Ambivalence as a contribution to the outgroup and negative action tendencies

One study tested a moderated serial-mediation model exploring the moderating role of mode of ingroup identification (glorification vs. attachment) on the causal path linking perceived contribution of outgroup ambivalence to the outgroup, perceived common ingroup identity, cognitive outgroup ambivalence, and negative action tendencies towards outgroups. The current work argues that expressing outgroup ambivalence based on cognitive information is a strategy to justify one‟s otherwise suppressed prejudice, which may ultimately “cover” the discriminatory nature of outgroup-directed action tendencies, depending on individuals‟ ingroup „glorification‟ but not „attachment‟ levels as well as their perceptions of own outgroup ambivalence as a contribution to the outgroup and of common ingroup identity with outgroup members, their outgroup ambivalence. As expected, findings indicate that after expressing prejudice in a normative context inducing prejudice suppression, when participants self-reported action tendencies after the expression of ambivalent beliefs concerning the outgroup, unlike participants who were attached to the ingroup, the more participants glorified their ingroup, the less they perceived ambivalence towards outgroup members as a way to help the outgroup, the greater their unwillingness to social inclusiveness of outgroup members, the greater their ambivalence towards such outgroup members, and the greater was their intention to act negatively towards them.