Abstract

LORDELO, Eulina da Rocha  and  BARROS, Mari Nilza Ferrari de. Social identity of natives of São Paulo and northeasterns: intergroup comparisons. Mental [online]. 2005, vol.3, n.5, pp. 115-128. ISSN 1679-4427.

Aiming at studying social representations of people from São Paulo (paulistas) and people from North East of Brazil (nordestinos) about the ingroup and the outgroup and comparing them, 190 university students, divided into four sex mixed from two public universities (University of São Paulo and Federal University of Bahia) were asked to answer a questionnaire containing positive and negative attributes about "paulistas" and "nordestinos" of a scale from 1 to 7. Moreover subjects gave general and social-economic information, plus kind of contact with the assessed group. The assessed attributes came from an earlier pilot study, which asked a sample of "paulistas" and "nordestinos" to list negative and positive attributes associated with "paulistas" and "nordestinos". The results, expressed through average standards and general positive score, showed that "baianos" and "paulistas" differ essentially in their self-evaluations as in the intergroup evaluations. It was found that a different set of attributes, both positive and negative, in the composition of the representation of each group. However, the general positive score differs little between the four groups, varying significantly among "paulistas" that evaluated "nordestinos", due to the instruction and income of the parents. Among the "baianos" assessing "paulistas", the score varied only due to parent's income. The score of "paulistas" by "nordestinos" showed variation because of the kind of contact with the outgroup. The results are discussed according to the social identity theory, focusing the relations of groups differentially valued, their stereotypes and prejudices.

Keywords : Social identity; Social psychology; Groups; Social representation; Intergroup comparison.

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