Cross Categorization
From PsychWiki - A Collaborative Psychology Wiki
Can you think of something to add to this page that may improve this entry?
Contents |
What is Crossed Categorization?
When we meet someone who differs from us on one dimension of social categorization (e.g., race, gender, age, political or religious affiliation, etc) but who is similar to us on another dimension, crossed categorization exists. Cross categorization is a structural feature of societies in that people belong to many different overlapping social categories.
Why is cross categorization research important?
Overlapping social categorizations has been proposed as a potentially effective tool to decrease intergroup bias and discrimination. Research into social identity has consistently shown that merely categorizing people into "us" vs. "them" or "we" vs. "they" is sufficient to create intergroup bias, and sometimes even extends to more severe forms of intergroup hostilities and violence as evidenced by real-world identity-based conflicts between nations, ethnic, religious, and political groups.
The question is how to break-down or eliminate that ingroup-outgroup categorization in order to also reduce the bias that results from categorizatin others into "them". Crossing category memberships is one way to cancel out or reduce that ingroup-outgroup distinctiveness because the individual's self-identity is split between the multiple group memberships. In this way, sharing an in-group membership with an out-group member (crossing categories) can reduce both the differentiation between the groups (cognitive component) and the negative feelings toward the group member (affective or motivational component).
How is research conducted on cross categorization?
Research on crossed categorization examines the bias exhibited toward group members by overlapping two category dimensions (an in-group membership and an out-group membership) to produce four targets: double in-group (ii), crossed targets (io & oi), and double out-group (oo).
As an illustration, an individual who is both young and a Democrat is asked to evaluate groups comprised of young Democrats (ii), young Republicans (io), older Democrats (oi), and older Republicans (oo). Unlike the targets with convergent group memberships (ii and oo), the crossed group targets (io and oi) contain conflicting cues about group identity. A young Democrat may exhibit less bias toward a group comprised of young Republicans because the shared membership on one category dimension (age) conflicts with and cancels the negative implications of out-group membership on the political dimension (Republicans).
Where can I find more information?
- For a thorough narrative summary of the studies that have been conducted in the Cross Categorization literature and the processes underlying cross categorization, see Crisp and Hewstone 1999.
- For a meta-analysis that compares/contrasts the different models that explain cross categorization, see Migdal, Hewstone and Mullen 1998.
- For a more recent meta analysis examining the evidence for how/why crossing categories reduces bias, see Mullen, Migdal and Hewstone 2001.
► Back to Concepts in Social Psychology
