The Study About The Relationship Of Identity Fusion And Extreme Pro-group Behavior:Based On Miaozu

Identity fusion is a relatively unexplored form of alignment with groups that entails a visceral feeling of oneness with the group. This feeling of oneness is associated with increased permeability of the boundary between the personal and social self. These porous borders encourage people to channel their personal agency into group behavior, raising the possibility that the personal and social self will combine synergistically to motivate pro-group behavior. Identity fusion not only underlies psychological identification, but also emphasizes the feelings of connection. Therefore, identity fusion may predict extreme pro-group behavior effectively.There are many researches about the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior in foreign countries, studies have pointed out that fused persons may be more than single-minded agents for the particular group, in other words, their feelings of individual agency may not only act on the in-group members, but also extend to the members of extended in-group(with whom they share a superordinate group membership but are not necessarily fused), but their individual agency can not extend to out-group members. In addition, identity fusion is influenced by cultural ideologies and group norms, which may affect the level of fusion and its manifestation further. Therefore, due to cultural differences and lacking related systematic study of identity fusion in our country, directly transplanting foreign theory to explain the domestic fusion which will inevitably occur deviation on the inference, so investigating the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior is not only a research breakthrough point in the context of Chinese culture, but also provides groundwork and preparation for our further research. Besides, China is a multi-ethnic country, studying minority can further understand the relationship between ethnic minorities, and conducive to the development of national psychological quality, then promote the harmonious development between ethnic minorities.Above all, the study based on relative literature review and past research, adopting Miao group for the participants, discussing the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior by questionnaire survey. In Study1, we use classical "trolley problem" paradigm, which is a type of moral dilemmas, to investigate in the context of Miao(members of in-group)and members of minority groups, such as Dong(members of extended in-group), the individual moral agency of fused Miao not only can stimulate the individual sacrifice for the in-group members, can also sacrifice for extended-in-group members, but nonfused persons refuse to engage in extreme behavior, which verifies the differences of fusion rates and its manifestation in the context of Chinese culture. In Study2, based on study1, further investigate fused and nonfused persons whether there are differences in the degree of willingness to sacrifice themselves for the members of different groups, which in addition to Miao(members of in-group) and Dong(members of extended in-group), but also Han(out-group members), in order to further investigate fused and nonfused persons whether willingness to sacrifice for members of out-group or not. The results are:(1) Miao have higher fusion rates, to some extent, fusion rates in eastern culture are higher than fusion rates in western culture, which shows that fusion level may exist cultural differences. The effect of identity fusion on extreme pro-group behavior is that in the context of in-group members, the majority of fused participants prefer to sacrifice themselves, whereas the majority of nonfused participants prefer to sacrifice a in-group member; but in the context of extended-in-group members, fused participants prefer sacrificing themselves rather than letting the member of extended in-group(Dongzu)die, or sacrificing a in-group member, nonfused participants prefer letting the member of extended in-group die rather than sacrificing the in-group member, or sacrificing themselves. In a word, fused Miao people possess a sense of moral agency that not only can compel them to act on behalf of the in-group members, can also extend to members of the extended in-group, but nonfused persons refuse to engage in extreme behavior.(2) There are significant differences in the degree of willingness to sacrifice for different group members. Compared to nonfused people, the degree of fused people’s willingness to sacrifice themselves to save members of different groups are higher. Fusion and behavior in different context has interactive effects, which shows that from the perspective of fusion, the willingness of fused people to sacrifice their own lives for a in-group member is the highest, followed by a extended-in-group member, the last is the out-group member; however, the degree of nonfused people’s willingness to sacrifice for a out-group member is the highest, followed by a extended-in-group member, and the last one is in-group member. From the perspective of context, in the context of in-group and extended-in-group members, fused and nonfused people have significance, but in the context of out-group members, they have no significance.In terms of theory, this study not only enriches the content of the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior, but also provides cross-cultural material for the study of the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior. Existing researches just discuss that the effect of identity fusion can affect extreme pro-group behavior from the overall level, but do not take into account the degree of influence. Therefore, except for verifying the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior, this study further discusses the degree of difference on fused and nonfused persons’ willingness to sacrifice for different group members. In practice, it is conducive to more realistically reflect the national attitude, and predict national behavior better, which makes to provide theoretical foundation for carrying out national psychological education and management, thus promote the development of multi-ethnic and social harmony.This study is a preliminary exploration about the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior in the context of Chinese culture. The further researches may adopt a different perspective and a greater variety of methods, in order to improve and deepen gradually the study about the relationship of identity fusion and extreme pro-group behavior.