Choosing Tactics : Power, Group Norms and Cost-Benefit Analyses for Self and Group

It is argued that individuals who strongly identify with a group evaluted the individual-level costs and benefits that drive expectancy-value processes based on the group-level consequences of the action. The extent to which ingroups and outgroups approve of available alternatives, i.e. group norms for the actions, interact to drive group- and individual-level cost-benefit analyses and thereby choices among the tactics. The present study expands this research to study explicitly the role of perceived group power. Power and manipulated ingroup and outgroup norms interact to shape cost-benefit perceptions among participants choosing a political tactic to express their views. In contrast to previous research, however, strategic reactions to group norms (both ingroup and outgroup) did not mediate the role of identity dynamics on actual behaviour. Instead, a direct behavioural rejection of outgroup norms occurred, in what may be a form of intergroup reactance. The (ominous!) implications for conflict escalation and dispute resolution are addressed