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Cited by 28Social and Intergroup PsychologyMemory, History, Trauma, IdentityDeath Anxiety and Social Exclusion

It’s about valence: historical continuity or historical discontinuity as a threat to social identity.

Open access
Roth, Jenny, Huber, Michaela, Juenger, Annkatrin, Liu, James H.·2017·Journal of Social and Political Psychology
DOI 10.5964/jspp.v5i2.677
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Abstract

National identity is underpinned by historical representations. Recent research shows that narratives presenting an in-group’s history as discontinuous rather than continuous raise collective angst, suggesting that historical discontinuity threatens social identity. This previous research has focused on positive aspects of an in-group’s past. The present research aims to extend the findings to go beyond positive histories. We suggest that when the in-group’s actions in the past are presented as negative, historical continuity instead of discontinuity will increase perceived identity threat because a negative, continuous history threatens group members’ need for a positive social identity in the present. In an experiment with a sample size of N = 316, we manipulated the narrated valence of in-group actions during the historical event of the approval of the German constitutional law by framing the group’s actions in either positive or negative terms. In addition, we presented the in-group’s history as connected or disconnected to the in-group’s present. Results demonstrate that historical continuity only decreased identity threat compared to historical discontinuity when the in-group’s past behavior was presented as positive. When the in-group’s past was presented as negative, continuity even increased identity threat compared to historical discontinuity. These results were particularly pronounced for people who strongly identified with their national in-group. We discuss implications of the findings for political communication and managing a nation’s perception of social identity threat.

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  • The inability to reconcile the present and past character of the group may motivate group members, primarily high identifiers, to perceive an historical discontinuity that distances present members from past offenders.

    “The inability to reconcile the character of the group in the present with its character in the past may motivate group members, primarily high identifiers, to perceive an historical discontinuity of the group that serves to distance present group members from past offenders (Roth et al., 2017).”

    From Collective Trauma and the Social Construction of Meaning (2018) · cites this paper as Roth et al., 2017

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Related

Authors
Roth, J., Huber, M., Juenger, A., & Liu, J. H.
Affiliations
  • University of Würzburg (DE)
  • Technische Universität Dresden (DE)
  • Massey University (NZ)
ORCID
Venue
Journal of Social and Political Psychology
Publisher
Leibniz Institute for Psychology (ZPID)
Published
2017-08-02
Volume
5
Issue
2
Pages
320-341
ISSN
2195-3325 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.5964/jspp.v5i2.677
OpenAlex
W2741389749
Cited by
28
References
53
Citations by year
2026: 1 · 2025: 5 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 2 · 2021: 6 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1 · 2018: 3
FWCI
3.50
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Licence
cc-by
Locations
  • Journal of Social and Political Psychology (publishedVersion, cc-by)
  • DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
  • Europe’s Journal of Psychology (submittedVersion, cc-by)
  • Psychology Archives (cc-by)
Funders
  • Technische Universität Dresden
  • University of California, Davis
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Philosophy › Memory, History, Trauma, Identity
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
Keywords
national identity, social identity threat, historical continuity, historical discontinuity, historical narratives, German constitutional law, political communication

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