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AbstractHuman-robot collaboration lays the foundation for productivity improvement in the era of Industry 5.0, and human employees’ work knowledge sharing with collaborative robots (cobots) is the key to realize this goal. Since the motivation of human knowledge-sharing behavior is affected by factors such as values and job threats, this study started from an intrinsic motivation perspective, based on the similarity-attraction paradigm and the agency theory, and recruited 306 subjects online through the experimental vignette methodology to carry out the study, and found that 1) perceived intelligence and perceived agency mediates the relationship between human-cobot deep similarity and knowledge-sharing behavior towards cobots, respectively; 2) perceived intelligence and perceived agency chain-mediate the relationship between human-cobot deep similarity and knowledge-sharing behavior towards cobots; and 3) identity threat negatively moderates the relationship between perceived agency and knowledge-sharing behavior towards cobots. The above findings provide mechanistic-level explanations for understanding employees’ knowledge-sharing behaviors toward cobots and practical suggestions for reducing human threat perceptions toward cobots. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Nazi regime's aggressive expansion across Europe during WWII created a landscape of suffering, resistance, and collaboration. How do lay Europeans today reconstruct their ingroup's roles during Nazi occupation, and how do different role representations relate to defensive responses aimed at protecting the ingroup from threat? We tested two theoretical predictions: Following the identity threat prediction, we expected that denying culpability but endorsing morally favorable group representations (e.g., victim‐heroism) would represent an ingroup‐defensive strategy, correlating with other defensive responses, such as victim‐directed negativity or victim‐blaming. Following the identity management prediction, we expected that precisely accepting culpability and acknowledging threatening representations (e.g., willing collaboration with Germans) would form the basis for a defensive stance and thus correlate with defensive intergroup reactions. Analyzing data from nine European samples spanning eight countries (N = 5474), we found support for the identity management prediction in six contexts: Lay representations as willing collaborators were associated with negative collective emotions and correlated with victim‐directed negativity, whereas victim‐hero representations showed no such connections. The remaining three countries revealed a mixture of the two identity accounts. We discuss implications for understanding historical representations and identity protection in groups that were both victims and perpetrators of massive intergroup atrocities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Conflicts arising from identity differences often resist resolution, and leave lasting consequences for generations. These conflicts often result from groups' perception of identity threats. This study examines the impact of identity threat on social group relations through a case study of Jews during their history of exile and the construction of the State of Israel. Drawing upon the theoretical framework of social identity, intergroup relations, and identity threat, this paper explores the historical experience of Jews, highlighting the preservation of Jewish identity and the emergence of perceptions of identity threats in intergroup relations between Jews and other communities. This study emphasizes the importance of addressing identity-based fears for sustainable peace-building. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AI is considered a key driver of industrial transformation and a strategic technology that will shape future development. With AI services continuing to permeate various sectors, concerns have emerged about the ethics of AI. This study investigates the effects of different types of AI services (mechanical, thinking, and affective AI services) on consumers' attitudes through offline and online AI service experiments. We also construct a model to explore the mediating roles of identity threat and perceived control. The findings reveal that mechanical AI services negatively affect consumers' attitudes while thinking and affective AI services have a positive effect. Additionally, we explore how consumers' attitudes vary across different service scenarios and ethical judgments (utilitarianism and deontology). Our findings could offer practical guidance for enterprises providing AI services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizations and their members not only respond to paradoxes, but also can be shaped by paradoxes in potentially profound yet highly heterogeneous ways. In our study, we adopt an identity threat perspective to explicate how paradox dynamics can affect members' sense of self as professionals and their organizational identification as a key facet of the member–organization relationship. The transformational change of a leading public university launching a for-profit business school in Europe in 2017 provides a particularly fertile setting for this purpose. Our in-depth, longitudinal case study spanning 75 months from January 2016 to March 2022 serves as the empirical basis for a novel process model that helps to explain why the same set of paradoxes may have vastly different identity and identification effects not only among members of the same organization, but also within individual members over time. We can trace some of these differences back to boundary conditions related to members' identity and paradox perception, which jointly shape how members recognize, attribute, and respond to paradoxes as threats to their identity. Overall, our study provides a new lens into the multifaceted process through which paradoxes can shape members and member–organization relationships as exemplified by members' organizational identification. Supplemental Material: The online supplement is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2020.14630. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, the green concept has become integral to education, leading to the rise of paperless online teaching. With the rapid development of online teaching platforms (OTPs) due to the pandemic, studies on user behavior have gained momentum. However, most studies have focused on students’ online learning attitudes and behaviors, neglecting in-depth analysis of teachers’ behaviors on OTPs. OTPs can either assist or substitute teachers, enhancing efficiency but also causing anxiety. This paper proposes reframing OTPs as assistants to reduce teachers’ resistance. We investigate if the OTP image (assistant vs. substitutor) impacts teachers’ satisfaction in a specific online teaching context, exploring its explanatory mechanisms. A study of 2*2 group experiments revealed that teachers were less threatened by the assistant OTP image and thus more satisfied. Experiment 1 confirmed that the OTP image influenced teachers’ willingness to recommend and satisfaction. Experiment 2 again tested the effect of different images of OTP (facilitator vs. substitute vs. control group) on teacher satisfaction, and the pie verified the mediating role of identity threat in this effect. Experiment 3 verified that self-affirmation as a moderating variable mitigates identity threats due to the alternative image of the OTP. Therefore, in the future promotion of AI products, more emphasis should be placed on assisting users rather than completely replacing traditional human hands, thus weakening the identity threat posed by AI products to users. The findings of this study enrich the study on teachers’ attitudes towards OTPs, dissect the sources of users’ (teachers’) satisfaction with OTPs from the perspective of product/brand (OTP) image, and provide guidance on how OTPs can choose the appropriate image positioning and promotional language. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

AI is considered a key driver of industrial transformation and a strategic technology that will shape future development. With AI services continuing to permeate various sectors, concerns have emerged about the ethics of AI. This study investigates the effects of different types of AI services (mechanical, thinking, and affective AI services) on consumers’ attitudes through offline and online AI service experiments. We also construct a model to explore the mediating roles of identity threat and perceived control. The findings reveal that mechanical AI services negatively affect consumers’ attitudes while thinking and affective AI services have a positive effect. Additionally, we explore how consumers’ attitudes vary across different service scenarios and ethical judgments (utilitarianism and deontology). Our findings could offer practical guidance for enterprises providing AI services.

Social comparison theories suggest that ingroups are strengthened whenever important outgroups are weakened (e.g., by losing status or power). It follows that ingroups have little reason to help outgroups facing an existential threat. We challenge this notion by showing that ingroups can also be weakened when relevant comparison outgroups are weakened, which can motivate ingroups to strategically offer help to ensure the outgroups' survival as a highly relevant comparison target. In three preregistered studies, we showed that an existential threat to an outgroup with high (vs. low) identity relevance affected strategic outgroup helping via two opposing mechanisms. The potential demise of a highly relevant outgroup increased participants' perceptions of ingroup identity threat, which was positively related to helping. At the same time, the outgroup's misery evoked schadenfreude, which was negatively related to helping. Our research exemplifies a group's secret desire for strong outgroups by underlining their importance for identity formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professional musicians with strong identities in music may also have a high degree of music in their identities. Accordingly, a rigid identification with work may be problematic for musicians, particularly when forces beyond their control change their work circumstances. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 10 singing teachers, representing a subset of professional musicians, and used interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to explore the ways in which they enacted music in their identities. The framework of musical identities in action was used to interpret the findings, revealing the dynamic, embodied, and situated complexity of music in participants' identities. Music had existential salience in the accounts of nine participants. Its salience resulted from the dynamic and situated presence of music across the lifespan, the literal embodiment of the singing voice, and the metaphorical embodiment of the presence of music in participants' experiences. While a strong sense of music in people's identities can promote lifelong engagement with music, if the emphasis on music is existential, the identity of a professional musician may be at risk when they are faced with an external threat to their livelihood. This is important knowledge for music educators and professional musicians' career thinking. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We aimed to understand how nonbinary individuals cope with gender identity threats in different contexts at work. We used a grounded theory approach through semi-structured interviews with 28 nonbinary Brazilian individuals from 25 organizations. In environments that are threatening to their gender identity, nonbinary individuals adopt a trial-and-error process of gender identity expression that makes them realize that restructuring their identity leads to a high sense of inauthenticity, while preserving it incurs high social costs. As both are unsatisfactory, some of them adopt ambiguous responses that allow them to find ways to make identity claims through performative processes of gender identity expression. Such a process, although not fully reflecting their desire for authenticity, provides satisfactory validation. This mechanism is possible when they interact in other environments where their identity claims are validated. Thus, the gender identity expression validated in more receptive contexts allows these individuals to experience what we named as cross-context identity enactment. It is a process by which the social validation that individuals obtain by enacting an identity in a less-threatening context allows them to rely less on validation in a more threatening context to retain such identity in their self-concept. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Across four studies, we examined whether certain personality traits cue prejudice and serve as identity threat cues. Background: Stigmatized group members may be vigilant to personality cues that signal prejudice. Method: In Study 1 (N = 76), perceivers selected traits and behaviors associated with disagreeableness and closedness to experience as indicators of prejudice. In Studies 2–4, perceivers with stigmatized identities (Total N = 907) learned about a target person who was depicted as disagreeable or agreeable (Studies 2 and 3) and as disagreeable or another trait matched on perceived negativity (i.e., low in conscientiousness, Study 4). Results: Participants perceived the disagreeable target as more discriminatory and hierarchy‐endorsing (Studies 2–4), more morally disengaged (Study 3), and more likely to discriminate against stigmatized identity groups (Studies 2 and 4) than the agreeable or low conscientious targets. The relationship between target disagreeableness and perceived discrimination was partially explained by higher perceived hierarchy endorsing beliefs (Studies 2–4) and perceived moral disengagement (Study 3). Conclusions: This research finds that perceivers with stigmatized identities utilize target disagreeableness as a cue of identity threat, inferring that disagreeable people are more likely to be discriminatory, prejudicial, and hierarchy‐endorsing than agreeable and low conscientious people. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Background Clinical decision support systems (CDSSs) have the potential to improve quality of care, patient safety, and efficiency because of their ability to perform medical tasks in a more data-driven, evidence-based, and semi-autonomous way. However, CDSSs may also affect the professional identity of health professionals. Some professionals might experience these systems as a threat to their professional identity, as CDSSs could partially substitute clinical competencies, autonomy, or control over the care process. Other professionals may experience an empowerment of the role in the medical system. The purpose of this study is to uncover the role of professional identity in CDSS implementation and to identify core human, technological, and organizational factors that may determine the effect of CDSSs on professional identity. Methods We conducted a systematic literature review and included peer-reviewed empirical studies from two electronic databases (PubMed, Web of Science) that reported on key factors to CDSS implementation and were published between 2010 and 2023. Our explorative, inductive thematic analysis assessed the antecedents of professional identity-related mechanisms from the perspective of different health care professionals (i.e., physicians, residents, nurse practitioners, pharmacists). Results One hundred thirty-one qualitative, quantitative, or mixed-method studies from over 60 journals were included in this review. The thematic analysis found three dimensions of professional identity-related mechanisms that influence CDSS implementation success: perceived threat or enhancement of professional control and autonomy, perceived threat or enhancement of professional skills and expertise, and perceived loss or gain of control over patient relationships. At the technological level, the most common issues were the system’s ability to fit into existing clinical workflows and organizational structures, and its ability to meet user needs. At the organizational level, time pressure and tension, as well as internal communication and involvement of end users were most frequently reported. At the human level, individual attitudes and emotional responses, as well as familiarity with the system, most often influenced the CDSS implementation. Our results show that professional identity-related mechanisms are driven by these factors and influence CDSS implementation success. The perception of the change of professional identity is influenced by the user’s professional status and expertise and is improved over the course of implementation. Conclusion This review highlights the need for health care managers to evaluate perceived professional identity threats to health care professionals across all implementation phases when introducing a CDSS and to consider their varying manifestations among different health care professionals. Moreover, it highlights the importance of innovation and change management approaches, such as involving health professionals in the design and implementation process to mitigate threat perceptions. We provide future areas of research for the evaluation of the professional identity construct within health care.

Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States and elsewhere and more so among men than women. We conducted an experiment to examine if men whose masculinity was threatened are more attracted to guns than non-threatened men, presumably to compensate for the threat. After completing a gender knowledge test, men (N = 168) randomly received either false masculinity threatening (experimental condition) or masculinity affirming (control condition) feedback. Subsequently, we measured men's attitudes toward guns and their choice of a gun-range voucher. Men whose masculinity was threatened (vs. affirmed) showed more positive attitudes toward guns and were more likely to choose the voucher. Both effects were statistically significant when the whole sample was analyzed and when very strict exclusion criteria were applied. However, when data exclusions were based on a suspicion check, effects were statistically significant only when a covariate was included (i.e., social dominance orientation, patriotism, or experience with guns). We discuss reasons for this mixed evidence, including the possibility that suspicion regarding the masculinity feedback could itself be a compensatory reaction to threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous evidence suggests that interventions that raise awareness of gender inequality might have the potential to challenge and undo well-anchored biases but, at the same time, might be threatening and provoke reactance against them. The effects of such interventions might also have a differential impact on women and men and vary depending on their level of neosexism and feminist identification. Extending previous research, two pre-registered studies (N = 1,895) were conducted to explore the differential effects of interventions that raise awareness of gender (in)equality with two frames (i.e., gender equality achievement vs. gender inequality persistence) on women's and men's attitudes toward women and gender equality. We also examined whether participants' gender ideology moderates these effects via different psychological mechanisms (identity threat and cognitive unfreezing). Results indicated that for women, the gender inequality persistence framing is more effective (increases cognitive unfreezing) but potentially riskier (enhances identity threat) than the gender equality achievement framing. For men, the gender equality achievement framing seems especially effective as it reduced identity threat, although such effect is contingent on their gender ideology (feminist identification or/and neosexism). These findings have implications for the discourse of practitioners, politicians, and activists who might capitalize on the power of combining gender equality with gender inequality frames to improve attitudes toward women and gender equality depending on the specific goals, the context, and the target of the interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Caste in India is intricately and inevitably linked to multiple issues specifically in the context of intergroup relations and behaviours, and social inequality. Despite the perceived changes in the caste system and its manifestations, it is acknowledged that caste continues to exist in the Indian psyche as part of everyday life. An engagement with the ‘caste question’ as a matter of socio-psychological analysis has significance given the fact that caste involves social, cognitive and emotional elements that contribute to having different meanings for social groups, and generate different forms of affective and behavioural responses. With the recognition of the dearth of research on ‘psychology of caste’, this article attempts to provide insights into underlying socio-psychological processes in the persistence and pervasiveness of caste, and caste-based oppressive behaviours. Building on the recent debate and contestation on the transformations in caste, gaps in the mainstream psychological research on caste in India, and Ambedkar’s psychological expositions of caste, the article focuses on the issues of socio-psychological construction of caste, the protuberant manifestations of caste in the forms of caste-based discrimination and violence, and responses to such oppressive behaviours through the lens of socio-psychological frameworks. It is argued that changes in the expressions of caste in contemporary society influence the social cognition of caste groups to espouse varied responses. The increased resistance to the perceived ‘identity threats’ makes the social groups strive to strengthen their ‘collective identity’, in turn, sustaining the caste in contemporary society. The article calls for research to explore shades of caste from socio-psychological perspectives rather than looking at it primarily as a demographic variable. It also advocates for strategic psychological interventions using both legal and social tools at the societal level, with a specific focus on blurring ‘caste boundaries’ and breaking the ‘caste wall in mind’.

This study examines the implications of categorizing workers into essential and non-essential groups due to disruptions in work associated with-and the quality of organizational change communication about-the COVID-19 pandemic. Specifically, we examine how these cues trigger identity threats and influence the meaningfulness of work, consequently affecting the mental health of workers (anxiety, distress, and depression). The results show that change communication reduces identity threat, while also increasing meaningfulness of work, for both work categories. However, the disruptions increase identity threat only for non-essential workers. Conversely, identity threat increases two of the three mental health issues while meaningfulness of work reduces two of them. The study contributes to our growing understanding of the pervasive, though subtle, implications of COVID-19 for the workplace by showing how a process of employee sensemaking and organizational change communication directly and indirectly influence important dimensions of mental health.

Gun violence is a serious problem in the United States and elsewhere and more so among men than women. We conducted an experiment to examine if men whose masculinity was threatened are more attracted to guns than non-threatened men, presumably to compensate for the threat. After completing a gender knowledge test, men (N = 168) randomly received either false masculinity threatening (experimental condition) or masculinity affirming (control condition) feedback. Subsequently, we measured men’s attitudes toward guns and their choice of a gun-range voucher. Men whose masculinity was threatened (vs. affirmed) showed more positive attitudes toward guns and were more likely to choose the voucher. Both effects were statistically significant when the whole sample was analyzed and when very strict exclusion criteria were applied. However, when data exclusions were based on a suspicion check, effects were statistically significant only when a covariate was included (i.e., social dominance orientation, patriotism, or experience with guns). We discuss reasons for this mixed evidence, including the possibility that suspicion regarding the masculinity feedback could itself be a compensatory reaction to threat.

Despite almost one-third of women suffering from the loss of a baby through miscarriage, stillbirth, or infant loss, it is surprising how little research examines how such loss affects the identity and stigmas experienced by these individuals. Through in-depth, semi-structured interviews with bereaved mothers (in particular, mothers who lost a baby during pregnancy or within one year after birth), this research sheds light on the bereaved mother's experiences after loss. Specifically, this research applies the identity-threat model of stigma to showcase the process of stigmatized loss. Based on our findings, we also introduce the process model of stigmatized loss that can apply to all types of stigmatized loss. Key themes emerged as we explored stigmatized loss discourses. These include situational cues that trigger stigma, identity-based responses that aim to preserve both a baby's and mother's identity, as well as nonvolitional and volitional responses that help restore control and reconstruct identity. Additionally, other themes revolve around positive and negative outcomes stemming from avoiding stigmatized identity activation and identification of triggers that initiate a recursive process through stigmatized baby loss. Importantly, stigma can be perceived as both an identity threat (negative) and an identity confirmation (positive). Findings inform theory and practice alike. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Contextualized in Chinese fans' backlash of NBA advertisements' featuring Xukun Cai, an effeminate idol belonging to the stigmatized 'little fresh meat' group, this study explored the occurrence of multiple identity threats of sport fans and coping strategies. 2289 comments were collected from the NBA fan forum for thematic content analysis. This study identified two identities under threat. Fans appraised Cai as a threat to NBA identity due to his lack of basketball skills, NBA involvement and NBA-equivalent stardom, and a threat to their masculinity due to the idol's and his fan group's lack of masculinity. Fans used outgroup derogation, ingroup criticism, social support and humour to cope with the threat. This study was the first to explore a threat to multiple identities of sport fans, which may guide future studies on the interconnected nature of sport identity and other identities. This study revealed that sport identity plays a buffer role on sport entities in undesirable conditions. To minimize the occurrence of multiple identity threats to fans, marketers may need to get more involvement in fans community to know about how their brand is perceived when developing marketing communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: This study aims to understand (a) how remote workers respond to threats to their identity and (b) the conditions in which each coping response tends to occur more frequently. Methods: To this end, we pursued a grounded theory approach, conducting interviews with 71 individuals who chose to work remotely. Results: Our model and theoretical propositions create insights into how remote workers respond to negative stigma from a range of origins. While some responses lead to restructuring the remote workers' identity (identity restructuring responses), others involve keeping the enactment of such identity (identity-preserving responses) or maintaining a paradoxical relationship between restructuring and preserving the identity (paradoxical identity work responses). We also theorise on the conditions under which each response is more likely to occur. Discussion: We expand the predominant focus on the meso and macro aspects of this type of work to the micro-interactions in which these individuals engage, thus highlighting how identity is made, performed, created, and enacted, within specific boundary conditions. In addition, by reflecting upon remote workers' identity threats in light of the wider macro context. We also explore the conditions under which specific kinds of responses tend to emerge. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the impact of anthropomorphism on customers' decisions to use artificial intelligence (AI) devices in hotels, along with other traditional predictors. The study's model considered the co-occurrence of positive and negative effects of anthropomorphism, including social presence and identity threats, which compete to control evaluative attitudes toward AI devices. Structural equation modeling was used to analyze the model using data from 363 participants. The results showed that anthropomorphism positively enhances social presence, leading to higher performance expectancy and positive emotions toward AI devices. Anthropomorphism also entails identity threats, resulting in increased effort expectancy and negative emotions. These trade-offs highlight the need for hotels to consider how customers perceive and respond to anthropomorphized AI devices during service delivery and to choose the level of anthropomorphism accordingly. This study highlights the benefits and cost trade-offs inherent in anthropomorphism and explains how they affect the evaluative attitudinal responses toward AI devices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although individuals have different kinds of defensive strategies towards identity threat, the relationship between identity threat and unethical behavior is still unclear. In the current study, according to identity threat and self-affirmation theory, we propose and test the role of publicness of identity threat in determining whether identity threat will lead to unethical behavior. One online experiment with 197 participants (mixed design) and one laboratory experiment with 86 participants (between-subject design) are used to test our hypotheses. Our findings reveal that when individuals' identity threat is from the public sphere, it will increase their unethical behavior, but when such a threat is from the private sphere, it will reduce their unethical behavior. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Threatening team identity is a new field in the literature of sports management and marketing that has recently been considered by researchers in this field. In this regard, the present study was conducted with the aim of identifying the factors threatening the team identity of national football team fans. Methods: The method of the present research was qualitative research in the form of content analysis and the statistical population included national team fans that followed the Iranian Football Federation's Instagram page. The sampling method was purposeful and in-depth interviews were conducted with 16 participants until theoretical saturation. Coding technique and NVivo version 10 software were used to analyze the data. Results: The results showed the factors threatening the team identity of national team fans in seven themes; weak financial management, poor executive management and illegitimate management of the federation, improper selection of players, improper selection of technical staff, poor brand of invited players and poor performance of the team are categorized. Conclusion: The results of this study, on the one hand, eliminate the huge scientific gap in the literature threatening team identity in domestic and foreign research, and on the other hand, Managers can recognize their inappropriate actions and weaknesses in the field of threatening the team identity of national team fans and put effective strategies and strategies on their agenda to at least be able to reduce the number and amount of these factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While past research documents essentialist beliefs' (i.e., believing social groups have inherent, unchangeable traits) impact on prejudice, no research has explored if stigmatized groups perceive essentialism as indicative of bias. With a sample of participants diverse in race and sexual orientation, we document that endorsers of racial essentialism were perceived as more likely to be racist and also as more likely to be sexist and heterosexist, relative to nonendorsers (Studies 1–2). As some essentialist beliefs about sexual orientation are associated with progay attitudes, another experiment parsed out dimensions of racial essentialism (i.e., natural kind and entitative beliefs) and examined differences in White sexual minorities' expectations of bias from this race-based cue. Findings indicate that both essentialism dimensions elicited identity threat with potential consequences for sexual minorities' desire to conceal their sexual orientation; thus, we broaden conceptualizations of cues that elicit identity threat while exploring nuances of the impact of perceiver identity and essentialism type. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Identities of religious believers can motivate believers' passions, emotions, and action tendencies. Religious identity-based passion can, therefore, lead people to identify with certain kinds of movements, both peaceful and extremist. Around the globe, identities of religious minorities provide a compelling context for studying peaceful and extremist activism driven by passion. Building on previous literature on social identity theory, passion, and religious identity, it was hypothesized that religious identity predicts passion of both types: Harmonious Passion (HP) and Obsessive Passion (OP). It was proposed that people who were harmoniously passionate about their religious identity would promote peaceful activism whereas people who were obsessively passionate would promote hatred and extremism. A sample of 221 devout Shias (a religious minority) from Pakistan participated in the survey-based experiment of this study (males = 108, females = 113; ages ranging from 19 to 38 years, M age = 22, SD = 2.13; experimental condition = 111, control condition = 110). The results supported the key hypotheses of the study: identification with a minority (Shia Identity) leads to both Harmonious Passion (HP) and Obsessive Passion (OP); when the Shia Identity was threatened, HP and OP scores were lower. Furthermore, HP predicted peaceful activism whereas, under a threat to identify, OP increased and showed a significantly higher violent stance, predicting religious extremism. These findings support the assumption that HP leads to Peaceful Activism, whereas OP is associated with increased support for Extremism and Hatred. The results of this study replicated existing theoretical and empirical predictions about passion pathways and threats to religious identity. The implications of the findings are discussed in the context of contemporary identity threats and activism strategies among Muslim minorities in Pakistan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two prominent, compatible theoretical accounts contend that Asian Americans and Latinos are not strongly connected to America's political parties and that their partisanship is responsive to identity threats. Donald Trump's political ascent presents a critical test, as Trump reoriented the Republican Party by foregrounding anti-immigrant hostility. Here, we test these perspectives using one of the first-ever population-based panels of English-speaking Asian Americans and English- or Spanish-speaking Latinos fielded in 2016 and 2018. Across various empirical tests, we uncover surprising strength and stability in respondents' partisan identities. In a period of pronounced anti-immigrant rhetoric, these groups remained steadfast in their party affiliation. We also show that panethnic identities were stable over this period and that partisanship can predict subsequent panethnic identities more consistently than the reverse. By 2016, panethnic identities were already stably integrated with partisanship, with little evidence of situational shifts in response to identity threats. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two cross-sectional survey studies were conducted to examine the relationships between minority stressors, protective factors and mental health outcomes in lesbian, gay and bisexual people (LGB) in the United Kingdom (UK). A convenience sample of 156 LGB people in the UK participated in Study 1. Multiple regression analyses showed that victimization and sexuality-related identity threat were positively associated with anxiety and that identity resilience, social support and degree of outness were negative correlates; and that rejection was positively associated with depression while identity resilience and social support were negative correlates. In Study 2, based on a convenience sample of 333 gay men, our structural equation model showed that ethnic minority status, lower identity resilience and higher identity threat were associated with greater distress; ethnic minority status was associated with less social support and more internalized homonegativity; being single was associated with less social support and more internalized homonegativity; identity resilience was positively associated with social support and negatively associated with internalized homonegativity; identity threat was associated with less social support and more internalized homonegativity; internalized homonegativity was negatively associated with social support; and social support was negatively associated with distress while internalized homonegativity was positively associated with distress. Findings show differential effects of particular stressors on particular mental health outcomes in LGB people and the significance of promoting identity resilience, social support and degree of outness as protective factors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Aim Adolescents face many challenges when entering university. The aim of this study was determined predictor role of coping with identity threat and health literacy on the quality of life and mental health of students. Methods This is a descriptive‐analytical study of the structural equation study. Random sampling was performed on 300 students of Alborz University of medical science who were eligible to enter the study. The link of the questionnaires was provided to the students through social networks. The questionnaires were used to study identity threat, mental health, health literacy, and quality of life. Results The results of structural equations showed that health literacy has a negative and significant effect (β = −0.22) and identity threat strategy has a negative and significant effect on students' mental health disorder (β = −0.53). Mental health disorders have a negative and significant effect on the quality of life in students (β = −0.49), and health literacy has a positive and significant effect on the quality of life (β = 0.35). Based on Sobel criterion, mental health disorder was a partial mediator for the indirect effect of coping threat strategy on quality of life. Conclusions Considering the effect of mental health and health literacy on the quality of life and the effectiveness of coping strategies, it is recommended to evaluate the mental health and health literacy of students in universities and provide educational programs for identity coping in the early years after entering the university.

Natural disasters have significant psychological impacts, yet people's connection to disaster-affected places remains underexplored. Studies using place attachment models to understand psychological disaster impact have yielded inconsistent findings. This study developed Identity Process Theory (IPT) to better explain post-disaster wellbeing and mental health outcomes. Social connection (social capital) was predicted to buffer negative psychological disaster impacts for highly place-connected people. We also developed a novel scale to address a major gap in existing IPT literature: measurement of identity threat. A survey was administered to people from small townships (N = 111) affected by a major bushfire in NSW, Australia, in 2019 and 2020. Identity threat accounted for wellbeing and mental health outcomes better than did place attachment. Stronger identity threat was associated with poorer outcomes. Partial support was found for the moderating function of social capital. These findings support the importance of connection to place and IPT's utility in disaster contexts. This has important implications for environmental psychologists and disaster recovery efforts.

IntroductionThis study aims to understand (a) how remote workers respond to threats to their identity and (b) the conditions in which each coping response tends to occur more frequently.MethodsTo this end, we pursued a grounded theory approach, conducting interviews with 71 individuals who chose to work remotely.ResultsOur model and theoretical propositions create insights into how remote workers respond to negative stigma from a range of origins. While some responses lead to restructuring the remote workers’ identity (identity restructuring responses), others involve keeping the enactment of such identity (identity-preserving responses) or maintaining a paradoxical relationship between restructuring and preserving the identity (paradoxical identity work responses). We also theorise on the conditions under which each response is more likely to occur.DiscussionWe expand the predominant focus on the meso and macro aspects of this type of work to the micro-interactions in which these individuals engage, thus highlighting how identity is made, performed, created, and enacted, within specific boundary conditions. In addition, by reflecting upon remote workers’ identity threats in light of the wider macro context. We also explore the conditions under which specific kinds of responses tend to emerge.

Purpose: Drawing from identity threat theory, this study aims to understand how and when employee voice can lead to abusive supervision. It proposes and examines a theoretical model in which employee voice is linked to abusive supervision through the mediating effect of leader identity threat. Methods: We conducted a field study by collecting data from 93 supervisors and 533 subordinates in China at two different points in time. A structural equation model and Mplus software were used to examine the direct relationship between employee voice and abusive supervision, as well as the mediating effect of leader identity threat and the moderating effect of supervisor traditionality. Results: Our results showed that employee voice was positively related to leader identity threat and had an indirect effect on abusive supervision via leader identity threat. In addition, we found that supervisor traditionality moderated the relationship between employee voice and leader identity threat. Subordinates' voice increased perceptions of leader identity threat among supervisors with high traditionality, whereas supervisors with low traditionality did not make this association. Finally, the indirect effect of employee voice on abusive supervision via leader identity threat was moderated by supervisor traditionality. Discussion: First, this study broadens our understanding of the antecedents of abusive supervision by proposing that employee voice may induce abusive supervision. Second, it develops an identity threat perspective to explain why employee voice is positively related to abusive supervision. Finally, it enriches the research on implicit leadership theories by proposing that supervisors' cultural values can also influence supervisors' sense-making of subordinates' behaviors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Adolescents face many challenges when entering university. The aim of this study was determined predictor role of coping with identity threat and health literacy on the quality of life and mental health of students. Methods: This is a descriptive‐analytical study of the structural equation study. Random sampling was performed on 300 students of Alborz University of medical science who were eligible to enter the study. The link of the questionnaires was provided to the students through social networks. The questionnaires were used to study identity threat, mental health, health literacy, and quality of life. Results: The results of structural equations showed that health literacy has a negative and significant effect (β = −0.22) and identity threat strategy has a negative and significant effect on students' mental health disorder (β = −0.53). Mental health disorders have a negative and significant effect on the quality of life in students (β = −0.49), and health literacy has a positive and significant effect on the quality of life (β = 0.35). Based on Sobel criterion, mental health disorder was a partial mediator for the indirect effect of coping threat strategy on quality of life. Conclusions: Considering the effect of mental health and health literacy on the quality of life and the effectiveness of coping strategies, it is recommended to evaluate the mental health and health literacy of students in universities and provide educational programs for identity coping in the early years after entering the university. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While many scholars have noted workplace inequalities generated by the presence of pregnancy and parenthood, this paper shifts the focus to explore the question: how do childless subjects negotiate between work identities and desired identities of parenthood? Drawing from empirical research interviews about navigating complex fertility journeys alongside work and employment, we show how themes of pregnancy and parenthood play out in the form of (non‐)potential rather than actual achievement, and where identity threats arise paradoxically from both too close and too distant an association with the maternal body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Counterproductive work behavior toward the organization (CWB-O) or supervisor (CWB-S) is commonly treated as a consequence of psychological contract breach (PCB). However, drawing from Self-Consistency Theory, the authors in this article argue that the PCB–CWB relationship is recursive through two mediating mechanisms: self-identity threat and organizational cynicism. Furthermore, the authors predict that the relationship between feelings of violation and CWB-O (or CWB-S) would depend on the extent to which the victim attributed blame to the organization (or supervisor). Using weekly and daily survey data, the study found that identity threat was a stronger mediator for recursive CWB–PCB relationships. Moreover, it was found that PCB related positively to violation feelings, which in turn related positively to CWB-O and CWB-S over time. As predicted, the former was moderated by organizational blame attributions, whereas the latter was moderated by supervisor blame attributions. The authors discuss the theoretical implications and propose novel practical implications based on these reciprocal findings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Through two correlational studies (Study 1: Turkish majority, Kurdish minority; Study 2: White British majority; Black minority), we examined the implications of social identity threat for majority and minority ethnic group members' psychological well-being and intergroup bias, using a social identity framework that incorporates the recently highlighted distinction between narcissistic and non-narcissistic positive evaluation of the ingroup (i.e., collective narcissism and ingroup satisfaction, respectively). Method: Online questionnaires were completed by 397 Turkish nationals (265 ethnic Turks and 132 ethnic Kurds, Mage = 32.81, SD = 11.67) in Study 1 and 351 British individuals (163 White and 188 Black British; Mage = 31.47, SD = 10.84) in Study 2. Results: Social identity threat was consistently associated with collective narcissism among all ethnic groups, whereas it was either unrelated or related negatively to ingroup satisfaction. Collective narcissism was positively associated with intergroup bias among both majority and minority groups. Unexpectedly, ingroup satisfaction was also related to greater bias particularly among majority members. In all groups, ingroup satisfaction (but not collective narcissism) was directly associated with greater psychological well-being. Conclusions: Findings highlight the importance of exploring the narcissistic component of positive ingroup evaluation to provide a more nuanced understanding of the relationships between social identity threat and personal well-being, as well as intergroup bias. Public Significance Statement: We investigated the implications of social identity threat across group status (ethnic majority and minority) in two sociocultural contexts (Turkey and United Kingdom). In all groups, social identity threat was related to greater collective narcissism (but not to greater ingroup satisfaction). In turn, both collective narcissism and ingroup satisfaction related to more intergroup bias (particularly among majority group members), but only ingroup satisfaction was related to greater well-being. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite abundant work documenting consumers' reliance on symbolic self-completion after experiencing a self-discrepancy, surprisingly little research has investigated the underlying psychological processes that drive this type of compensatory consumption. This article addresses this critical gap, demonstrating that self-discrepancies triggered by identity threats reduce working memory capacity (WMC), and these reductions in WMC mediate compensatory consumption. Consumers process identity-relevant products more positively than neutral products, establishing a causal chain between self-threats, WMC, and compensatory consumption. In addition, identity-consistent experiences facilitate increases in WMC. Importantly, by utilizing negative emotions as the source of self-threat, this article also demonstrates that identity-inconsistent emotions can serve as a source of threat that is not only impactful, but also easily manipulated by managers through advertisements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As individuals' relationships with information technology (IT) grow more complex and personal, our understanding of the problem of resistance to IT continues to evolve. Current approaches to resistance are based on perceived threats to work tasks and social structure. This work enhances our understanding of resistance by developing a definition and measure of the IT Identity Threat, a new construct that integrates social, task-related, and personal factors of resistance. Grounded in identity theory, the IT Identity Threat offers a parsimonious means to explain and predict IT resistance behaviors. Using data from two independent studies conducted among students and faculty at a large university in the Southeastern United States, we validate an operational measure of IT Identity Threat as a second-order construct and demonstrate that it successfully predicts resistance to IT. Our findings provide support for the IT Identity Threat construct as a simple mechanism to study resistance to IT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Young people who migrate to another country, especially in the context of forced migration, must face complex and lengthy challenges. From a psychological point of view, the main challenges of migration are the re-signification of one's identity, the re-establishment of one's own life in the new country, and facing different social and institutional challenges as well as individual difficulties. All these challenges may constitute a threat to young migrants' identity. Based on the Motivated Identity Construction Theory, this study aimed to explore—in a sample of refugees—the identity threats faced by forced migrants in the settlement phase and the resources most frequently activated in dealing with this sensitive phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Social identity theory (SIT) suggests that organizations fulfill stakeholders' psychological needs by meeting their self-definitional needs. Different crises may undermine such psychological fulfillment to varying degrees and lead stakeholders to react differently to the crises. This study examined the intersection of SIT and crisis communication in the context of social-cause-related nonprofit organizations (NPOs). It used the concept of identity threat to investigate whether a crisis is more detrimental when it directly compromises an NPO's organizational identity and whether this effect varies depending on the stakeholders' levels of social-cause involvement. Data were collected from 630 participants in an online between-subject experiment. As the study found, a crisis that directly compromises an NPO's identity does more damage to stakeholders' identification, attribution of responsibility, attitudes, and intentions of negative word-of-mouth than a crisis that does not. However, this effect of crisis types disappears among stakeholders with low social-cause involvement. Additionally, stakeholder-NPO identification mediates the interaction effects of crisis types and social-cause involvement on the attitudinal and intentional outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The ability to cope with social identity threats is a crucial consumer capacity. But are all coping methods equally beneficial? Our work examines two dominant coping strategies—where individuals either highlight positive dimensions of the self (self‐focus strategy), or where they emphasize other out‐groups' worse performance (others‐focus strategy). We demonstrate that while the two strategies are equally effective at repairing the threatened identity, the others‐focus strategy leads to greater indulgent consumption for those who hold the threatened identity strongly. We also provide evidence of the underlying mechanism, showing that accessibility drives the differences in the indulgent consumption consequences of these coping strategies, which makes it possible for marketers to externally alter such effects. Specifically, we show that if marketers externally raise the accessibility of outgroups‐related concepts, for example, via an advertising message or environmental design, the impact of the others‐focus strategy on indulgence is diminished. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Belief in a conspiracy theory may, for some, provide a social identity. Because of the nature of many conspiracy theories, social identities associated with such beliefs may be subject to varied and considerable threats. Whilst various mechanisms for dealing with social identity threat have received widespread attention, this paper introduces an as yet unexplored strategy – that of 'motivated ignorance' – as a further mechanism for social identity maintenance. This is a behavior where individuals actively avoid freely available and accessible information in order to protect a social identity from information that may be harmful to the existence of the broader social group, and thus the individual's own sense of self. Using a netnographic approach, we explored motivated ignorance related to the social identities formed around beliefs in the Flat Earth. Data revealed two categories of motivated ignorance. Firstly, that of 'poisoning the well', where ignorance was justified by derogating the perceived epistemic quality of the information. The second was more instrumental, through ad hominem attacks on the source rather than the epistemic quality of information. The study suggests that motivated ignorance may be used as a strategy that may be used to protect social identities that are under threat, adding a further mechanism to the literature on coping with social identity threat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stereotype-threat theory holds that activation of a negative stereotype has a harmful effect on performance in cognitive and motor domains. This paper provides a literature review of stereotype-threat research in the motor domain followed by recommendations for sport psychology practitioners. The review discusses the most widespread stereotypes that exist in sport, the effects of stereotype activation on performance in different sports, and mechanisms that explain why stereotype threat decreases performance. Recommendations for practitioners include individual- and organizational-level approaches, with the former subdivided into interventions aimed at prevention or coping. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

How do social cues in the immediate environment affect older consumers' tendency to feel younger? And what is the impact of this tendency on consumption? This research investigates the malleability of older consumers' feel-age and the underlying mechanisms by focusing on the influence of contextual social cues and the downstream effects on consumption behavior. Five studies provide evidence that the mere presence of young social cues triggers an identity threat for older consumers; and feeling younger is a way to protect the self from negative stereotypes associated with aging. By contrast, young consumers are relatively immune to age-related social cues. Whereas the presence of young social cues magnifies older consumers' tendency to feel younger, this effect is attenuated when the young social cues are less desirable or when the older consumers possess higher self-esteem. The greater tendency to feel younger in the presence of young social cues increases older consumers' choice of contemporary over traditional products, especially among those with lower self-esteem. Theoretical insights and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]