Citation

Stollberg J, Fritsche I, Jonas E. Soc. Cogn. 2017; 35(4): 374-394.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2017, Guilford Press)

DOI

10.1521/soco.2017.35.4.374

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Testing a model of group-based control, we hypothesized that, as a response to threatened control, people strive for collective agency, leading to increased in-group norm conformity. To distinguish this mechanism from possible conservative shift we investigated liberal norms (i.e., change and anti-right-wing norms). In a field experiment (N = 82), salient personal control increased managers' commitment to organizational change under conditions of a pro-change in-group norm. Two laboratory experiments showed control threat to heighten students' support for educational innovations when salient in-group norms were supportive but not when they were ambivalent (N = 152), or when only out-group norms were supportive (N = 170). Applying this logic, perceived terrorist threat after a major attack predicted German students' intention to support anti-right-wing protests for those who perceived a strong anti-right-wing norm among students (N = 74). We discuss implications for both theory and societal polarization (instead of conservative shift) in times of threatened control.

Language: en

Keywords

Threat; Fear; Social norms; Intergroup processes; Schools; Children; Adolescents; Young Adults