11.3.2013.1020 xiao

See your friends close, and enemies closer Social identity and threat shape distance perception

Jenny Xiao New York University 1020 Event, 11/3/2013

Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer. !- Sun Tzu (~400 BC)"

Social Identity

They Saw a Game: Case Study���Hastorf & Cantril (1954)

•  In 1951, Dartmouth Indians played Princeton Tigers.

•  A rough game with many penalties.

•  Princeton psychologists later asked Dartmouth and Princeton students about the game.

Perception is malleable

LeDoux, 1996

“They saw a stadium”

Xiao & Van Bavel, 2012

How far is Fenway Park?

Xiao & Van Bavel, 2012

12.7 million Mexican immigrants lived in the US in 2008, a 17-fold increased since 1970.

As the biggest immigration group, Mexicans account for 32% of all immigrants living in the US.

www.PewResearch.org

Mexican immigration threat

Xiao & Van Bavel, 2012

How far are they from where I am?

How many Mexican immigrants currently live in my country?

www.PewResearch.org

Good fences make good neighbors

US-Mexico border strength

•  d

But how does this affect downstream intergroup attitudes and behaviors?

When closeness breeds contempt

Distance manipulation adapted from Williams & Bargh, 2008

Support for discriminatory policies

Where would you sit? Where should they sit?

Where should Red Sox fans sit?

Acknowledgements

My cohort at NYU Ana Gantman Yael Granot Hannah Nam Lindy Gullett Alex Wesnousky

Feedback on our research Emily Balcetis Nyla Branscombe Shana Cole John Jost Kristin Lane Kyle Ratner Jill Swencionis Yaacov Trope Sophie Wharton

Research Assistants Leslie Bertsen Ian Kurth Abigail Mengers Rimma Rovinskaya Christina Roylance Liat Segal

Advisor and Co-author Jay Van Bavel

If you have questions or want to know more, feel free to contact me!

Jenny Xiao

PhD Candidate

Social Psychology, NYU

y.jenny.xiao@nyu.edu

Dependent measures Fenway Park Camden Yards

Distance estimates

•  Participants estimated intergroup distances from where they are. "

•  Because participants are from different locations in the US, we calibrated their distance judgments based on their location. "

Population size estimation

•  Participants estimated size of Mexican immigrant group currently living in the US (in millions). "

• There are roughly 13 million Mexican immigrants in the US. "

• We calculated a group size ratio = estimated immigrant group size/13 million. "