Institute of Sociology

Research project

Social Identity and Social Cohesion: How Disrespect threatens Social Cohesion

Within the last few years, we have come to witness numerous signs indicating an erosion of social cohesion across nations. For instance, citizens of many countries, including Germany, are increasingly putting less trust in institutions. At the same time a growing number of people support populist parties and embrace the emphasis these parties put on drawing exclusionary boundaries between social groups. As particularistic boundaries weaken social integration within society at large, it is necessary to explore why relevant parts of the society are increasingly receptive to such exclusionary social practices.   

Approach

Explanations from earlier studies put a lot of emphasis on the importance of socio-economic factors and increasing social inequality in order to explain the growing support for particularistic and polarizing societal concepts. Yet more recent studies show that those explanatory attempts fail to provide accounts for diminishing social cohesion and highlight the importance of socio-cultural factors. Following up on Francis Fukuyama's prominent “threatened social identities” thesis the project at hand tries to understand the increasing support for attitudes supporting populism, secession, xenophobia and anti-immigration as a reaction to increased threats towards established social identities. We analyze the potential threat to social cohesion with a particular focus on processes of social change and the detrimental consequences these may have for the emergence of stable and positively evaluated social identities.  

As part of the research project, various data sources were used to investigate the effects of socio-structural and socio-cultural changes on the formation of social identities. Firstly, the project is based on data from the European Social Survey in order to trace the effects of social change on social cohesion in an international comparison. Secondly, an online survey representative of the German resident population was conducted to examine group-specific identity formation processes and their consequences for social cohesion in more detail. Thirdly, this study was supplemented by online experiments that allow the social evaluation of social categories, which entail the "building blocks" of social identities, to be examined more closely. Initial results of these studies can be found below.

Our preliminary results

As part of the research project, various empirical analyses have been carried out to date that are dedicated to specific questions of social cohesion, some of which have already been published and some of which have been set out in articles that have been submitted for publication. Below you will find links to publications, if already completed, or short descriptions of the individual studies, if publication is still pending.

Someone like me is not allowed to say anything: The influence of social recognition on attitudes towards gender-just language

Gender-just language occupies a prominent place in public debate in Germany. The political discourse surrounding the topic is heated and builds on emphasizing differences between social groups. This political strategy has turned the topic into a symbol and chiffre for a variety of divisive topics and political positions. It turns the discourse into a threat to social cohesion, and leads us to ask about possible factors influencing attitudes towards gender-just language. Building on the concept of "trigger points", as recently proposed by Mau and colleagues (2023), we hypothesize that the discussion around gender-just language evokes "transformation fatigue" and frustration, particularly among those who feel that they have little influence on societal development and its impact on their personal lives.

Building on Social Identity Theory, we assume that these feelings of powerlessness are rooted in the perception of a threat to identity. The processes of social change in recent decades have altered the meaning and recognition of many social categories, and gender categories in particular. We hypothesize that this deconstruction of gender categories influences the perception of one's own social status, internal and external political efficacy and, consequently, the feeling of being constrained by gender-just language.

We test these hypotheses using data collected in September and October 2022 via an online survey representative of the German population. The results of regression analyses as well as structural equation modelling show that feeling insecure in one's gender role as well as feeling disrespected in this role increases the feeling of being constraint by gender-just language for both men and women by decreasing the assessment of one's social status and political efficacy and by increasing transformation fatigue. Taking into account the different effects that the changes in the recognition order have for men and women, we also find that the perception of one's own gender as a superior category increases the feeling of being constraint by gender-just language for men, while no such association is found for women. Overall, our results confirm that experiencing a threat to gender identity reduces the perception of one's own status and agency, increases transformation fatigue and consequently increases the feeling of threat from gender-just language.

A Matter of Respect: how social recognition for an East-German identity influences populist attitudes

From the outset, the success and radicalization of the right-wing populist and in some cases far-right party “Alternative for Germany” (AfD) was particularly pronounced in the eastern parts of Germany, which formed the German Democratic Republic (GDR) before reunification. In search for an explanation for the differences in political attitudes between East and West, previous research has pointed to the persistent economic discrepancies, feelings of cultural devaluation and an aversion to further social change, especially among East German citizens (keyword "transformation fatigue"). Building on Social Identity Theory and current research on the influence of social recognition on political attitudes, our study integrates these ideas and provides an explanation that links individual attitudes to large-scale social change.

Our study uses data collected in September and October 2022 via an online survey representative of the German population. Initial results based on regression analyses and structural equation modelling show that social recognition as an East or West German does exert a central influence on populist attitudes, with this recognition being significantly more important for East Germans than for West Germans. The influence of recognition is partly mediated by the perception of lower social status and the experience of transformation fatigue: Lack of recognition decreases subjective social status and increases feelings of transformation fatigue, which in turn results in populist attitudes.

Our results thus make it clear that the "East German identity" is still of great importance to those affected. Secondly, they show that the influence of an identity threat to the East German identity effects political attitudes and that this effect goes beyond that of socio-economic indicators or even partly determines them.

Readjusting social recognition orders for social equalities in Europe: a welcome measure or a threat?

This study builds on the widespread assumption that inclusive policies improve the status of minorities while reducing the privileges of majorities. As a consequence, democratic institutions as providers of integration policies would be expected to experience both support and rejection from affected social groups, depending on the measure, leading to a polarisation of these groups in terms of acceptance of democratic institutions. Using longitudinal data from the European Social Survey, we investigate how different social integration policies affect the satisfaction with democracy of different groups that experience unequal social recognition (non-religious vs. religious people, migrants vs. natives, non-xenophobic vs. xenophobic people, non-homophobic vs. homophobic people, and women vs. men). We use a hierarchical multi-level model to test our hypothesis.

The results support our expectation: the presence of social inclusion measures poses a threat to traditionally highly recognised groups, which correspondingly show lower satisfaction with democracy, but confers more recognition to less respected groups, resulting in higher satisfaction with democracy. However, in countries where such policies are well advanced, we observe a convergence of satisfaction with democracy between migrants and autochthones, as well as between religious and non-religious groups.

How do COVID-19 job loss and workplace closures affect COVID-19 attitudes?

As a measure to control the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic, most governments introduced various contact restrictions, including the closure of workplaces. However, these measures had led to a disruption of social and economic life, including the loss of jobs. This could not be completely avoided, even with sometimes considerable financial interventions to prevent mass layoffs. In this study, we investigate whether job loss due to COVID-19 leads to attitudes that challenge social cohesion (dissatisfaction with the government's response to COVID-19 and COVID-19 conspiracy beliefs), and to what extent this effect of job loss is influenced by the severity of contact restrictions.

We investigate these relations with data from round 10 of the European Social Survey combined with indicators of the severity of lockdown measures on the country level using a hierarchical multilevel model. The results show that people who have lost their jobs due to COVID-19 measures are more likely to show attitudes challenging social cohesion. As expected, this effect of job loss due to COVID-19 lockdowns is more pronounced when job closure measures have been particularly extensive.

Economy, ideology, identity threat – which factors affect the recognition of genders in Germany?

This study examines whether and to what extent economic status, ideologies or threats to social identity influence the equal social recognition of women and men, i.e. the recognition of gender categories. Identity threats potentially emanate from the recent shift in the order of recognition towards equality. Feelings of threat are reinforced by various ideologies, with populist and far-right discourses in particular attempting to restore the old order of recognition and gaining increasing support among the population. It can also be assumed that economic status is an important factor that shapes the attribution of equal social recognition to gender categories. In particular, men with a low social status, who are considered the "losers" of recent modernization processes, are expected to refuse to recognize women as equals and demand a revaluation of their own gender role.

Using a vignette experiment conducted in Germany in 2023 with around 3800 observations from 940 respondents, this study examines how the above factors influence the evaluation of political statements that express the demand for more recognition for men, more recognition for women, or equal recognition of the genders. The results show that men who are in a poor economic situation or have a populist attitude are less likely to support equal recognition for both genders, reject more recognition for women and demand more recognition for men. There is little or no evidence of such associations for women. However, women also tend to demand more recognition for men if they have a right-wing political attitude. Moreover, the feeling of being respected in one's own gender role strongly increases recognition of the role of the other gender for women as well as men. Overall, the results show that respectful communication plays a central role in promoting social integration.

The Effect of Social Recognition on Support for Climate Change Mitigation Measures

The Effect of Social Recognition on Support for Climate Change Mitigation Measures