Not My Problem: How Social Identity Shapes Problem Perceptions and Policy Attitudes

Abstract

Social identity plays a central role in mass politics, shaping the perceptions citizens have of politically relevant phenomena. Does identity bias perceptions of social problems, leading citizens to show preferential concern for problems affecting their ingroup? If so, why? Most experimental research has not found evidence of such ingroup bias, but when it has, it has not distinguished empirically between ingroup favoritism or outgroup hostility, leaving open the question of whether identity biases people for their group or against outgroups. Also unclear is whether symbolic or self-interested motivations drive ingroup bias. Employing a variety of social identities and social problems, three survey experiments show citizens perceive problems affecting outgroup members as less serious and more strongly oppose government aid in those cases. Ingroup favoritism was not found because participants did not perceive ingroup victims as more similar than non-identified victims. Outgroup hostility was driven more by concerns stemming from self-interest than symbolic identity-based motivations.