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最大的威胁。与战争时期一样，这些袭击也激发了人们的爱国主义和民族认同感。这笔用于探索性研究的小额赠款将用于研究恐怖袭击后美国人的国家与种族/民族认同。需要解决的问题包括：美国人对自己国家身份的认同有多强烈？民族认同是否与将传统上被污名化的群体（如非裔美国人）纳入共同的民族内群体相一致？如果是这样，这种包容在被污名化的群体与美国人类别的无意识联系中是否可以观察到？或者，相反，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征无关？哪些因素可以预测这些身份效应的程度？这些身份是持久的，还是会随着时间的推移而消失？这项研究需要对美国白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进行比较。迄今为止，对身份可塑性和群体间偏见的实证检验主要局限于涉及对参与者自我重要性相对较低的最小群体的操纵。最近的恐怖袭击为探索极端威胁对具有重要自我相关性的社会身份的影响提供了一个独特的机会。除非在国家面临相对严重的威胁时，这些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.