The relationship between the self and the ingroup: When having a common conception helps 1The authors wish to thank Anne Maass, Luigi Castelli, Luciano Arcuri and Jeff Kiesner for their helpful comments on an earlier draft of this article.

Abstract

Consistent with balance theory, it was predicted that a balance is reached when the self and the ingroup are perceived in a similar way, leading participants to more rapid judgments and fewer errors judging the self and the ingroup. The goal of this study was to replicate and extend the results obtained by Smith and Henry (1996) who concluded that ingroup attributes become part of the self-image, thus facilitating the accessibility of self-information. In the present study, we included a condition measuring reaction times for ingroup ratings (as opposed to self-ratings) and found that both ingroup and self-ratings were facilitated when the self- and the ingroup descriptions matched. Therefore it is proposed that a common self-ingroup representation facilitates the access to both the self and the ingroup.