Kadın Kimliğiyle Özdeşleşme ve Kolektif Eylem Arasındaki İlişkide Sosyal Yaratıcılık Stratejilerinin Aracı Rolü
Sosyal kimlik kuramı, sosyal yaratıcılık stratejilerinin kolektif eylem yönelimi gibi sosyal değişime yönelik eğilimleri zayıflattığını ve mevcut sosyal statü sistemini pekiştirerek devamlılığını sağladığını öne sürmektedir. Ancak çeşitli bulgular, en azından “iç grubun niteliklerine yüklenen değerleri olumlu yönde değiştirme” stratejisi için durumun böyle olmadığını göstermektedir. Bulgular, iç grupla özdeşleşme arttıkça söz konusu stratejinin bireyleri sosyal rekabete girişmeye ve böylece sosyal değişimi gerçekleştirmeye motive ettiğine işaret etmektedir. Türkiye’de yaşayan 219 kadın üniversite öğrencisiyle yapılan bu araştırmanın temel amacı, özdeşleşme ile kadınların sosyal konumunu iyileştirmeye yönelik kolektif eylemlere katılma yönelimi arasındaki ilişkide sosyal yaratıcılık stratejilerinin aracı rolünü bir yapısal eşitlik modeli içinde incelemektir. Tespit edilebilecek ilişkilerin politik görüşten kaynaklanmadığından emin olmak amacıyla, politik görüş modele kontrol değişkeni olarak dâhil edilmiştir. Mevcut çalışma bir yandan yaratıcılık stratejilerinin kolektif eylem yönelimiyle ilişkisini sınaması diğer yandan özdeşleşme ve kolektif eylem yönelimi arasındaki ilişkide aracı rol oynayan yeni bir mekanizma ortaya koyması açısından özgün bir niteliğe sahiptir. Yapısal eşitlik modelinin sonuçları, kolektif eylem yönelimini karşılaştırma grubunu değiştirme stratejisinin negatif, yeni karşılaştırma boyutu ve kimliğe yüklenen değerleri olumlu yönde değiştirme stratejilerinin ise pozitif yönde yordadığını göstermektedir. Ayrıca, katılımcıların politik görüşleri sola kaydıkça kolektif eylem yönelimleri artmaktadır. Kadın kimliğiyle özdeşleşme ve kolektif eylem yönelimi arasındaki ilişkide karşılaştırma grubunu değiştirme negatif, diğer iki strateji pozitif yönde aracı rol oynamaktadır. Bu bulgular, sosyal yaratıcılık stratejilerinin, sosyal eşitsizliği azaltmaya ve statüyü yükseltmeye yönelik olan kolektif eylemler açısından önemli sonuçları olabileceğine işaret etmektedir. Bulgulardan hareketle sosyal yaratıcılık stratejilerinin sadece iç grup kimliğine olumlu bir içerik kazandırarak özsaygıyı arttıran, bütünüyle bilişsel nitelikte stratejiler değil, aynı zamanda kolektif eyleme yönelik motivasyonu güçlendiren veya zayıflatan araçlar olduğu söylenebilir.
The Mediating Role of Social Creativity Strategies in the Relationship Between Identification with Female Identity and Collective Action
Social identity theory argues that social creativity strategies undermine tendencies that foster social change, such as collective action orientation, and provide continuity for the existing social status system by reinforcing it. However, various findings indicate that this is not the case, at least for the strategy of “changing value of the in-group dimension”. The findings suggest that as identification with the ingroup increases, this strategy motivates individuals to engage in social competition and thus bring about social change. This study, conducted with 219 female college students in Turkey, aims to examine the mediating role of social creativity strategies in the relationship between identification with female identity and participation in collective actions intended to improve women’s social status through structural equation modeling. Political view was included in the model as a control variable to ensure that the possible relationships were not due to political view. The present study is unique in that it examines the relationship between social creativity strategies and collective action orientation, on the one hand, and reveals a new mechanism that plays a mediating role in the relationship between identification and collective action orientation, on the other. The structural equation modeling results show that changing the out-group strategy negatively predicts collective action orientation, while the new dimension and changing the values strategies predict it positively. In addition, as participants’ political views shift to the left, their collective action orientation increases. In the relationship between identification with female identity and collective action orientation, changing the out-group has a negative mediating role, while the other two strategies play a positive mediating role. These findings indicate that social creativity strategies can have important implications for collective actions aimed at reducing social inequality and increasing social status. Based on the findings, it can be said that social creativity strategies are not only cognitive strategies affirming ingroup identity and enhancing self-esteem but also instruments that reinforce or weaken collective action motivation.
Social creativity and social competition are distinct paths to achieving self-esteem. Social identity theory posits that social creativity strategies (new dimension / changing the out-group / changing the values) undermine collective action for social change, bolster the existing social status system, and ensure its continuity (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). According to Becker and Tausch (2015), social creativity and collective action have different implications in terms of intergroup relations. The former does not necessarily imply challenging the stability and legitimacy of the status quo, while the latter directly seeks to change group-based hierarchy in favour of the in-group. When we also think intuitively, we can expect that there is no (or negative if there is) relationship between social creativity and social competition, as social identity theory postulates that individuals are more likely to appeal to social creativity strategies if cognitive alternatives are not available (Hogg & Abrams, 1998) and if group boundaries are perceived as impermeable (Tajfel & Turner, 1979). We can assume that when social competition is not possible due to several factors, social creativity may act as a buffer that keeps individuals’ self-esteem high.
Social creativity’s role in social stability may be more complex than one might think. It may facilitate social change movements as well as strengthen the desire for social stability (van Bezouw et al., 2021). Some studies have revealed a positive relationship between social creativity and social stability (Becker, 2012; Douglas et al., 2005). On the other hand, a few studies have suggested that some creativity strategies trigger collective action orientation more than other strategies (Lalonde et al., 2016; Odağ et al., 2016). For example, a successful reappropriation process may boost self-esteem (Galinsky et al., 2003), serve to empower group identity, and facilitate social change movements (Odağ et al., 2016; Uluğ & Acar, 2019).
Although social identity theory suggests that those who identify with their in-group prefer social creativity or social competition strategies over individual mobility, the relationship between identification and these two variables has not been sufficiently clarified at the empirical level. The relationship between female identification and collective action is weak in some studies (Mikołajczak et al., 2022) but strong in others (Liss et al., 2004). The nature of the relationship between identification and social creativity strategies is also poorly understood (Becker, 2012; Mummendey et al., 1999).
Studies suggest that ideological and political worldviews are strongly related to collective action orientation (Jost et al., 2017). However, the predictive effect of political view on collective action is an interestingly understudied topic (Becker, 2020; Choma et al., 2020). Studies on the relationship between political view and collective action generally focus on the liberal-conservative or left-right divide (Hoyt et al., 2018; Mikołajczak & Becker, 2019; Moreira et al., 2018; Saeri et al., 2015). Left-leaning and liberal ideologies are associated with an increase in collective action orientation, while right-leaning and conservative ideologies are associated with a decrease in collective action orientation (Gupta & Briscoe, 2020; Sabucedo et al., 2011; Saeri et al., 2015). These findings suggest that political opinion may be influential on the tendency to participate in the women's rights movement, which is a left-oriented and progressive social movement. Therefore, in this study, we thought that political view should be included in the hypothesized model as a control variable that should be considered when trying to understand the relationship between the variables.
In this study, we hypothesized that identification with female identity predicts collective action orientation for improving women’s social status through social creativity strategies. For example, “changing the out-group” strategy was expected to predict collective action participation negatively, while “new dimension” and “changing the values” strategies were expected to predict it positively.
Method
A total of 219 female college students from two state universities in Turkey were recruited for this study in 2019. Participants were provided with the Identification Scale (Kirchler et al., 1994), an adapted version of the Social Creativity Strategy subscales (Breinlinger & Kelly, 1994), the Collective Action Orientation Scale (Lalonde & Cameron, 1993), and a single item asking the participants’ political view. Structural equation modeling in which identification is exogenous, collective action orientation is endogenous, and creativity strategies are mediator variables was tested by AMOS 23.0.
Results
Identification with female identity was significantly and positively correlated with all variables except the political view. As expected, collective action orientation correlated positively with the “new dimension” and “changing the values” strategies while negatively with the “changing the out-group” strategy. Collective action orientation was also positively correlated with the political view, such that left-wing participants were more willing to participate in demonstrations toward improving the social status of women.
The structural equation modeling results showed that “changing the out-group” strategy (𝛽 = -.24, SE = .03, p < .001) predicts collective action negatively, while the “new dimension” (𝛽 = .16, SE = .03, p = .020) and “changing the values” (𝛽 = .25, SE = .04, p < .001) strategies predict it positively. In addition, the findings demonstrated that “changing the out-group” (𝛽 = -.05, SE = .03, %95 CI [-.113, -.001], p = .044) plays a negative, “changing the values” (𝛽 = .08, SE = .04, %95 CI [.026, .178], p = .002) and “new dimension” strategies (𝛽 = .04, SE = .02, %95 CI [.004, .111], p = .025) play a positive mediator role in the relationship between identification with female identity
Discussion
Few researchers have addressed the question of whether some social creativity strategies have a facilitating role in collective action. The results of the present study generally suggest that social creativity strategies can have important implications for reducing social inequality among disadvantaged group members. It appears that social creativity strategies are not only cognitive strategies that support a new positive perspective on in-group identity but also mechanisms that reinforce or undermine motivations in collective action.
Identification with female identity leads to various social creativity strategies that differ in their relationship to collective action. Specifically, changing the values strategy was the most triggering social creativity strategy in terms of the collective action orientation, while changing the out-group strategy had an inhibiting effect. According to the model validated in our study, as women's identification levels increase, their collective action orientation increases through the level of resorting to new dimension and changing the values strategies. Although these findings contradict the explanations of social identity theory on creativity strategies (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), they support the findings of recent experimental studies (e.g., Becker, 2012; Derks et al., 2007; Lalonde et al., 2016) suggesting that social creativity strategies may trigger the desire for social competition.
Broadly, these results are compatible with social identity theory and collective action literature. Identification with the in-group has been shown to increase collective action orientation in studies conducted with various disadvantaged groups (e.g., Bourguignon et al., 2020; Lalonde & Cameron, 1993). Some of these studies have treated woman identity as a two-dimensional structure that includes the woman identity dimension and the feminist identity dimension. These studies argue that women's orientation to collective action is only weakly related to identification with female identity, and that the main dimension determining collective action is identification with the politicized feminist identity (e.g., Mikołajczak et al., 2022; van Breen et al., 2017). A relatively larger number of studies on this subject have considered female identity as a unidimensional construct and have revealed that identification with this identity strongly predicts collective action (Kelly & Breinlinger, 1995; Özkan, 2014). In parallel with these studies, in the current study in which we consider female identity as a unidimensional construct, we observe that identification with female identity also positively predicts collective action orientation.
When low-status groups perceive their characteristics as favorable or realize that they are more successful than out-groups on an alternative dimension, they are motivated to exhibit the same success on the status-defining dimension (Becker, 2012; Derks et al., 2007; Odağ et al., 2016). The findings of this study on the relationship between new dimension strategy, changing the values strategy, and collective action orientation are compatible with both this assumption and the social identity model of collective action (see van Zomeren et al., 2008). According to this model, apart from in-group identification and perceived injustice, a strong belief in efficacy is also necessary for collective action participation. Low-status groups can achieve this sense of competence by resorting to social creativity strategies (Derks et al., 2007).
Our findings on the positive relationship between changing the comparison group and collective action orientation are also in line with the triadic social stratification perspective (see Caricati, 2012; Caricati & Owuamalam, 2020). According to this approach, one of the important reasons why disadvantaged groups legitimize the social status system and do not take action to change this system is that they focus on the relative opportunities provided to them by this status structure. Therefore, this perspective explains why women who compare themselves not with men but with women of lower social status do not engage in collective action.
Despite its contributions to the literature, the present study has some limitations. The role of emotions and social-structural factors need to be examined in future studies. Although group-based positive emotions are often emphasized in the relationship between social creativity strategies and collective action orientation, negative emotions such as anger caused by perceived injustice also predict the intention to participate in collective action (Stewart et al., 2016). In future studies, it will be useful to examine the role of variables such as positive (e.g., pride) and negative (e.g., contempt) emotions and efficacy beliefs in the relationship between creativity strategies and collective action orientation.
The current study tested the basic assumptions of social identity theory in a culture-neutral manner. On the other hand, studies in the literature have pointed to the role of cultural and sociological factors in the rise of social movements in response to gender-based discrimination (DeBlaere et al., 2014). Variables such as internalized sexism and adherence to gender roles and norms (Radke et al., 2016), which can have inhibiting effects on participation in collective action, vary across cultures (Khairullah & Khairullah, 2009). In addition, social capital, life experiences, and relationships with significant others have an impact on collective action orientation (Kim, 2018; Liss et al., 2004; Nelson et al., 2008). Therefore, it is possible that these variables to determine which social creativity strategies are employed and how these strategies direct collective action orientation.
To sum up, in the current study, we have not only identified a positive relationship between identification with female identity and collective action orientation, but also showed that social creativity strategies play a mediating role in the relationship between these two variables. Women with higher levels of identification are more likely to positively evaluate the characteristics of their identity and engage in strategies of comparing women's identity with men's identity on an alternative dimension (in which women are relatively superior), which in turn increases collective action orientation. On the other hand, as women's level of comparison with other women who are more disadvantaged than themselves increases, their collective action orientation decreases. Our findings suggest that social creativity strategies are not only cognitive strategies that promote in-group identity and boost self-esteem but are also means to strengthen the weakening motivation to engage in collective action.
