Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Clinical Trial
. 1997 May;72(5):1122-31.
doi: 10.1037//0022-3514.72.5.1122.

Motivated language use in intergroup contexts: need-for-closure effects on the linguistic intergroup bias

D M Webster  1 , A W Kruglanski, D A Pattison
Affiliations
Clinical Trial

Motivated language use in intergroup contexts: need-for-closure effects on the linguistic intergroup bias

D M Webster et al. J Pers Soc Psychol. 1997 May.

Abstract

Two experiments examined the impact of the motivation for cognitive closure on the abstractness of linguistic communications in intergroup contexts. Participants described positive and negative behaviors attributed to either an in-group or an out-group member. Individuals high (vs. low) in need for closure exhibited greater linguistic abstraction when describing positive behaviors of in-group members and negative behaviors of out-group members. These differences disappeared for descriptions of negative behaviors of out-group members. The discussion relates these results to the interface of motivation, language, and social cognition.

PubMed Disclaimer

Publication types

LinkOut - more resources