Blog Post #4: Virtual Group Participation

Katelyn McKenna and John A. Bargh's studies on "Coming Out in the Age of the Internet… Through Virtual Group Participation" revealed an interesting phenomenon known as Identity Demarginalization - The process by which participants in a group of similar others create changes in one's identity, and in which active participant (virtual) group members acquire positive group identity where there was formerly only isolation and feelings of being different (691).

As their study focuses on marginalized identities (versus the mainstream), McKenna and Bargh draw on Frable's 1993 analysis in which marginalized identities are distinguished into two separate categories. The first are conspicuous stigmas (i.e. obesity, bald hair, visible scars) that are more clearly visible to the public. And the second are concealable stigmas - hidden conditions that are harder to identify (i.e. sexual identity/preferences, political or religious affiliations, extra-terrestrial believers). As we have moved into the virtual world, McKenna and Bargh thus focus on the impact of virtual groups (or newsgroups) that have enabled individuals with stigmas to connect and communicate with each other. Focusing strongly on those with concealable identities, they hypothesized that because their concealable stigmatized identity does not make the benefits of group membership easily available elsewhere, as compared with people with mainstream or marginalized-conspicuous identities, those with marginalized-concealable identities would identify more strongly with relevant internet newsgroups and would consider such groups to be more important to their identity. Furthermore, they looked to see how this virtual community affected their notion of self and how that might translate in the real world - in terms of the person's psychology and behavior.

Their research and findings were based on three separate studies. Study 1 showed that newsgroups with concealable marginalized identities were more important to the lives of their members (as indicated by the amount of active participantions [average number of posts] by each member and through the reading of positive-negative feedback of each person's behavior in relation to feedback from other members. Study 2 and 3 examined the transformational ability of Internet group participation in which active participation or group involvement led to an increased importance of the group's identity in the eyes of its members and how this same amount of significance increases the ability of a member to self-accept their identity.

As I have studied marginalized identities in other classes, I found this study really interesting especially since I've never really thought about how our social stigmas are leveled in both a conspicuous and concealable way. I'm not sure how I feel about classifying these stigmas because (at least with this study) it felt like concealable identities were stigmas of a greater psychological-social weight (for instance, in comparing the "weight" of sexual identity versus obesity, some may view obesity as something that may be more readily changeable whereas sexual identity is inherent). And I don't think that is true. The study, which was done in 1998, offers insight and is worth looking into because concealable stigmas may be overlooked, but the one limitation I found with it (or at least with how they worded their study) was that it was too generalized. Their study shows that marginalized-concealable identites would identify more strongly with newsgroups and that it would be more important to them. Though it may be true, I think they must acknowledge that a newsgroups significance is also dependent on the person and their own background and context.


--Charli Lee