Social identity, social influence and reactions to potentially stressful tasks: support for the self-categorization model of stress

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to investigate the role that social influence plays in the appraisal of a potentially stressful situation. Participants (N = 40) preparing for a mental arithmetic task were exposed to a message in which the task was described as stressful or challenging. The message was delivered by the same person in each condition but this person was said to be either an ingroup member (a University student) or an outgroup member (a stress disorder sufferer). Consistent with predictions derived from self-categorization theory, message source and message content interacted to determine the stress experienced while performing the task. Findings imply that the impact of informational support is not constant but varies systematically as a function of the group membership of the support provider. Implications for theory and practice are discussed with emphasis on the importance of social context as a determinant not only of what information people are exposed to about stress but also of how that information is construed.