Social Identity Orientation and the Generation of Compensatory Expectations: Schema Maintenance Through Compensation

Abstract

This research explored the role that motives to confirm or maintain group stereotypes play in forming expectations about the future behaviors of ingroups. Participants who were high and low in social identity orientation (SIO) were presented with inconsistent information about the behavior of a member of their cohort group (i.e., college students). They then made predictions about the future behavior of either the deviant student (same target) or another student who was unrelated to the deviant (different target). High SIO participants, who should be especially motivated to confirm or maintain their group concept, generated compensatory expectations about the future behavior of a different group member who was unrelated to the deviant. Participants who were low in SIO did not demonstrate these effects. These results extend previous work (Seta & Seta, 1993) by demonstrating the moderating role of individuals' motivation to maintain group concepts. Results were also discussed in relation to Steele's research on self-affirmation (e.g., Steele & Lui, 1983) and our analysis of schema maintenance through compensation.