Identity salience facilitates Tibetan students’ group-reference effect using a remembering-knowing recognition paradigm

Abstract

Social identity theory shows that individuals’ social identity can become salient in some contexts and affect their cognition and behavior. Little research has focused on the impact of ethnic identity salience on the group-reference effect in the remembering-knowing recognition task. Thus, the current study aims to examine this effect of ethnic identity salience. In Experiment 1 we recruited 26 Tibetan students and 30 Han Chinese students from a predominantly Han Chinese university. In Experiment 2, we selected 26 Tibetan students and 30 Han Chinese students from a predominantly Tibetan university. Two weeks before the experiment, all participants reported the baseline level of their social identity salience. After two weeks, each participant underwent a memory test. Tibetan students at the predominantly Han Chinese university showed evidence of higher ethnic identity salience and superior recognition memory performance during a Tibetan reference encoding task than during a Han Chinese reference encoding task (Experiment 1). However, Tibetan students at the Tibetan-majority university did not show this effect (Experiment 2). In comparison, Han Chinese participants did not show any social identity salience in the two experiments. The results show that the salient social identity had an effect on the group reference effect in a remembering-recognition memory test. The current study contributes to the past literature by providing a tentative further understanding of the relationship between social identity salience and remembering judgments.

Antecedents of Multicultural Identity: The Role of Stereotypes and Need for Cognitive Closure

“…People can develop identity preferences and experience certain cultural aspects becoming more important than others. In other words, the application of social identities can aid the categorisation, salience and comparison of cultural identities along social situationsand these interactions often reflect in people's cognitive and behavioural outcomes (Li, 2020).…”

“…The salience of cultural identities among people within the cultural continuum occurs when social (e.g., situational) conditions emphasise or require the relevance of identity (e.g., Li 2020). Hence, the extent to which an identity gains salience over other identities reflects its relevance and strength and application within a given situation.…”

“…Hence, the extent to which an identity gains salience over other identities reflects its relevance and strength and application within a given situation. In such situations, one or more aspects of people's identities (say cultural) may become "more relevant" or "more important" than others in the given situations (Li, 2020;Stryker, 1980). Relating this to the multiculturalism of people, for instance, differences in people along the cultural continuum influence differences in identity salience, and by extension, differences in behavioural outcomes.…”