How Language Shapes Ingroup Pride Among Blinigual Disadvantaged Group Members

What is it about?

Do bilingual disadvantaged group members evaluate and represent their group differently when communicating in the dominant language as opposed to their native language? This work investigates how the use of a societally dominant language influences disadvantaged group members’ pride and collective self-esteem, when compared to their use of a native language. Two competing hypotheses are considered: Disadvantaged group members may experience greater in-group pride when using a) their native language, due to its emotional significance and association with familial and cultural connections (the nativity hypothesis), or b) the language of the advantaged group, due to activation of compensatory responses to dominance relations that challenge the perceived worth of the group (the identity enhancement hypothesis). Six experimental studies involving Palestinian citizens of Israel—a disadvantaged minority group speaking Arabic and Hebrew—provided evidence supporting the identity enhancement hypothesis. Specifically, Palestinians reported greater in-group pride when communicating in Hebrew, the language of Jewish Israelis, as opposed to Arabic, their native language. This effect was observed regardless of whether the audience viewing or evaluating their responses was perceived to be from the ingroup or outgroup. The use of the bogus-pipeline technique indicated that this pattern does not seem to be driven by social desirability bias, but rather reflects a genuine emotional response. Furthermore, consistent patterns were observed through additional measures of positive group regard wherein participants portrayed their group more positively in an attribute selection task, and reported greater collective self-esteem.

Featured Image

Photo by Jude Al-Safadi on Unsplash

Photo by Jude Al-Safadi on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This work contributes to understanding the role of language in shaping group dynamics. Acknowledging that languages embody power dynamics and that language use can be a source of psychological threat for disadvantaged groups suggests that the pursuit of justice should also liberate language from power structures.

Perspectives