SBP: Social Identity Threat and Motivational Direction

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People who belong to groups, statuses, or categories that have been targets of prejudice and discrimination will experience frequent social identity threat – reminders that their social grouping or identity is viewed unfavorably by others. A common belief within social psychology is that social identity threat increases worry, hopelessness, and anger. Although these reactions all reflect negative emotions, these emotions do not motivate behavior in the same manner. For instance, when someone is feeling worry and hopelessness they might want to withdraw from the situation (flight in the classic fight/flight response distinction). However, when someone is experiencing anger they might be motivated to approach the situation (fight not flight). The current research uses methods from social psychology and neuroscience to examine how incidents of prejudice differentially influence people's emotional reactions and motivations, such as being inclined to take action or instead withdrawing. This novel framing of emotional reactions is significant because it suggests responses that may protect against prejudice and discrimination.This research involves a series of studies that combine self-report and brain imaging methods to assess emotional reactions when observing prejudiced behavior by others. Across all of these studies, participants observe a person's social identity being threatened in a way that is either blatant, such as being called a racist name, or in a way that is more ambiguous, such as being criticized in a way that might or might not be driven by prejudice. One study uses brain imaging (EEG) and questionnaires to test whether perceiving a blatant form of prejudice increases a person's anger and brain activity associated with motivations to approach a situation, more so than when perceiving an ambiguous form of prejudice. Another study uses fMRI brain imaging to examine whether the proposed anger-related approach motivation linked to blatant prejudice has spillover effects for how people process rewards, such as money, since past research has noted that approach motivation increases sensitivity to rewards. A final study examines whether perceiving blatant prejudice versus ambiguous prejudice increases persistence on a task because anger increases approach motivation and approach motivation is related to persistence. This project also provides unique mentoring and professional networking opportunities specifically aimed at broadening the participation of students who are underrepresented in social and affective neuroscience and who bring important perspectives given their own elevated risk for experiencing discrimination. This research has the potential to shift current ways of understanding social identity threat and can inform efforts to boost resilience in communities targeted by prejudice and discrimination.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.