Re-reading Luke's community

When a group commits a transgression, members who identify closely with the group often engage in defensive strategies in which they are less likely to experience guilt and shame in response to the transgression than are less identified group members. Subsequently, highly identified group members are often less willing to offer reparations to the injured parties. Because appropriate emotional responses and reparations are critical to community reconciliation, the present investigation examined whether social identity complexity-the degree to which individuals perceive their multiple social identities as interrelated-reduced these defensive responses. In the aftermath of a campus riot, emotional responses and reparative attitudes of undergraduate students were assessed. Results indicated that individuals who closely identified with the university were in fact capable of experiencing guilt and shame, but only if they also had complex social identities. A path model indicated that emotional responses, in turn, predicted willingness to provide reparations to the campus community. Accordingly, social identity complexity provides a new approach to understanding responses to ingroup-perpetrated violence.

Stratification economics represents an important new approach devoted to explaining economic inequality in terms of how social groups are separated or stratified according to relative group status. This paper combines stratification economics with identity economics to address complications that the phenomenon of intersectionality—people having multiple social group identities—creates for stratification economics. It distinguishes two types of social identities recognised by social psychologists, categorical and relational social identities, and uses this distinction to explain how individuals’ personal identities, understood as ordered sets of social identities, can be seen to be both socially and self-constructed. Individuals order and rank their categorical social identities according to weights they assign to them in interactive social settings in which their role-based relational social identities combine different categorical social identities. Research in social psychology in the stigma identity-threat literature is then reviewed to distinguish two opposed ways in which individuals respond to others’ stigmatisation of their social groups in interactive settings. The paper argues that the ways in which individuals respond to stigma reflect social group power relationships and the scarcity logic of individualist social ontologies and tend to reinforce social stratification.

This chapter contains sections titled: Crosscutting Identities: Objective vs. Subjective Representations Social Identity Complexity Theory Measuring Social Identity Complexity: Perceived Membership Overlap Motives Underlying Social Identity Complexity Experiential Bases of Social Identity Complexity Social Identity Complexity and Intergroup Relations Implications for Pluralistic Societies and Public Policy References

Social identity complexity (Roccas & Brewer, 2002) refers to individual differences in perception of one's multiple ingroup memberships. More specifically, social identity complexity is represented as perceived overlap in membership across pairs of ingroups, with lower overlap reflecting higher complexity. Previous research has demonstrated that social identity complexity is associated with tolerance and positive affect toward racial outgroups, and the present research explores further the nature of social identity complexity and its antecedents and correlates. Three studies are reported which examined the determinants of social identity complexity in different ways. Study 1 identified individual difference correlates of social identity complexity and demonstrated that perceived overlap predicts both explicit and implicit racial attitudes, above and beyond any effects of ideology and cognitive style. Study 2 confirmed the causal influence of the need for cognition on social identity complexity by demonstrating that manipulating need for cognitive elaboration influenced subsequent perceived overlap scores. Finally, Study 3 took advantage of a large field study with a diverse sample to assess the relationship between experience with an ethnically complex environment and social identity complexity.

Social identity complexity (SIC) as defined by Roccas and Brewer is an individual’s subjective representation of the combination of his or her multiple ingroup memberships. Almost all prior research on SIC and its relationship to intergroup attitudes has been conducted with members of ethnic majority groups. The present research assesses SIC and its correlates among ethnic majority group members (Anglo-Australian students) and members of a salient ethnic minority group (Asian-Australian students). Study 1 found that Asian-Australians perceived significantly more overlap among their ingroups (lower SIC) than did Anglo-Australians, despite the fact that objective overlap is actually greater for majority than minority ethnic groups. Study 2 replicated this difference and found that perceived overlap was predicted by proportion of ingroup friends. Further, for the majority group, low SIC is associated with less inclusive Australian identity, but for minority group members, SIC and Australian identity inclusiveness are essentially independent. Results are discussed in terms of the social-structural environment in which multiple identities are managed.

The authors argue that exposure to contextual diversity can prompt more complex, differentiated, and inclusive multiple in-group perceptions, that is, social identity complexity, with positive consequences for intergroup relations. Two unique, large-scale national surveys, involving respondents sampled from neighborhoods of varying degrees of diversity in Germany (Study 1; N = 1,381 drawn from 50 different neighborhoods) and England (Study 2; N = 580 drawn from 192 different neighborhoods), tested the prediction that people living in ethnically diverse neighborhoods would be higher in social identity complexity and, in turn, hold less negative intergroup attitudes. Results confirmed this hypothesis, showing that greater diversity was directly associated with higher social identity complexity (Studies 1 and 2) and indirectly associated with less in-group bias (Studies 1 and 2), and less social distance (Study 2), via social identity complexity. Findings are discussed with regard to their implications for the consequences of diversity for intergroup relations.

Purpose Reports from the sport industry illustrate widespread employee/stakeholder sexual harassment, sexism and “unacceptable” work conditions. Although research has explored women’s experiences in the sport workplace, few studies explore how women make sense of these gendered environments. Therefore, we examine meanings and interpretations of lived experience of women who have encountered hostile work environments in the sport industry. Design/methodology/approach We used a phenomenological approach to conduct semi-structured interviews with 21 women with experience of working in sport in the United States. Findings Three themes were created: coping behaviors, interpreting signals and hostility from women. Our participants engaged in coping behaviors to survive the hostile, male-dominated spaces they worked in. They interpreted signals during interviews and early in their careers, which many perceived as an indication of organizational culture and group norms. Although some of our participants softened hostile behavior from men, they interpreted it differently when enacted by women. Originality/value Our findings offer insights into how women employees navigate conflicting gender, racial and organizational identities. They expressed a belief that the presence of women in an organization signals a positive culture; however, while they excused harassment from male colleagues, they rejected problematic behavior from women colleagues. In line with phenomenology, we bring in social identity theory and critical mass theory to explain our findings. Specifically, women working in the sport industry experience social identity complexity because of their multiple social identities, and the presence of women within sport organizations alone is not enough to change organizational culture and group norms.

How can corporate social responsibility initiatives influence brand love? Based on the theory of social identity complexity, we examined whether greater complexity of a sport fan’s multiple identifications with sport leagues led to higher multicultural tolerance and more positive perceptions of leagues’ corporate social responsibility activities. Further, brand authenticity was tested as a variable intervening between perceived corporate social responsibility and brand love. We analyzed this serial mediation effect impacting sport fans’ brand love for their multiple, favored and less favored, sport leagues. Participants (N = 242 Amazon Mechanical Turk workers) answered the scale item questionnaire for model assessment. The hypothesized model was supported as the indirect effect through all mediators was significant (43.42% of total indirect effects). Our results suggest that when sport fans acknowledge a high overlap among league fan groups (low social identity complexity), their tolerance is more likely to be higher than those who have a low overlap. Such high levels of tolerance influence how fans perceive corporate social responsibility initiatives, and these effects build up for fans to perceive the brand to be more authentic (i.e., based on their continuity, credibility, integrity, and symbolism). These antecedents affected brand love through a serial mediation. Sport league managers should consider the diverse aspects across leagues (i.e., different fan characteristics, media operations, game schedules) for harmonious coexistence with other leagues (e.g., by collaborating on promotions and reducing overlap of schedules) and maintain brand authenticity for their social initiatives to result in a greater brand love in the consumer’s mind.

This study re-examines Chinua Achebe's works through social identity theory [1] and cultural trauma theory [2]. The analysis reveals how colonial oppression triggers identity threat [3] and collective self-redefinition [4]. Quantitative analysis of Igbo proverbs' emotional valence demonstrates cultural trauma encoding; characters like Okonkwo exhibit reactive self-stereotyping [5] under colonial pressure. The intersection of gender and class is analyzed via social identity complexity [6], showing Beatrice's leadership in Anthills of the Savannah as intersectional resilience through oral tradition appropriation. The research bridges postcolonial literature with social psychology, offering new frameworks for understanding identity reconstruction in postcolonial contexts.

Розглядається самокатегоризація як основа формування соціальної ідентичності. Звертається увага на те, що в умовах соціальних потрясінь відбувається «швидка категоризація» як позбавлений тривалих рефлексій, емоційно забарвлений процес співвіднесення себе з групою, що зазнає змін. Представлено теоретичні підходи, які мають значний пояснювальний потенціал щодо змін в українському суспільстві, зокрема спричинених гібридною війною. Аналізується твердження R. de la Sablonnière, згідно з яким соціальні зміни можна розглядати як рушійну силу зміни соціальної ідентичності. Соціальні зміни охарактеризовано з погляду впливу на зміну ідентичності (ситуація стабільності, ситуація інерції, інкрементальні соціальні зміни, драматичні соціальні зміни). Зауважено, що зміна соціальної ідентичності, яку спричиняє та чи інша подія, визначається реакцією групи на неї; при цьому можлива різна реакція представників різних груп на одну і ту ж подію. З огляду на теорію процесуальної соціальної ідентичності, яка апелює до ціннісних аспектів соціальної ідентичності, реакцію групи на подію пов’язано з її цінностями, що постійно змінюються. З’ясовано, що ціннісні аспекти можуть стосуватися як підтримки соціальної стабільності, так і готовності втілювати зміни. Суперечність «стабільність-зміни» витлумачено в концепції мобілізації соціальної ідентичності. Зроблено припущення, що особа через самокатегоризацію відносить себе до певної соціальної групи, формує свої цінності і настановлення відповідно до значущого членства і готова діяти, аби реалізовувати свою ідентичність. Запропоновано розглядати ідентичність не лише як набір фіксованих когнітивних та емоційних настановлень, а і як основу формування образу майбутнього, що спонукає до конкретних дій щодо його реалізації. Обстоюється думка, що соціальна ідентичність є головним рушієм соціальних змін, а групові ідентичності, що призводять до соціальних змін, можуть виникати як спонтанно, так і сконструюватися зацікавленими сторонами.

Forgiveness tends to be more relatable to theology, while politics seems to have very little to do with belief. Within Christian theology there are many wonderful resources to inform such a concept of “joining.” Jürgen Moltmann’s theological concept of “homemaking” is apt in this context. First, Moltmann brings together social identity and politics in his understanding of the social trinity. Second, Moltmann employs spatial metaphors as a foundation for expressing divine hospitality among the persons of the trinity. This chapter shows that the politics of forgiveness, as an aspect of homemaking in South Africa, touches upon the linguistic and the ontological aspects of translation. The reality of unhomeliness is a political reality — it requires both structural and emotional engagement, what John de Gruchy has named a “political forgiveness.” Bhabha contends that in situations of “unhomeliness” there is a strong desire for authentic identity, that sense of being at home and feeling at home that he describes as a “homecoming”.

This paper explores the concept of group belongingness and investigates the formation, maintenance, and influencing factors of social identity and group membership. Drawing upon social identity theory, the paper examines the processes involved in the formation of social identity, including social categorization, social identification, and social comparison. It also explores the various factors that influence the formation of social identity, such as personal characteristics, group characteristics, and the social context. Additionally, the paper discusses the importance of maintaining social identity and group membership, as well as the challenges and barriers to this maintenance. Furthermore, it examines the individual, group, and societal factors that influence social identity and group membership. The paper also delves into the different research methods used to investigate social identity and group membership, including quantitative and qualitative approaches. Finally, the implications and applications of understanding group belongingness are discussed, along with future research directions. The findings highlight the significance of fostering group belongingness for individuals and society as a whole.

Self-uncertainty, social identity prominence and group identification

In this chapter, we consider the fundamental importance of social identity both in terms of how people think about others and for personal well-being. The chapter reviews how social categorization and social identity impact people's responses to others and, drawing on our own work on the Common Ingroup Identity Model, examines how identity processes can be shaped to improve intergroup relations. This model describes how factors that alter the perceptions of the memberships of separate groups to conceive of themselves as members of a single, more inclusive, superordinate group can reduce intergroup bias. The present chapter focuses on four developments in the model: (1) recognizing that multiple social identities can be activated simultaneously (e.g., a dual identity); (2) acknowledging that the meaning of different identities varies for different groups (e.g., racial or ethnic groups); (3) describing how the impact of different social identities can vary as a function of social context and social and personal values; and (4) outlining how these processes can influence not only intergroup attitudes but also personal well-being, interms of both mental and physical health.

Friending