Tom Postmes
Dept. of Social and Organizational Psychology
University of Groningen
Grote Kruisstraat 2/1
9712 TS Groningen
The Netherlands
Home Page
Phone: +31 50 363 6196
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The research I have been involved in (often in collaboration with many colleagues and students) is concerned with communication and group processes in small teams, organizations and social categories. In small groups, I have studied a variety of processes including social influence,
deindividuation, negotiation, the formation of group norms and the formation of a sense of shared social identity. In this research, the interaction between group members plays a key role, not just as a
variable of interest, but as a process that I believe to be an essential component of many group phenomena. Many of these studies were conducted as "on-line" investigations of processes in computer-
mediated communication.I am also interested in intergroup relations. This includes work on the perception of discrimination, social identification, and collective action. In a different line of research I have been examining the consequences of racial, ethnic and sectarian segregation on well-being and social identification. One example of this research is a project to examine the well-being consequences of long-term racial segregation among African Americans (Postmes & Branscombe, 2002). Recent research has extended these findings to other groups and social contexts. Finally, I am interested in organizational issues, in particular in organizational identity. I have looked at the relationship between communication and social identification, for example. In more recent projects we are studying the determinants of creativity and productivity. The central theme in these projects is to examine how productivity can be increased in various practical settings by strengthening social identity and by changing the content(s) of social identity.
 Books:
 Postmes, T., & Jetten, J. (Eds.). (2006). Individuality and the group: Advances in social identity. London: Sage.
Journal Articles:
- Haslam, S. A., Postmes, T., & Ellemers, N. (2003). More than a metaphor: Organizational identity makes organizational life possible. British Journal of Management, 14, 357-369.
- Jetten, J., Postmes, T., & McAuliffe, B. J. (2002). "We're all individuals": Group norms of individualism and collectivism, levels of identification, and identity threat. European Journal of Social Psychology, 32, 189-207.
- Postmes, T., & Branscombe, N. R. (2002). Influence of long-term racial environmental composition on subjective well-being in African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 83, 735-751.
- Postmes, T., Branscombe, N. R., Spears, R., & Young, H. (1999). Comparative processes in personal and group judgments: Resolving the discrepancy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 320-338.
- Postmes, T., & Brunsting, S. (2002). Collective action in the age of the Internet: Mass communication and online mobilization. Social Science Computer Review, 20, 290-301.
- Postmes, T., Haslam, S. A., & Swaab, R. (2005). Social influence in small groups: An interactive model of social identity formation. European Review of Social Psychology, 16, 1-42.
- Postmes, T., & Lea, M. (2000). Social processes and group decision making: Anonymity in group decision support systems. Ergonomics, 43, 1252-1274.
- Postmes, T., & Spears, R. (1998). Deindividuation and anti-normative behavior: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 123, 238-259.
- Postmes, T., Spears, R., & Cihangir, S. (2001). Quality of decision making and group norms. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 80, 918-930.
- Postmes, T., Spears, R., & Lea, M. (2000). The formation of group norms in computer-mediated communication. Human Communication Research, 26, 341-371.
- Postmes, T., Spears, R., & Lea, M. (1998). Breaching or building social boundaries? SIDE-effects of computer-mediated communication. Communication Research, 25, 689-715.
- Postmes, T., Spears, R., Lee, T., & Novak, R. (2005). Individuality and social influence in groups: Inductive and deductive routes to group identity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 747-763.
- Postmes, T., Spears, R., Sakhel, K., & De Groot, D. (2001). Social influence in computer-mediated communication: The effects of anonymity on group behavior. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27, 1242-1254.
- Postmes, T., Tanis, M., & DeWit, B. (2001). Communication and commitment in organizations: A social identity approach. Group Processes and Intergroup Relations, 4, 227-246.
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