Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online

When faced with a threat to one’s identity, people are motivated to defend against that threat. This defence response can manifest in different ways depending on the context. For instance, identity threat is known to lead to different patterns of ego-defensive responding depending on how central the...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Pow, Jonathan Weng Keong
Other Authors: Wan Ching
Format: Final Year Project
Language:English
Published: Nanyang Technological University 2023
Subjects:
Online Access:https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165829
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Institution: Nanyang Technological University
Language: English
id sg-ntu-dr.10356-165829
record_format dspace
spelling sg-ntu-dr.10356-1658292023-04-16T15:31:57Z Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online Pow, Jonathan Weng Keong Wan Ching School of Social Sciences WanChing@ntu.edu.sg Social sciences::Psychology When faced with a threat to one’s identity, people are motivated to defend against that threat. This defence response can manifest in different ways depending on the context. For instance, identity threat is known to lead to different patterns of ego-defensive responding depending on how central the aspect of identity is to one’s self-concept. However, such research has only been investigated in the context of individual and collective outcomes in the physical space. This study aims to contextualise these findings to the digital space. In this experiment, undergraduate students (N = 131) were randomly assigned to have either their personal or collective aspect of identity made salient and have that aspect of identity either threatened or affirmed. The centrality of each aspect to their self-concept was also observed behaviourally through participants’ submitted Instagram profiles. The likelihood of advocating for an attitude based on their salient identity in an online space was examined as the key outcome variable. As such, ego-defensive responses to identity threat were expected to manifest in the form of differing patterns of intentions to advocate for their attitude online. Specifically, participants were expected to be more likely to advocate for their attitude when the threatened identity was more central to their self-concept. Partial support for these predictions was found, as the hypothesised pattern of ego-defensive responses was observed when personal identity was threatened, but not when collective identity was threatened. Possible explanations for these inconsistent results and potential future directions were discussed. Bachelor of Social Sciences in Psychology 2023-04-13T04:21:07Z 2023-04-13T04:21:07Z 2023 Final Year Project (FYP) Pow, J. W. K. (2023). Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online. Final Year Project (FYP), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165829 https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165829 en application/pdf Nanyang Technological University
institution Nanyang Technological University
building NTU Library
continent Asia
country Singapore
Singapore
content_provider NTU Library
collection DR-NTU
language English
topic Social sciences::Psychology
spellingShingle Social sciences::Psychology
Pow, Jonathan Weng Keong
Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
description When faced with a threat to one’s identity, people are motivated to defend against that threat. This defence response can manifest in different ways depending on the context. For instance, identity threat is known to lead to different patterns of ego-defensive responding depending on how central the aspect of identity is to one’s self-concept. However, such research has only been investigated in the context of individual and collective outcomes in the physical space. This study aims to contextualise these findings to the digital space. In this experiment, undergraduate students (N = 131) were randomly assigned to have either their personal or collective aspect of identity made salient and have that aspect of identity either threatened or affirmed. The centrality of each aspect to their self-concept was also observed behaviourally through participants’ submitted Instagram profiles. The likelihood of advocating for an attitude based on their salient identity in an online space was examined as the key outcome variable. As such, ego-defensive responses to identity threat were expected to manifest in the form of differing patterns of intentions to advocate for their attitude online. Specifically, participants were expected to be more likely to advocate for their attitude when the threatened identity was more central to their self-concept. Partial support for these predictions was found, as the hypothesised pattern of ego-defensive responses was observed when personal identity was threatened, but not when collective identity was threatened. Possible explanations for these inconsistent results and potential future directions were discussed.
author2 Wan Ching
author_facet Wan Ching
Pow, Jonathan Weng Keong
format Final Year Project
author Pow, Jonathan Weng Keong
author_sort Pow, Jonathan Weng Keong
title Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
title_short Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
title_full Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
title_fullStr Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
title_full_unstemmed Navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
title_sort navigating identity threat: the role of identity salience and centrality in predicting attitude advocacy online
publisher Nanyang Technological University
publishDate 2023
url https://hdl.handle.net/10356/165829
_version_ 1764208181727199232