Ingroup ambivalence and experienced discomfort: the moderating roles of affective versus cognitive attitudinal basis, group identification, as mediated by negative beliefs about the ingroup

The issue of whether holding ambivalent attitudes toward the ingroup is associated with discomfortive states has generated, in general, scarce research, and all the more so within prior work in the intra- and inter-group domain. Therefore, the present research (a) explored the issue of whether ingroup ambivalence evokes discomfortive responses, and (b) aimed to identify potential moderating and mediating factors involved in this process. To this end, findings from two studies support the argument that ambivalence-associated discomfort (a) is a general tendency when it regards affect-based ambivalence towards fellow group members, while (b) only holds for the more identified group members when ambivalence concerns beliefs about the ingroup. Of importance, negative beliefs about the ingroup or fellow members mediated this observed relationship. The presented evidence contributes to identify factors related to affective processes that are set in motion by an ambivalent evaluation of one’s own group. The current findings are consistent with evidence provided by research conducted in the intergroup and attitude literatures. The presented evidence contributes to identify factors related to those negative affective responses that are set in motion by an ambivalent evaluation of one’s own group.