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Previous research has focused on the importance of leaders being seen to be of the group (i.e. to be prototypical of a group) but less on the impact of leaders' own degree of identification with the group. Also, little is known about the combined impact of leader prototypicality and leader identification on followers' responses. This paper reports two studies that address these lacunae. Study 1 shows experimentally that perceived leader identification and prototypicality interact to determine followers' personal identification with leaders and their perceptions of leader charisma. Findings indicate that high identification can compensate for low prototypicality such that high-identified leaders are able to inspire followership when leaders are low prototypical. Study 2 replicates these findings in the field by examining followers' responses to workgroup leaders. In addition, results demonstrate that the aforementioned responses are more pronounced for highly identified followers. The present research extends social identity theorizing by demonstrating that leaders' inability to inspire followership derives as much from their failure to project a sense of 'we' and 'us' as part of their self-concept as from a failure to exemplify group-typical attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research demonstrates social support from fellow group members as unique trigger of additional effort and performance in groups. Support-induced effort gains are shown both compared with groups without social support and individual work. Study 1 examined existing beliefs about motivating group work among employees with professional group work experience (n = 130). The results revealed social support as one of the most frequently reported sources of group-induced effort gains. Study 2 explored self-reported effort intentions in group training scenarios among athletes (n = 94). Finally, Study 3 examined performance as a manifest indicator of effort in an experimental persistence task among students (n = 88). The results of Study 2 and Study 3 showed significant gains due to social support in both self-reported effort and manifest performance, respectively. Together, the results demonstrate that receiving social support from fellow group members leads to higher effort in groups at the level of existing beliefs about motivating group work, at the level of effort intentions, and at the level of manifest performance behavior. The observed findings cannot be explained by established sources of motivation gains in groups such as social comparison or social indispensability. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In two studies, we test the prediction that perceived longevity increases system justification and the legitimacy of inequality. In Study 1, the foundations of the capitalist system were portrayed as younger or older on a timeline. Participants scored higher on economic system justification and perceived capitalism as more legitimate when they were led to believe that this economic system was older. In Study 2, we manipulated the longevity of the Indian caste system and recruited both Indians and Americans. Both groups judged the caste system as more justifiable and legitimate when it was described as more longstanding. In addition, Indians reported more system dependence and judged the caste system as more justifiable and legitimate than Americans. Feelings of system dependence explained the effects of nationality, but not the effects of longevity, on the justification and legitimacy of the caste system. Perceived longevity is a novel contributor to system justification. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Threats to group status can elicit different responses, ranging from those that motivate striving for improvement to those that motivate defending the threatened social identity. We examine why moral threats to group status may inhibit individuals' striving to improve. Specifically, we predicted that a threat to the group's moral status evokes a defensive emotional focus on the out-group that impedes individuals' striving to improve. Two studies (N = 76 and N = 90) showed that moral (as opposed to nonmoral) threats elicited more outrage directed at the out-group and, by trend, less outrage directed at the in-group. The follow-up study further demonstrated that moral threat impeded striving for improvement because of the relative focus of outrage on in-group versus out-group. Moreover, and consistent with our group-based analysis, this pattern was most pronounced among strongly identified group members. We discuss theoretical and practical implications of framing groups' shortcomings in moral versus nonmoral terms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We apply latent class analysis (LCA) to build typologies of response profiles underlying variation in attitudes. LCA is directly suited for identifying categories of people who have distinct representational profiles, that is, discretely measureable patterns of attitudes that are bound together by a common system of interpretation used by the group to make sense of and communicate about a social object within a social context. This novel application extends social representations theory and provides a way to simultaneously examine the relevant content of important representations and their prevalence across a priori social categories and demographics within a given society. We identify four distinct representational profiles underlying bicultural policy attitudes in a nationally representative New Zealand sample (N = 6150). We map the prevalence of these four profiles across the population, show how they vary demographically across indicators of social class, immigration status, and ethnicity, and predict distinct patterns of voting behavior, political party support, social identification, and in-group and out-group attitudes. Guidelines for the use of LCA in the study of social representations are discussed, including a three-step model of the following: (i) profile prediction and derivation; (ii) profile validation; and (iii) prevalence mapping of profile distributions across strata within the population. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]