Overlapping Mental Representations of Self, Ingroup, and Outgroup: Unraveling Self-Stereotyping and Self-Anchoring

2006/05/31 by Sabine Otten, Kai Epstude · 6 citations
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion #Behavioral Health and Interventions

paper · doi:10.1177/0146167206287254

openalex publication_date 2006/05/31 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/01

Abstract

Smith and collaborators presented strong response time evidence for overlapping mental representations of the self and relevant ingroups, and they interpreted their findings as reflecting that people define themselves in terms of their ingroups. Besides on inferences from ingroup to self (self-stereotyping) however, self-ingroup overlap could also be based on inferences from the self to the ingroup (self-anchoring). The present research tackled this interpretational ambiguity and empirically distinguished self-anchoring versus self-stereotyping as processes possibly under-lying self-ingroup overlap. Results from three studies revealed stronger evidence for inferences from self to ingroup (selfanchoring) than the other way round (self-stereotyping).

Citations

• Social identity theory: past achievements, current problems and future challenges
• Social Categorization Moderates Social Projection
• Social categorization and intergroup behaviour

Cited by

• Cultural Variation in the Minimal Group Effect
• I'm like you and you're like me: Social projection and self-stereotyping both help explain self–other correspondence.
• Social perception as induction and inference: An integrative model of intergroup differentiation, ingroup favoritism, and differential accuracy.
• Like Me or Like Us
• Social Projection Increases for Positive Targets
• Social projection [wikipedia]