Psychology and Politics: A Social Identity Perspective

145 Pages·2013·0.876 MB·English

by  Alexa Ispas

Psychology
and Politics
A social identity perspective
Alexa Ispas
Psychology and Politics
What makes us divide the world into ‘us’ and ‘them’? How can we exert
social influence over others? When does a peaceful protest turn into a riot?
Why are some politicians heroes one day and villains the next? Where do we
find the resources to resist authoritarian regimes?
Taking these questions as a starting point, the book examines political
conduct from a social identity perspective. Supported by over two decades
of empirical research, this perspective distinguishes between our personal
identity, which is prevalent when we think of ourselves as individuals, and
our social identity, which comes to the fore when we think of ourselves as
members of groups. The social identity perspective argues that our political
behaviour is largely governed by our social identity, and discusses the
implications this has for politics, particularly for social influence, crowd
events, leadership, and authoritarian regimes.
Accessible and engaging, the content covers a wide range of political
topics, such as the way in which categorizing ourselves into groups influences
how we perceive the social world, the implications of categorization for social
influence, the development of crowd events, the dynamics of leadership, and
the mechanisms underlying obedience under authoritarian regimes. The book
will appeal to undergraduate and postgraduate students across a range of
disciplines, as well as to political activists and leaders.
Alexa Ispas completed her PhD at the University of Edinburgh. She has
worked on research projects at the University of Melbourne, the Australian
National University, Cardiff University, and the University of St Andrews.
Alexa has also worked as a social researcher for the Scottish Government.

Psychology and Politics
A social identity perspective
Alexa Ispas
First published 2013
by Psychology Press
27 Church Road, Hove, East Sussex, BN3 2FA
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Psychology Press
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Psychology Press is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
©2013 Psychology Press
The right of Alexa Ispas to be identified as author of this work has been
asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright,
Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or
other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying
and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system,
without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice:Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Acatalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Ispas, Alexa.
Psychology and politics : a social identity perspective / Alexa Ispas.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Group identity. 2. Identity (Philosophical concept) 3. Social
psychology. I. Title.
HM753.I87 2013
302—dc23 2012021726
ISBN: 978–0–415–67770–7 (hbk)
ISBN: 978–0–203–57159–0 (ebk)
Typeset in Times
by Keystroke, Station Road, Codsall, Wolverhampton
Contents
Preface vii
Acknowledgements xi
1 Psychology and the social identity perspective 1
Learning objectives 1
Henri Tajfel: Personal motivation and categorization
research 1
Sherif’s Robber’s Cave study 4
Tajfel’s minimal group studies 10
The social identity perspective 17
Implications for politics 23
Chapter 1 summary 24
Focus questions 25
Further reading 25
2 The psychology of social influence 26
Learning objectives 26
Sherif’s studies on norm formation 28
Asch’s conformity studies 30
Group polarization 35
Minority influence 38
Rethinking groupthink 42
Implications for politics 50
Chapter 2 summary 50
Focus questions 51
Further reading 52
vi Contents
3 The psychology of crowd events 53
Learning objectives 53
Crowds as irrational: A social identity critique 54
The importance of group norms 61
Crowds as agents for positive change 65
Implications for politics 68
Chapter 3 summary 68
Focus questions 69
Further reading 69
4 The psychology of political leadership 70
Learning objectives 70
Leaders as extraordinary individuals: The importance of
leader attributes 70
Leaders as doers: The importance of leader behaviour 73
Leadership as perception: The importance of followers 76
Leaders as givers: Personal versus group interests 81
Leaders as visionaries: Transforming social reality 86
Implications for politics 89
Chapter 4 summary 91
Focus questions 92
Further reading 92
5 The psychology of authoritarian regimes 94
Learning objectives 94
Deference to authority: Milgram’s obedience studies 95
Evil in uniform: Zimbardo’s Stanford prison experiment 101
Implications for politics 110
Chapter 5 summary 112
Focus questions 113
Further reading 113
Glossary 114
Bibliography 119
Index 128
Preface
Ifell in love with psychology the day I was introduced to the social identity
perspective, during my second year of undergraduate studies.
The first year of psychology was very different from what I had expected.
Instead of learning about Freud and Jung and archetypes and dreams, about
making sense of our own and others’ behaviours and thought processes – all
things I had previously associated with psychology – the lectures seemed
incredibly abstract. They were about cognitive models, perception, biology
–very little of what I could relate to or observe in my everyday life. There
was also something else that seemed to be missing, but I could not articulate
what it was.
One day, the social psychology lecturer said we were about to embark on
aseries of lectures on the social identity perspective. He told us about Henri
Tajfel, its originator – about his experiences as a Polish Jew, fighting for
survival in a German prison camp during World War II, and his shock upon
returning home and finding that his entire family had been killed during the
Holocaust. Shaken to the core, Henri Tajfel set off on a life-long quest to
understand what happens psychologically when people categorize themselves
and others into groups. He soon found students and colleagues eager to join
him, and the theoretical approach he developed quickly became the pre-
eminent contemporary social psychological approach to the study of relations
between and within groups – a rich, hugely insightful perspective that explains
so much about the world we live in.
All I could think about when I left the lecture theatre that day was that I
had found my way not only into psychology, but also into everything else that
interested me – groups, politics, people. I also knew what had been missing
from those other psychology lectures: the social group. The psychology in the
lecture hall did not correspond to my own experience of the world; it was
focused exclusively on the individual. By contrast, having recently left my
home country – Romania – to study in the UK, what fascinated me most was
the way in which my group membership as a Romanian influenced so many
viii Preface
of my early interactions with fellow students. Many years later, I still strongly
believe that the social identity perspective has something unique to teach us
about the social world. Over the next few chapters, I will endeavour to show
how useful this perspective can be when applied to politics.
Applying the social identity perspective to politics
The social identity perspective presents a number of advantages in analyzing
political phenomena. First, its development was motivated by the need to
understand how something as monstrous as the Holocaust could take place.
As a result, one of the key questions of the social identity perspective is to
examine the circumstances under which repressed groups are likely to engage
in collective action to improve their circumstances – a highly political
question. From its early development to the present day, social identity
research has maintained that it is largely through the work of groups that
social change is possible. As Turner (2006) argues, ‘it is the group through
which people are able to change things collectively and politically, and hence
ultimately change personalities and individual attitudes’ (p. 44).
Second, the social identity perspective is highly attuned to the political
messages that are put forward by psychological research. In particular, social
identity research challenges many of the established theories and work in
social psychology, such as work on social influence, crowd events, leadership,
and obedience to authority (Turner, 2006). This has made the social identity
perspective controversial to those intent on maintaining the status quo within
psychology, but popular with researchers eager to spread out a positive
message of empowerment. There is now active social identity research all
over the world, which leads to interesting international perspectives. By
contrast to individualistic approaches to social influence, crowds, or
leadership, the social identity perspective offers a progressive view, one that
provides hugely stimulating insights into politics.
Howthis book is structured
Several excellent books have been published in recent years on political
psychology. These books can give you a very broad idea of how psychology
is relevant to politics. In this book, I am taking a different approach. Rather
than introducing you to a multitude of different theories and models, aiming
for a broad overview, I am focusing in-depth on what the social identity
perspective can contribute to our understanding of politics. I have focused on
four broad areas of politics, to which I believe a social identity perspective
has the most to offer: social influence; crowd events; leadership; and authori-
tarian regimes.
Preface ix
If you are a student, a political activist, or someone interested in current
affairs, I believe this book can provide a useful, engaging starting point
for understanding the processes behind political phenomena, for ‘reading
between the lines’ when listening to political speeches or reading newspaper
articles, and being able to make more informed choices and decisions about
the world you live in. Whether you are reading this book to study for your
exams or purely because it looks interesting, I would like it to be useful to you
–not just to your academic or professional life, but to your life as a citizen of
the world.
As the social identity perspective has developed over many years, it has
generated a large amount of jargon. This book aims to translate findings
into accessible language and provide an engaging reading experience. The
glossary at the back also aims to help understanding.
The chapters can be read independently or in sequence. The bulk of each
chapter discusses social psychology findings in a way that builds up an
argument in line with the social identity perspective. At the end of each
chapter, I then discuss the specific implications for politics.
It is best to read Chapter 1 before any of the others, as it provides an over-
view of the social identity approach, but I reintroduce the relevant concepts
in each chapter. In Chapter 1 I discuss the way in which the social identity
perspective was developed. Starting with Henri Tajfel’s personal motivation
and empirical work on categorization, I then discuss a range of studies that
are at the basis of the social identity perspective. In the final part of the chapter
Iprovide a brief overview of the main tenets of the social identity perspective.
In Chapter 2, I focus on the insights provided by the social identity
perspective to the process of social influence, a central concept for politics.
By focusing on social identity concerns, the social identity perspective
challenges individualistic interpretations of social influence. I discuss this in
relation to a range of experimental paradigms and concepts prevalent in social
psychology: Sherif’s norm formation studies, Asch’s conformity studies,
group polarization, minority influence, and groupthink.
In Chapter 3, I apply some of the insights relating to social influence from
Chapter 2 to the study of crowds, the initiators of social and political change
throughout history. I begin by examining the way in which previous theorists
such as Le Bon have conceptualized the crowd as irrational and deprived of
any sense of responsibility. I also discuss later empirical work on deindi-
viduation. Both these strands emphasize the negative effects of crowds and
groups on individual behaviour. By contrast, research from the social identity
perspective argues that crowd members’ actions are guided by social rather
than individual concerns. The negative behaviour that arises is therefore not
caused by being in a group per se, but rather depends on the norms of that
particular group.