Perceived continuity and group identification: implications for social well-being

Research on groups in general and on group perceptions in particular has tended to analyse groups as a-temporal entities, rather than as temporal endurance entities. This paper presents three studies investigating the relevance of a new social psychological construct, namely 'perceived collective continuity' (PCC), and its relationship with group identification and social well-being. Study one shows that perceived collective continuity is positively associated with perceived group entitativity and several social identity related measures, such as collective self-esteem and ingroup identification. Study two reveals that perceived collective continuity has positive effects on social well-being and social integration, and that perceived group entitativity and collective self-esteem mediate these effects. In study three we show that mortality salience priming leads to an increase of the perception of group temporal endurance which, in turn, contributes to an increase of ingroup identification. On the whole, these three studies confirm that 'perceived collective continuity' is a relevant theoretical construct, which has important implications for social well-being.