I am unique therefore I appreciate your uniqueness? Effects of personal and social identity priming on judgments of others: A cross-cultural comparison of Poland and India

The study sought to analyze the effect that priming of personal (independent self) and social (interdependent self) identity has on perception of cross-gendered behavior in Poland and India (cf. Guimond, Chatard, Martinot, Crisp, Redersdorff, 2006; Turner & Onorato, 2004). In individualistic cultures priming personal identity (triggering the feeling of one᾿s uniqueness) can have a positive effect on judgements of individuals in counter-stereotypical roles, whereas the social identity prime (triggering the feeling of affiliation and communality) facilitates penalization (backlash, Rudman, 1998) of stereotype-disconfirming behaviors. However, in collectivistic cultures, where similarities between group members are crucial for the Self, priming of personal and social identities can exert different effects on judgments of counter-stereotypical behaviors. Indian (N=366) and Polish (N=400) students were asked to make judgments of characters in stereotypical and counter-stereotypical roles. They were randomly assigned to three conditions: personal identity prime, social identity prime and no prime. The obtained results indicate that personal identity prime leads to positive judgments of counter-stereotypical behaviors also in the collectivistic context. Moreover, comparison of results obtained in Poland and India suggests that the situational context interacts with cultural factors and exerts influence on judgments made of others. peerReviewed publishedVersion