Premium
Identity Salience, Identity Acceptance, and Racial Policy Attitudes: American National Identity as a Uniting Force
Author(s) -
Transue John E.
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
american journal of political science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 6.347
H-Index - 170
eISSN - 1540-5907
pISSN - 0092-5853
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-5907.2007.00238.x
Subject(s) - salience (neuroscience) , superordinate goals , social identity theory , identity (music) , social psychology , salient , collective identity , national identity , social identity approach , political science , psychology , identity formation , politics , sociology , social group , gender studies , self concept , law , cognitive psychology , physics , acoustics
Political science has paid a great deal of attention to sources of intergroup conflict, but the discipline has focused less on forces that bring people together and lead them to transcend group boundaries. This study presents evidence that attachment to a shared superordinate identity can improve intergroup relations by reducing the social distance between people of different racial groups. Using a survey experiment, this research shows that making a superordinate identity salient increased support for a tax increase. The effects of the identity salience treatment are compared to a policy particularism treatment in terms of effect size and their interaction with each other. The size and direction of the identity salience effect is affected by the degree of respondents' acceptance of the proffered identity. Implications for social identity theory, racial policy attitudes, and American national identity are discussed.