The relationship between language and social cognition - the linguistic intergroup bias

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Project objective

Research objectives and content The aim of this project is to show how different groups maintain and transmit stereotypes in communicational contexts. Language will be proved to be a useful and subtle tool to favor ingroups while derogating outgroups. In a first set of applied studies, the language used by different mass media to refer to ingroups or outgroups will be content-analyzed, and at the same time, the reaction of people to biased messages will be studied. The second set of studies consists of a theoretical extention of the current work on the field (mechanisms underlying The Linguistic Intergroup Bias). The Linguistic Category Model (Semin & Fiedler, 1988, 1991) will be used to analyze language. In general terms, it is expected that definite ingroups will describe the negative actions of the outgroup in more abstract terms than the same negative actions performed by the ingroup. At the same time, linguistically biased reactions are also expected when evaluating messages that enhance or threaten ingroup identity. Finally, the role of motivational or cognitive mechanisms on the Linguistic Intergroup Bias will be analyzed. The implications of the biased language used in natural (mass media) or experimental contexts will be discussed in relation to both, the sociopolitical context of the Basque Country and the maintainance and transmission of stereotypied beliefs. Training content (objective. benefit and expected impact) The training content of the present proposal is inscribed in the Kurt Lewin Institute (KLI) where apart from the supervision of research projects, it offers courses of general interest and more specialised courses, taught by Dutch professors as well as by international collaborators. The University of the Basque Country lacks the training on the area I want to specialise in, training that the KLI could offer me. Furthermore, once I had been trained in the VU, and on my return, I would be able to develop the field as an area of scientific research in Spain.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

• VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM · AMSTERDAMCoordinatorNetherlands
• Not availableCity levelSpain

Links

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