SOCIAL IDENTIFICATION AND PUBLIC OPINION: EFFECTS OF COMMUNICATING GROUP CONFLICT

Public opinion formation is a social and communicative process,and individuals' opinions thus depend in many ways upon thesocial context surrounding public issues. Consequently thisresearch investigates the interaction between people's socialidentities and mass media reports of public issues emphasizingconflicts of opinion between social groups. Current theory andresearch on social identification and intergroup behavior areused to develop a three-stage model of the cognitive, perceptual,and behavioral processes which may be triggered by media reportsof group conflict. According to the model, a news report emphasizinggroup conflict over an issue (1) cues its recipients to thinkabout the issue through their particular group perspective,which (2) leads to polarized or exaggerated perceptions of groupopinions, and finally (3) leads to expressions of personal opinionconsistent with these exaggerated perceptions of group norms.Factors contributing to and inhibiting this kind of responseare also incorporated into the model. Analyses of experimentaldata from college undergraduates who read and responded to experimentallyprepared newspaper articles covering a campus issue are reviewed.The results are found generally to support the social identificationmodel and serve to illustrate how media reports emphasizinggroup conflicts may play an important role in the formationof public opinion.