By Regina Kim Most people are members of several different social groups, including nationality, ethnicity, gender, religion, political ideology, social class and occupation. However, people differ on how much they see these identities as overlapping or similar, and Brewer and her colleagues call this social identity complexity. For example, some may perceive the different groups to which they belong as containing the same members (i.e. Catholic and Italian). While these two groups do not objectively share all of their members, people often perceive them as highly overlapping. On the other hand, when overlapping membership between different in-groups is perceived to be small (i.e. Buddhist and Italian), this is a sign of high social identity complexity. With high social identity complexity, people more readily recognize that others may be outgroup members on one dimension but in-group members on other dimensions. Hence, they are more tolerant of outgroup members and show less in-group favoritism.
How does social identity complexity impact intergroup trust? Xin and colleagues (in press) conducted a series of experiments where they increased people’s social identity complexity by asking them to use multiple nodes and connections to provide the most comprehensive social identity map. They found that increasing individuals’ social identity complexity enhanced their level of trust toward out-group members. Interestingly, levels of social identity complexity did not change how much people trusted in-group members.
Trust allows people to cooperate, work and live together. It is an essential factor in negotiation and mediation. Increasing the salience of multiple social identities and establishing complex identity structures in parties engaged in conflicts may lead them to increased intergroup trust.
  References: Brewer, M.B., and Pierce, K.P. (2005). Social identity and outgroup tolerance. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 31, 428-437.
Xin, S., Xin, Z., and Lin, C. (in press). Effects of trustors’ social identity complexity on interpersonal and intergroup trust. European Journal of Social Psychology. doi: dx.doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2156
Image: Flickr user Christian Kadluba

Categories: Blog, Intergroup Conflict, International Conflict

Published October 26, 2015