Social identity exploration is a process whereby individuals actively seek information about their group membership and show efforts to understand its meaning. Developmental theory argues that exploration-based ingroup commitment is the basis for outgroup positivity. We tested this notion in relation to national identity and attitudes towards immigrants. The results of five experimental studies among German adolescents and early adults (N = 1,146; 16–25 years) and one internal meta-analysis suggest that the positive identification–prejudice link is weaker when participants are instructed to explore the meaning of their identity (Study 1). This is not mediated via self-uncertainty (Study 2), but via a reduction in intergroup threat (Study 3) and an increase in deprovincialization (Study 4). In addition, identity exploration enabled strong identifiers to oppose descriptive ingroup norms (Study 5). We conclude that identity exploration can contribute to a further understanding of the identification–prejudice link.

社会身份探索是个人积极寻求有关其团体成员身份的信息并做出努力以理解其含义的过程。发展理论认为，基于探索的小组内承诺是小组外积极性的基础。我们针对国家身份和对移民的态度测试了这一概念。在德国青少年和早期成年人中进行的五项实验研究的结果（N= 1,146; 16-25岁）和一项内部荟萃分析表明，在指示参与者探索其身份的含义时，积极的认同与偏见联系较弱（研究1）。这不是通过自我不确定性（研究2）来介导的，而是通过减少群体间威胁（研究3）和增加取消部门化（研究4）来实现的。此外，身份探索使强标识符可以反对描述性的群体内准则（研究5）。我们得出的结论是，身份探索可以促进对身份识别-偏见联系的进一步理解。