People can switch social identities seamlessly, says study
London, March 24: Each person has multiple social identities, such as employee, parent, young person, friend, or even fan of a particular sports team and according to a recent study one can seamlessly switch between these identities.
As per a research published in 'Journal of Experimental Social Psychology,' people can switch seamlessly between different social identities.
Previous research showed that frequently switching task tends to result in a lower performance which leads to longer completion times and reduced accuracy.
The new study by the University of Exeter has now found that identity switching may pose less difficulty.
"Our lives have sped up a lot in recent years and decades, so we have to switch more often between different identities. Due to the pandemic, many more people now work from home -- so they no longer have the slow switch of a commute separating home from work," says Anna Zinn from the University of Exeter.
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"Our research aimed to find whether rapidly activating different identities comes with a cost. We were surprised to find that these switches are extremely effective -- people can switch quite rapidly with no apparent difficulty," Zinn continued.
The researchers, however, noted that this ability might come with a downside.
"The next stage of our research is to examine these possible drawbacks, and whether steps such as having a dedicated workspace at home can limit them," the researchers added.
The team conducted several studies using the "Implicit Association Test," making participants quickly sort words and images into categories.
Using this method, participants were made to think about a certain identity like the team encouraged them to think of themselves as "young people" by asking them to sort images of faces by age.
In one study, participants were asked to recall images of people's faces as members of a newly established group, which resulted in the creation of a new "minimal group" identity.
It was likewise simple to switch between this new identity and previous ones.
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-PTC News
