The presence of the past: Identity continuity and group dynamics

Abstract

Social psychologists are increasingly interested in the temporal dimensions of social life and in identity continuity in particular. Focusing on ethnicity and national identity we discuss the implications of perceived group continuity and collective self-continuity, and their interplay, for group dynamics. Using the social identity perspective and theories of identity motivation, we show, first, that the need for collective self-continuity forms a unique motivational basis for group identification. Second, we demonstrate that people are more likely to derive a sense of collective self-continuity from groups that are seen as relatively stable and immutable over time (i.e., essentialist in-groups). Third, we find that existential threats to group identity strengthen a sense of collective self-continuity, which, in turn, increases in-group defence mechanisms in the form of negative attitudes towards immigrant out-groups and towards social developments that potentially undermine in-group continuity. Fourth, we discuss empirical findings that indicate that group-based nostalgia for the nation is an identity management strategy in response to in-group continuity threats and that nostalgia leads to immigrant out-group exclusion.

Keywords:

• Identity continuity
• History
• National identity
• Nostalgia
• Intergroup relations

Notes

¹ In addition to the absence of the independent variable(s), this control condition was not fully equivalent to the experimental condition, because participants did not receive a reading or writing task. This can be seen as a limitation of our design. However, we used manipulation checks in almost all of the studies in which we adopted this design, and these indicated significant differences between the experimental and control conditions.

² The use of covariates substantially increases the chance of false positives in which a null-hypothesis is incorrectly rejected (Simmons, Nelson, & Simonsohn, 2011). This means that significant results are sometimes dependent on the inclusion of covariates, and we therefore examined whether the findings were the same when age was not controlled for. This was the case.

³ The results were similar when age, education, and national identification were not controlled for.

⁴ The results were similar when age and gender were not controlled for.

⁵ The results were similar when national identification and political orientation were not controlled for.