Categorization in everyday life: The effects of positive and negative categorizations on emotions and self-views y NAOMI ELLEMERS * AND MANUELA BARRETO Leiden University, The Netherlands Abstract This study investigates how everyday categorization experiences affect people’s emotional responses and self-views. A representative Dutch population sample (N ¼ 463) was asked to recount a situation in which they were categorized by others. This resulted in a range of categories that were spontaneously evoked by research participants. Participants were asked to think of a situation either where the categorization resulted in negative or in positive expectations about the self. Positive categorization elicited more positive emotions and agreement than negative categorization. However, when positive expectations about the self were formed, people found it less easy to detect that these were based on external categorizations, and were less likely to protest. Mediational analyses showed that because detection was impaired, exposure to positive categorization resulted in lower self-confidence than exposure to negative categorization. Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Theory and research on the effects of social categorization (Tajfel, 1978) has mainly examined the problems people encounter when they are categorized as members of socially devalued groups, such as ethnic minorities (Ethier & Deaux, 1994), homosexuals (Simon et al., 1998), overweight women (Crocker, Cornwall, & Major, 1993), or disabled people (Frable, Platt, & Hoey, 1998). The present research takes a broader view, as it systematically compares how people’s emotions and self-views are affected by positive versus negative expectations that can be derived from the social categories people belong to. Unlike previous researchers we will not limit ourselves to a single category membership, but examine the broad range of categorizations that people can experience in everyday life. European Journal of Social Psychology Eur. J. Soc. Psychol. 36, 931–942 (2006) Published online 23 August 2006 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com). DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.333 *Correspondence to: Naomi Ellemers, Social and Organizational Psychology, Leiden University. P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. E-mail: Ellemers@fsw.leidenuniv.nl y The present research was carried out in the context of a public education project on categorization (SIRE-champagne ‘Denk ruimer dan in hokjes’). Contract/grant sponsor: Dutch Science Foundation (NWO, Vernieuwingsimpuls). Copyright # 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Received 22 April 2005 Accepted 22 December 2005