TY - JOUR
T1 - Ghosts of the Past and Dreams of the Future
T2 - The Impact of Temporal Focus on Responses to Contextual Ingroup Devaluation
AU - Rabinovich, Anna
AU - Morton, Thomas A.
PY - 2012/3/1
Y1 - 2012/3/1
N2 - The authors investigated the impact of temporal focus on group members' responses to contextual ingroup devaluation. Four experimental studies demonstrated that following an induction of negative ingroup evaluation, participants primed with a past temporal focus reported behavioral intentions more consistent with this negative appraisal than participants primed with a future temporal focus. This effect was apparent only when a negative (but not a positive) evaluation was induced, and only among highly identified group members. Importantly, the interplay between temporal focus and group identification on relevant intentions was mediated by individual self-esteem, suggesting that focus on the future may be conducive to separating negative ingroup appraisals from individual self-evaluations. Taken together, the findings suggest that high identifiers' responses to ingroup evaluations may be predicated on their temporal focus: A focus on the past may lock such individuals within their group's history, whereas a vision of the future may open up opportunities for change.
AB - The authors investigated the impact of temporal focus on group members' responses to contextual ingroup devaluation. Four experimental studies demonstrated that following an induction of negative ingroup evaluation, participants primed with a past temporal focus reported behavioral intentions more consistent with this negative appraisal than participants primed with a future temporal focus. This effect was apparent only when a negative (but not a positive) evaluation was induced, and only among highly identified group members. Importantly, the interplay between temporal focus and group identification on relevant intentions was mediated by individual self-esteem, suggesting that focus on the future may be conducive to separating negative ingroup appraisals from individual self-evaluations. Taken together, the findings suggest that high identifiers' responses to ingroup evaluations may be predicated on their temporal focus: A focus on the past may lock such individuals within their group's history, whereas a vision of the future may open up opportunities for change.
KW - group identification
KW - ingroup devaluation
KW - self-esteem
KW - temporal focus
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84857158850&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/0146167211427307
DO - 10.1177/0146167211427307
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 22143308
AN - SCOPUS:84857158850
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 38
SP - 397
EP - 410
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 3
ER -