Playing with deviance: Typicality assessments of ingroup members as a strategy of outgroup approach

In two experiments, we analyzed the use of intra-group differentiation between normative and deviant members as an identity mobilization strategy in intergroup negotiations. Because ingroup members sometimes try to obtain the support of outgroup audiences to attain their goals, we propose that in intergroup negotiations, people attempt to minimize the distinction between the parties involved by changing the appraisal of deviance and including deviant members in the ingroup’s prototype. In line with this hypothesis, differences in the assessment of typicality between normative and deviant targets were reduced in instrumental intergroup negotiation contexts. Furthermore, we explored a boundary condition for this effect and found that such outgroup approach is disrupted when threats taint the intergroup negotiation context. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Perhaps the most Anglo-Saxon of Italian leaders, in the sense of his aplomb, his style and his composure.– La Repubblica, 10th