During group decision making, people often experience disagreements in which they need to choose between their own viewpoint and the viewpoint of another group member, for example, when cabinet... Show moreDuring group decision making, people often experience disagreements in which they need to choose between their own viewpoint and the viewpoint of another group member, for example, when cabinet members disagree about the best decision to tackle a crisis. These intragroup conflicts often pose a paradox for groups. On the one hand, conflicts use up precious time, evoke frustration, and reduce group members’ motivation to work for the group. Yet, on the other hand, conflicts challenge group members’ to more critically evaluate their initial viewpoints which, in the end, may result in more well-informed decisions. In this dissertation I address this “paradox of intragroup conflict” by means of a meta-analysis of past intragroup conflict research and six experiments examining when conflicts are most likely to help or hinder group decision-making. The findings show that although two types of conflict (i.e., rela tionship and process conflict) have a strong tendency to hurt group outcomes, a third type of conflict (i.e., task conflict) has the potential to help group outcomes. Yet, whether a group can indeed benefit from a task conflict strongly depends on contextual factors (e.g., the presence vs. absence of a relationship conflict) and individual-level factors (e.g., cardiovascular reactions to conflict). Show less
Being a member of a socially devalued group (e.g., women, ethnic minorities) threatens social identity, leading people to lower their investment in performance domains that determine societal... Show moreBeing a member of a socially devalued group (e.g., women, ethnic minorities) threatens social identity, leading people to lower their investment in performance domains that determine societal status (e.g., education, career success). The experiments discussed in this dissertation show that offering devalued group members information that affirms their social identity improves their motivation in status-defining domains. Firstly, it was shown that contexts that express value for positive characteristics of devalued groups motivate group members towards higher achievement on status-defining dimensions. Secondly, this motivational effect of social identity affirmation held up even in threatening intergroup contexts in which high status outgroup members were present. When outgroup members acknowledged positive characteristics of the devalued group, devalued group members became focused on approaching success rather than avoiding failure. Thirdly, the beneficial effects of social identity affirmation compared to self-affirmation were revealed: Whereas self-affirmation led devalued group members to be concerned with their individual outcomes, affirming group identity challenged group members to pursue collective action. The findings underline the importance of positive group identity and intergroup respect for status-improvement of low status groups. Implications of the results for the integration of ethnic minorities and the participation of women in the work force are discussed. Show less
