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Validation of polemical social representations: introducing the intergroup differentiation of heterogeneity

Three studies explore the intergroup differentiation of heterogeneity as a strategy for validation of polemical social representations. The first study examines this strategy of validation in a context of simple intergroup differentiation. In the second study the context is one of open political conflict. The last study, also in a political context, introduces the perceptions of the relations between the groups as an independent variable. The first two studies show that the subjects adopted a strategy of validating the polemical representations of the ingroup and invalidating the representations of the outgroup consisting of perceiving the ingroup as psychologically diverse and the outgroup as psychologically more homogeneous, with values being perceived as equally homogeneous in the two groups (study 1) or homogeneous in the ingroup and diverse in the outgroup (study 2). In the third study results show that a salient perception of positive interdependence between the groups is accompanied by homogenization of the members of the ingroup who share the prototypical representations of the ingroup. When there is a salient perception of negative interdependence, the members of the ingroup and the outgroup who share the prototypical position of the ingroup are perceived as heterogeneous. Results are discussed in the context of social representations theory and social psychology of social validation of knowledge.