The Effect of Multiple Category Membership on Intergroup Evaluations in a North Indian Context: Class, Caste and Religion
Author(s)
Hagendoorn, Louk; Henke, Roger
Abstract
Self-evaluations of differences in religious and social status between one’s own group and outgroups were investigated via questionnaire responses from 317 high school students in Benares and Mughalserai, India. Three hypotheses derived from social identity theory (SIT) regarding the effects of crossed-category membership and of intergroup status differences were tested: (1) High-caste Hindus and upper-class (Uc) Muslims will evaluate outgroups differing in either status or religion less positively (double outgroup response). (2) Low-caste Hindus and lower-class (Lc) Muslims will show a minority-group response, i.e., evaluate high-status outgroups more positively than ingroup and low-status outgroups. (3) Lc high-caste Hindus will show a communalized pattern of intergroup evaluations, in which Muslims are evaluated less positively than Hindus. Hypothesis 1 was not confirmed for Uc Muslims; the evaluations by low-caste Hindus revealed a communalized response rather than the expected minority group response. The disconfirmations are interpreted as an effect of the majority/minority positions of Hindus and Muslims in India, and the consequences of these results for SIT are further evaluated in this light.
