problem of Identity Misclassification?

When nonstigmatized individuals enact certain role-violating behaviors, they risk becoming falsely accused deviants (H. S. Becker, 1963, p. 20). For instance, when heterosexual men perform stereotypically feminine behaviors, they are liable to get misclassified as homosexual. Findings presented here reveal that expectations of identity misclassification fuel nonstigmatized individuals\u27 negative reactions to role violations (Studies 1-2) and that using a disclaimer--that is, informing their audience of their nonstigmatized identity--assuages people\u27s discomfort during a role-violating behavior (Studies 3-4). Moreover, when not concerned about being misclassified, nonstigmatized individuals benefit psychologically from the enactment of a challenging role violation (Study 4). Discussion considers the nature of the threat that misclassified role violators face and compares the plight of the falsely accused deviant to that of the truly stigmatized individua

Concealing to Belong, Revealing to be Known: Classification Expectations and Self-threats Among Persons with Concealable Stigmas

Whereas a large body of research examines the interpersonal stressors associated with revealing a stigmatized identity to others, comparatively little work documents the intrapsychic stressors associated with concealing a stigmatized identity from others. In two studies of persons with concealable stigmas (nerds in Study 1, gay men and lesbians in Study 2), we found support for a model in which behaviors that reveal a stigmatized identity to others lead to expectations of accurate classification as stigmatized, and behaviors that conceal a stigmatized identity lead to expectations of misclassification as nonstigmatized. In turn, expectations of accurate classification threaten stigmatized people\u27s need for belonging (positive social connections), and expectations of misclassification threaten their need for coherence (feedback that confirms their stable self-views)

Contentious histories and the perception of threat:China, the United States, and the Korean War- an experimental analysis

Chinese and Korean protests over "revisionist" Japanese histories of World War II are well known. The impact of contested Chinese and US histories of the Korean War on US-China relations today has received less attention. More broadly, there has been little research seeking to systematically explore just how history textbook controversies matter for international relations. This article experimentally manipulates the impact of nation (US/China), of source (in-group/out-group textbooks), and of valence (positive/negative historical narratives) on measures of beliefs about the past, emotions, collective self-esteem, and threat perception in present-day US-China relations. A 2 x 2 x 2 design exposed randomized groups of Chinese and US university students to fictional high school history textbook accounts of the Korean War. Findings reveal significant effects of nation, source, and valence and suggest that the "historical relevance" of a shared past to national identities in the present has a dramatic impact on how historical controversies affect threat perception.Social Sciences, InterdisciplinarySSCI2ARTICLE3433-465

Crossing Party Lines: Political Identity and Partisans’ Reactions to Violating Party Norms

The current studies examined the experiences of undergraduate political partisans who cross party lines to support a preferred, out-of-party candidate, and thus open themselves to the possibility of being misclassified as a member of a rival political party. Strongly identified partisans who endorsed an out-of-party candidate, and thus expected others to misclassify them, reported heightened threats to belonging and coherence (Study 1), unless they disclaimed rival party status by asserting their political affiliation. In Study 2, strongly identified partisans who could be misclassified were less confident in their choice of an out-of-party candidate compared to partisans who asserted their political affiliation. These results highlight the impact of identity misclassification concerns on strongly identified partisans whose personal preferences are inconsistent with party norms

Gender Role Violations and Identity Misclassification: The Roles of Audience and Actor Variables

When people violate certain social role norms, they risk false categorization into a stigmatized group. For example, heterosexual men who perform female stereotypic behaviors are often misclassified as gay. This identity misclassification is aversive because it threatens fundamental psychological needs. Findings presented here reveal that expectations of identity misclassification fuel heterosexual actors’ (N = 216) discomfort during imagined gender role violations and that audience variables that increase the likelihood of misclassification also increase role violators’ discomfort. Moreover, expectations of misclassification strongly predict people’s discomfort during gender role violations regardless of their standing along relevant actor dimensions (e.g., attitudes and self-views). These findings suggest that people’s—and particularly heterosexual men’s—expectations of identity misclassification are powerful mechanisms that underlie adherence to traditional gender role norms