JoHo

Why is group identity important?

Belonging to a group is important for us in a social context. According to social identity theory, we tend to be closely connected to our own in-group, fiercely loyal and even willing to die for what we consider to be our group. Groups to which we belong are in-groups. Groups to which we do not belong are called out-groups. Two conditions are critical for group formation: reciprocity and transitivity. Reciprocity mens that if Person A helps person B, then person B will help person A. Transitivity means that people generally share their friends' opinions of other people. Once people categorize others as ingroup or outgroup members, they treat others accordingly. For instance, due to the outgroup homogeneity effect, people tend to view outgroup members as less varied than ingroup members. Our group memberships are important to our sense of identity and self. We tend to take part of our self-esteem from our group’s esteem. We are predisposed to be wary of people we consider to be outside our group. This in-group/out-group behaviour begins early in development. We favor in-groups because, evolutionarily speaking, that was an adaptive strategy. This is called ingroup favoritism.