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
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. "
Recommended
