Self-Typicality and Group Identification: Evidence for their Separateness

Two studies demonstrated group identification (affective-evaluative response to in-group membership) and self-typicality (perceived typicality of the self as an in-group member) to be empirically separate. Study 1 showed that these two variables correlated distinctively with age of the participants, and that prior self-typicality but not prior identification correlated with similarity in subsequent self-and in-group ratings. Study 2 examined the latter relationships in a context that presented new, fictitious information about in-group members. Similarity in self-and group judgments, made after presentation of the new information, correlated positively with later self-typicality but negatively with later group identification. Advantages in making conceptual and operational distinctions between self-typicality and group identification are discussed.