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| Vol. 18, No. 31 | May 13, 1999 |
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| Vol. 18, No. 31 | May 13, 1999 |
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Helping many diverse people live and work in harmony--in high schools, banks, stepfamilies and other settings--is the focus of an award-winning new book chapter coauthored by Samuel L. Gaertner, psychology.
The chapter, "Across Cultural Divides: The Value of a Superordinate Identity," earned the 1998 Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize from the Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues and the Gordon W. Allport Memorial Fund.
Provost Mel Schiavelli called the award "very good news, indeed."
Written with Gaertner's former student, John Dovidio, AS '76M, '77Ph.D., now a faculty member at Colgate University, and UD doctoral candidates Jason A. Nier, Christine M. Ward and Brenda S. Banker, the chapter will appear in the forthcoming book, Cultural Divides: Understanding and Overcoming Group Conflict (D. Prentice and D. Miller, editors).
Gaertner and Dovidio previously won an Allport Prize in 1986 for their studies of subtle racism among well-intentioned whites who regard themselves as unprejudiced.
Their latest book chapter describes strategies for improving relationships among different groups of people, by overcoming individual prejudices. Whenever people feel like "different groups all playing on the same team," Gaertner noted, their interactions are more harmonious than if they only regard themselves as members of separate groups.
When individuals have a "superordinate" identity, or allegiance to a larger group such as a university, they are more likely to view other group members and their behaviors in a favorable light, Gaertner explained. In this way, he said, a superordinate identity can override racism and other preexisting biases.
A superordinate identity doesn't mean that people must foresake their ethnic identities, Gaertner said. "It is possible for people to see themselves as different groups, but all playing on the same team," he added.
The research discussed in Gaertner's winning chapter was prepared with support from the National Institute of Mental Health.
--Ginger Pinholster
