SBP: Social Identity Threat and Motivational Direction

属于被偏见和歧视的群体、地位或类别的人会经常经历社会身份威胁--提醒他们的社会群体或身份被其他人视为不利。社会心理学中的一个共同信念是，社会身份威胁会增加担忧，绝望和愤怒。虽然这些反应都反映了负面情绪，但这些情绪并不以同样的方式激励行为。例如，当有人感到担忧和绝望时，他们可能想退出这种情况（经典的战斗/逃跑反应中的逃跑）。然而，当有人经历愤怒时，他们可能会被激励去接近这种情况（战斗而不是逃跑）。目前的研究使用社会心理学和神经科学的方法来研究偏见事件如何不同地影响人们的情绪反应和动机，例如倾向于采取行动或退缩。这种新颖的情绪反应框架是重要的，因为它建议的反应，可以防止偏见和歧视。本研究涉及一系列的研究，结合联合收割机自我报告和脑成像方法，以评估情绪反应时，观察他人的偏见行为。在所有这些研究中，参与者观察到一个人的社会身份受到威胁的方式要么是公然的，如被称为种族主义的名字，要么是以一种更模糊的方式，如被批评的方式，可能是或可能不是由偏见驱动的。一项研究使用脑成像（EEG）和问卷来测试感知一种公然的偏见是否会增加一个人的愤怒和与接近一种情况的动机相关的大脑活动，比感知一种模棱两可的偏见更重要。另一项研究使用fMRI脑成像来检查与公然偏见相关的愤怒相关接近动机是否对人们如何处理奖励（如金钱）具有溢出效应，因为过去的研究已经指出，接近动机会增加对奖励的敏感性。最后一项研究探讨了是否感知公然的偏见与模糊的偏见增加持久性的任务，因为愤怒增加的方法动机和方法动机是与持久性。该项目还提供了独特的指导和专业网络的机会，特别是旨在扩大谁是在社会和情感神经科学代表性不足的学生的参与，谁带来了重要的观点，因为他们自己经历歧视的风险升高。这项研究有可能改变目前理解社会身份威胁的方式，并为提高受偏见和歧视的社区的复原力提供信息。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

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.