“Home” has been conceptualised in a variety of ways by philosophers, sociologists, and psychologists. Usually, home is linked to one’s self-definition or identity, and also to family, security, intimacy, comfort, and control. The multifacetedness of the construct aside, prior literature suggests that sense of home may serve as a shelter that safeguards against threats. This may be particularly relevant in collectivistic cultures such as China, in which family has traditionally been the fundamental cultural unit. Indeed, a research team led by Dr. CAI Huajian from Center for Personality and Social Psychology, Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences  has revealed that among Chinese participants, affirmation of the familial-self evinced stronger buffering potential against threats than did affirmation of the individual-self and affirmation of others.

To test the hypothesis that sense of home serves as a buffer against self-threat, the research team conducted three experiments among Chinese participants. In all experiments, they induced sense of home (vs. square) by asking participants to list at least five items (persons, places, or things) that gave them a sense of home and then visualise the listed items and re-lived the feelings that the items brought about. They then examined whether the induced sense of home could reduce negative responses caused by self-threats such as stereotype threat and mortality salience.

Consistent with their hypothesis, the findings suggest that sense of home mitigated the negative consequences of self-threats in all experiments. Specifically, participants who experienced a sense of home (vs. square) manifested increased openness to gender stereotype threat information (Experiment 1), performed better in a mental rotation test after gender stereotype threat (Experiment 2), and expressed reduced desire for high-status products following death reminders (Experiment 3). This is the first experimental demonstration of the self-protective function of sense of home. Sense of home appears to be a potent resource of self, shielding people from threat.

This work entitled “Sense of home buffers threats to the self” was published online in The Asian Journal of Social Psychology on February 11, 2020. It was funded by the by National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Social Science Fund of China, and Scientific Foundation of Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. 

CONTACT:
Ms.LIU Chen
Institute of Psychology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing 100101, China.
E-mail: liuc@psych.ac.cn