Identity Uncertainty & National Schism

Shifts in majority-minority status during social change can trigger identity uncertainty and status threat, fueling intergroup conflicts that result in group schism, societal division, and polarization. This can challenge further change and strain our collective resilience. Our lab investigates how the structure and salience of social identity affects intergroup relations. Some of the characteristics and contexts of social identity we examine include identity salience, identity uncertainty, normative majority vs. minority dissent status, and identity complexity. We investigate how these identity dynamics influence intergroup conflict, prejudice, stereotypes, and discriminatory behaviors, with the ultimate goal of developing effective interventions to reduce intergroup conflict.

Social Identity Uncertainty: Scale Development

As society undergoes internal changes and external threats, these societal events can create uncertainty about one’s social identity (e.g., uncertainty about what it means to be American). However, It has remained unknown whether identity uncertainty would be a distinct psychological construct and how it would affect intergroup relations and social cohesion. We developed a Social Identity Uncertainty Scale to measure this psychological experience (Jung, Hogg, & Choi, 2016) and extended the concept to capture both (a) identity uncertainty and (b) membership uncertainty (Wagoner, Belavadi, & Jung, 2017). We identified the antecedents of social identity uncertainty including rapid cultural change, disagreement within society about national agenda, the unknown future of society, and disagreement in historical narratives between neighboring countries (Jung, Hogg, Choi, & Lewis, 2019; Jung, Hogg, Livingstone, & Choi, 2019).

Publications

Wagoner, J., Belavadi, S., & Jung, J. (2017). Social identity uncertainty: Conceptualization, measurement, and construct validity. Self and Identity, 16, 505‒530.
Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Choi, H-S. (2016). Reaching across the DMZ: Identity uncertainty and reunification on the Korean peninsula. Political Psychology, 37, 341‒350.

Identity Uncertainty & National Schism

Facing societal uncertainty, minorities do not project their voices onto society due to a lack of voice accompanied by their underrepresented status. They even counter-project and believe that society may have norms that are in opposition to the minority group. This further marginalizes them in terms of their normative status in society.

Unresolved societal uncertainty and exacerbated marginalization make minorities worry about their place and fate in society and feel uncertain about their minority subgroup identity. As a result, minority members with strong minority identities form a secession group and disintegrate from society. This mechanism is consistent and robust in field surveys and experiments in Scotland and South Korea and lab experiments using the minimal group paradigm.

Recent findings reveal that identity uncertainty not only separates the minority from the majority but also leads to further fragmentation within the minority group (Jung, Hogg, & Choi, 2016; Jung, Hogg, & Lewis, 2018; Jung, Hogg, & Choi, 2019).

This insight significantly advances our understanding of how a society becomes fragile and vulnerable during times of change, exposing the fault lines within our social structures. A minority's sense of voice and representation can mitigate the adverse effects of societal uncertainty on minority members’ psychology and societal division.

Publications

Jung, J., & Hogg, M. (R&R). Social inference and judgment change under group and self uncertainty. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making.
Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Choi, H-S. (2019). Recategorization and ingroup projection: Two processes of identity-uncertainty reduction. Journal of Theoretical Social Psychology, 3, 97‒114.
Choi, H-S., Lee, H-Y., & Jung, J. (2019). Relationship between nested social identity uncertainty, group identification, reconciliatory attitudes and intentions in Korea. Korean Journal of Social and Personality Psychology, 33, 45–59.
Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Lewis, G. J. (2018). Identity uncertainty and UK-Scottish relations: Different dynamics depending on relative identity centrality. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 21, 861‒873.
Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., & Choi, H-S. (2016). Reaching across the DMZ: Identity uncertainty and reunification on the Korean peninsula. Political Psychology, 37, 341‒350.

Historical Narratives & Identity Uncertainty

Historical narratives give groups a sense of identity. However, when group members encounter outgroups' conflicting narratives, particularly regarding intergroup boundaries (vs. status relations), they can feel uncertain and doubt their ingroup's identity, which can increase emigration attitudes (Jung, Hogg, Livingstone, & Choi, 2019).

Publications

Jung, J., Hogg, M. A., Livingstone, A. G., & Choi, H-S. (2019). From uncertain boundaries to uncertain identity: The effects of entitativity threat on identity-uncertainty and emigration. Journal of Applied Social Psychology, 49, 623–633.

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