Effects of Single-Group Membership Valence and Social Identity Threat on Intragroup Singlism

Abstract

The social identity perspective guided this investigation of the impact of single-group membership valence and social identity threat on the expression of intragroup singlism. Social identity, in an intergroup context, was made salient by asking participants to self-categorize as single or married. The psychological experience of single-group membership was varied (positive or negative) along with social identity threat (social identity threat absent or present) in a between-subjects factorial design (N = 191); participant gender was included as an exploratory variable. A significant interaction between participant gender and single-group membership valence revealed that men in the positive valence condition felt more pride in single-group membership than men in the negative valence condition. Women's pride in single-group membership was intermediate compared to men, and was not affected by the single-group membership valence manipulation. Participants in the social identity threat absent condition, where single-group members were said to be advantaged compared to married-group members, felt more pride in single-group membership than participants in the social identity threat present condition where single-group members were said to be disadvantaged compared to married-group members. Although pride in single-group membership was negatively correlated with the three components of the intragroup singlism measure, the predicted interaction between single-group membership valence and social identity threat on intragroup singlism was not obtained. Providing support for the idea that intragroup singlism is widespread, the current research confirmed that young single adults felt more positive toward married people than toward single people, even though the latter was currently their own ingroup.