2nd Bi-annual Social Identity Meeting in Canterbury

Isabelle Weissflog attended and presented at the 2nd Bi-annual Social Identity Meeting, held on July 7th and 8th, 2026 in Canterbury, UK. The meeting brought together social identity researchers to discuss cutting-edge work on social identity and group memberships in the context of social and political behavior. Alongside inspiring keynote talks from Dr. Marilynn Brewer and Dr. Dominic Abrams, the event featured dedicated sessions to collaboratively discuss future directions in social identity research. Isabelle presented our ongoing European Research Council-funded project in a talk entitled "The Global Geography of Prejudice: Examining Mechanisms of Ingroup and Status Bias Across Multiple Social Group Memberships and 50 Countries". It was a wonderful opportunity to connect with colleagues in Canterbury, exchange ideas, and discuss future directions in the field!

Abstract

Title: The Global Geography of Prejudice: Examining Mechanisms of Ingroup and Status Bias Across Multiple Social Group Memberships and 50 Countries

Research on intergroup bias predominantly focuses on social dimensions in isolation (e.g., ethnicity or gender), overlooking the multi-faceted social realities where individuals hold multiple intersecting group memberships simultaneously. To address this gap, we apply the Differential Information Processing (DIP) model to examine how people form impressions across complex configurations of social dimensions. The DIP model proposes that dimensions that people perceive as belief-indicative (e.g., political affiliation, religion) foster ingroup favoritism, whereas status-indicative dimensions (e.g., income, education) evoke status-based bias. While prior factorial survey experiments across eight nations support these predictions, crucial questions remain regarding the generalizability of these mechanisms across varied attitudinal, behavioral, and cultural contexts.

In an ongoing cross-cultural project spanning 50 countries across all world regions, we test whether the assumptions of the DIP model hold globally. Utilizing localized factorial survey vignettes featuring varied information on ten social dimensions (e.g., race, age, religion, political affiliation, socioeconomic status), we examine participants' general attitudes (liking, respect, willingness to interact), hypothetical trust in a child-care scenario, and collaborative decisions in an adapted economic trust game with monetary incentives. Through collaboration with local experts, materials were tailored to local contexts and translated into 33 languages across 60 localized questionnaire versions. We discuss the methodological approach, pre-registered design, pilot findings from the UK, and country-level moderators that may influence local variations in ingroup and status biases.