SGER: American Identity Under Siege: Re-categorization at Ground Zero

2001年9月11日的恐怖袭击是自珍珠港事件以来对美国本土的最大威胁。与战争时期一样，这些袭击激发了更多的爱国主义和民族认同感。这项探索性研究的小额赠款将研究恐怖袭击后美国人的民族与种族/民族认同。需要解决的问题包括：美国人对自己的民族认同感有多强烈？民族认同是否意味着包容传统上受歧视的群体（例如，非裔美国人）进入共同的国家内组？如果是这样的话，这种包容性是否可以在被污名化的群体与美国人类别的无意识联系中观察到？或者，它仅仅是爱国主义的一种有意识的延伸，与社会类别的潜在表现无关？哪些因素预测了这些身份效应的大小？这些身份是持久的，还是会随着时间的推移而消失？这项研究需要对白色美国人的民族身份进行多地点研究，并将非洲裔美国人与阿拉伯裔美国人相对于更广泛的美国人类别纳入其中。到目前为止，对身份的可塑性和群体间偏见的实证研究在很大程度上仅限于涉及对参与者来说自我重要性相对较低的最小群体的操纵。最近的恐怖袭击是一个独特的机会，探讨极端威胁对具有重大自我相关性的社会身份的影响。除了在相对严重的国家威胁时期，诸如此类的国家认同可能是稳定的。

The terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 represent the greatest homeland threat to America since Pearl Harbor. As in times of war, the attacks have prompted increased patriotism and national identification. This small grant for exploratory research will examine Americans' national versus racial/ethnic identifications in the wake of the terrorist attacks. Among the questions to be addressed are the following: How strongly do Americans identify with their national identity? Does national identity correspond with an inclusion of traditionally stigmatized groups (e.g., African Americans) into the common national in-group? If so, is this inclusion observable in unconscious associations of stigmatized groups with the category American? Or, instead, is it merely a conscious extension of patriotism, unlinked to underlying representations of social categories? What factors predict the magnitude of these identity effects? Are these identities durable or will they fade over time?The research entails a multi-site study of white Americans' national identities and their inclusion of African- versus Arab-Americans relative to the broader category American. To date, empirical examinations of the malleability of identity and inter-group bias have been largely limited to manipulations involving minimal groups of relatively low self-importance to participants. The recent terrorist attacks represent a unique opportunity to explore the impact of extreme threats upon social identities of significant self-relevance. National identities such as these are likely to be stable except in times of relatively severe national threat.