Berger Jonah, Heath Chip
The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6340, USA.
J Pers Soc Psychol. 2008 Sep;95(3):593-607. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.95.3.593.
People often diverge from members of other social groups: They select cultural tastes (e.g., possessions, attitudes, or behaviors) that distinguish them from outsiders and abandon tastes when outsiders adopt them. But while divergence is pervasive, most research on the propagation of culture is based on conformity. Consequently, it is less useful in explaining why people might abandon tastes when others adopt them. The 7 studies described in this article showed that people diverge to avoid signaling undesired identities. A field study, for example, found that undergraduates stopped wearing a particular wristband when members of the "geeky" academically focused dormitory next door started wearing them. Consistent with an identity-signaling perspective, the studies further showed that people often diverge from dissimilar outgroups to avoid the costs of misidentification. Implications for social influence, identity signaling, and the popularity and diffusion of culture are discussed.
他们选择那些能将自己与外人区分开来的文化品味（如财产、态度或行为），而当外人采用这些品味时，他们就会摒弃。然而，尽管差异普遍存在，但大多数关于文化传播的研究都是基于从众行为。因此，在解释人们为何会在他人采用某些品味时摒弃它们方面，其作用较小。本文所描述的7项研究表明，人们产生差异是为了避免传递不受欢迎的身份信号。例如，一项实地研究发现，当隔壁以学术为重点的“书呆子”宿舍的成员开始佩戴某款特定腕带时，大学生们就不再佩戴了。与身份信号视角一致，这些研究进一步表明，人们常常与不同的外群体产生差异，以避免被错误识别的代价。文中还讨论了其对社会影响、身份信号以及文化的流行和传播的影响。
