Appraising the group experience: An affective perspective on diversity faultlines

How do group members interpret the changed group dynamics brought on by faultlines which can split the group into subgroups? The current study explores how cognitive appraisals can impact the influence of group composition on members’ affective states by testing the moderating effects of instrumental and intrinsic appraisals on the link between faultlines and members’ negative affect. Results showed that when people interpret their group experiences as consequences of members’ inherent qualities, the presence of faultlines decreased their negative affect; whereas when people attribute the difficulties they encountered in the group to blocked goals that need to be solved, faultlines had little influence on feelings of negative emotion.