Russell Spears

Russell Spears

Russell Spears is a social psychologist and co-author of two works on deindividuation. With Tom Postmes he wrote the 1998 meta-analysis Deindividuation and antinormative behavior in Psychological Bulletin, which pooled 60 independent studies. With Stephen Reicher and Postmes he wrote the 1995 chapter proposing a social identity model of deindividuation phenomena.

Who they are

Spears is a social psychologist. His work on this site is the deindividuation research he co-authored in 1995 and 1998, and he is also a co-author of the 2008 paper on a hierarchical model of in-group identification led by Colin Wayne Leach.

Key papers

  • Postmes, T., & Spears, R. (1998). Deindividuation and antinormative behavior: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 123(3), 238-259.
  • Reicher, S. D., Spears, R., & Postmes, T. (1995). A social identity model of deindividuation phenomena. European Review of Social Psychology, 6, 161-198.

The 1998 paper integrates 60 independent studies. Its abstract reports little support for deindividuated antinormative behaviour or for a deindividuated state, and reports that groups and individuals conformed more to situation-specific norms when they were deindividuated. The authors describe the results as inconsistent with deindividuation theory and as supporting a social identity model of deindividuation effects. The 1995 chapter is the source of that model.

Key ideas

The 1995 chapter proposes that effects attributed to deindividuation can be explained through social identity, the group a person acts as a member of and its norms. The 1998 paper reports a pooled test of deindividuation theory against that account.

Sources

  1. Postmes, T., & Spears, R. (1998). Deindividuation and antinormative behavior: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 123(3), 238-259.
  2. Reicher, S. D., Spears, R., & Postmes, T. (1995). A social identity model of deindividuation phenomena. European Review of Social Psychology, 6, 161-198.
  3. Leach, C. W., van Zomeren, M., Zebel, S., Vliek, M. L. W., Pennekamp, S. F., Doosje, B., Ouwerkerk, J. W., & Spears, R. (2008). Group-level self-definition and self-investment: A hierarchical (multicomponent) model of in-group identification. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95(1), 144-165.