TY  - JOUR
A1  - Abendroth, Johanna
A1  - Nauroth, Peter
A1  - Richter, Tobias
A1  - Gollwitzer, Mario
T1  - Non-strategic detection of identity-threatening information: Epistemic validation and identity defense may share a common cognitive basis
T2  - PLoS ONE
N2  - Readers use prior knowledge to evaluate the validity of statements and detect false information without effort and strategic control. The present study expands this research by exploring whether people also non-strategically detect information that threatens their social identity. Participants (N = 77) completed a task in which they had to respond to a “True” or “False” probe after reading true, false, identity-threatening, or non-threatening sentences. Replicating previous studies, participants reacted more slowly to a positive probe (“True”) after reading false (vs. true) sentences. Notably, participants also reacted more slowly to a positive probe after reading identity-threatening (vs. non-threatening) sentences. These results provide first evidence that identity-threatening information, just as false information, is detected at a very early stage of information processing and lends support to the notion of a routine, non-strategic identity-defense mechanism.
KW  - social identity
KW  - cognitive basis
KW  - identity defense
Y1  - 2022
UR  - https://opus.bibliothek.uni-wuerzburg.de/frontdoor/index/index/docId/30101
UR  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:bvb:20-opus-301019
VL  - 17
IS  - 1
ER  -