Social Identity Theory

JAKE HARWOOD
University of Arizona, USA

Social identity theory (SIT) explains relations between large social groups using psy-
chological processes concerning social identity—an individual’s sense of belonging to a
group and the positive or negative feelings associated with that membership. The theory
has become an umbrella term for a set of more specific theories of intergroup behavior.

Summary of social identity theory

The theory originated in studies using the “minimal group paradigm” in the early 1970s
(Tajfel, Billig, Bundy, & Flament, 1971). These studies demonstrated people’s apparently
inherent desire to distinguish themselves from others based on group memberships,
and their willingness to sacrifice absolute levels of rewards to maintain relative supe-
riority over members of other groups. From these studies, Tajfel and Turner (1979)
developed a sophisticated model of how individual identity-related motivations pre-
dict individual-level motivations to discriminate between groups, and both individual
and collective responses to societal-level group status, subsequently dubbed SIT (Tajfel
& Turner, 1986).

Why do people engage in intergroup discrimination?

According to SIT, categorization of our social world is a natural and inevitable human
instinct, serving to simplify our environment. As we categorize people into groups,
we also categorize ourselves into some of those same groups—social identifica-
tion. Once we “belong” to a group (our “ingroup”), we seek ways to gain positive
feelings from that group membership. Viewing the ingroup more positively than
other groups (“outgroups”) is one way to achieve those positive feelings. Seeking
positive distinctiveness for one’s ingroup hence becomes an explanation for holding
negative beliefs and attitudes about outgroups in our environment, and hence for
prejudice and ultimately discrimination. The motivational basis of SIT in a desire for
positive self-concept (Abrams & Hogg, 1988) has been supplemented in recent years
by additional explanations—for example that (self-)categorization and intergroup
differentiation is a way to reduce uncertainty (Hogg, 2000). Empirical examinations of
SIT have shown that ingroup favoritism is not isomorphic with outgroup derogation
(Mummendey & Otten, 1998).

The International Encyclopedia of Media Psychology. Jan Van den Bulck (Editor-in-Chief), David Ewoldsen,
Marie-Louise Mares, and Erica Scharrer (Associate Editors).
© 2020 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Published 2020 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
DOI: 10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0153
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2 S O CI A L I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y

How do groups respond to marginalization?

For some social groups, particularly marginalized or minority groups, the ability
to perceive positive distinctiveness is constrained by realities of social prejudice
and discrimination. SIT suggests that individual and group belief systems will drive
the group response in such situations. People may adopt a social mobility strategy,
essentially “leaving” one ingroup for a different, more socially valued group. Such
behavior is likely when group members have little sense of identification with their
group, when boundaries between groups are permeable (it is relatively easy for a
person to “move” from one group to another, unconstrained by visible or other signs
of group membership), and when the intergroup hierarchy is viewed as relatively
stable and legitimate (i.e., change in the ingroup’s marginalized position is unlikely).
This behavior is apparent when individuals “pass” as members of another group, or
successfully become members of that group (e.g., via achieving citizenship in another
more desirable national group).
At the other extreme, people may adopt a social change belief system. This set of ideals
drives people to act collectively to challenge the status quo and raise the position of
their ingroup within the social hierarchy. Rather than abandoning their group for a
more desirable outgroup, they instead attempt to make their ingroup’s position more
desirable. People are more likely to endorse social change ideologies when their ingroup
identification is high, boundaries between groups are impermeable, and the status quo
is perceived to be unstable and illegitimate. Collective movements around group rights
exemplify this belief system—the U.S. Civil Rights movement, international movements
for women’s suffrage, Black South Africans’ struggles against Apartheid, and the like.
Social change beliefs are also sometimes labeled social competition.
Between social mobility and social change ideologies lie middle-ground strategies;
Tajfel and Turner (1986) refer to these as forms of social creativity. A group might, for
instance, find alternative dimensions on which they can compare themselves to an out-
group: “We’re not as powerful, but we are more creative.” Or they might find alternate
outgroups to serve as comparisons—hence SIT explains why marginalized groups may
compete against one another rather than the dominant group.
In short, social identities are an important part of the self-concept. The desire to
maintain a positive self-concept drives intergroup discrimination and other processes
to support the positive distinctiveness of one’s ingroups.

Extensions of social identity theory

Self-categorization theory has clarified the processes by which individuals focus on
specific group memberships in specific contexts. It explains why one person might
be focused on maintaining a positive gender identity in a particular situation, while
another is focused on the status of their religious group, for instance (Turner, Hogg,
Oakes, Reicher, & Wetherell, 1987). Communication accommodation theory (Giles,
2016) and ethnolinguistic identity theory (Giles & Johnson, 1987) have both provided
insights into the linguistic manifestations of social identity processes, explaining why
individuals might emphasize their accent, dialect, or language, or alternatively why
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S O CI A L I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y 3

they might switch into an outgroup communication style. Ethnolinguistic vitality

theory provides a framework for understanding the relative status and strength of
different groups in any given context (Harwood, Giles, & Bourhis, 1994).

Social identity theory and the media

Perspectives extending SIT to the study of media are organized here in terms of a tra-
ditional “who, says what, to whom, with what effect” model (Lasswell, 1948). The role
of media channels, with a focus on new media, is considered last.

Who makes the media?

Understanding the media from a SIT perspective requires considering institutional pro-
cesses as well as individual psychological and communicative activity. Media embody
and represent the social hierarchy of group status, thus phenomena like media owner-
ship (who owns television stations and networks, newspapers, social media) are non-
trivial factors in understanding how individuals relate to the media in intergroup terms
(Harwood & Roy, 2005). Minority-owned media are more likely to include portray-
als of minority group members, feature news and other content of interest to minor-
ity group members, and hence support the social identities of those group members.
Merely the presence of minority group members in media ownership, production, and
green-lighting roles enhances the vitality of those groups (Erigha, 2018).

How are groups portrayed in the media?

A massive body of research has documented portrayals of various social groups across
media types (Tukachinsky, Mastro, & Yarchi, 2015). Broadly, groups that are marginal-
ized in other ways in society are also marginalized in the media. Marginalization has
typically been operationalized in two ways: underrepresentation and negative repre-
sentation. Some groups (e.g., Native Americans in U.S. television) are proportionally
present in substantially smaller numbers than their numbers in the actual population.
Negative representations (for groups where some critical mass of portrayals can be
identified) are examined in terms of generally derogatory portrayals, and specifically
stereotypical representations (e.g., Dixon, 2017). Social identity explains such repre-
sentations as a function of intergroup distinctiveness processes.

How do group processes drive media selection?

Individuals actively seek content that meets their needs and matches their interests.
Some of this active seeking is driven by social identity motives (Harwood, 1999;
Knobloch-Westerwick & Hastall, 2010). People typically prefer content featuring
ingroup members, seek it out actively, and receive identity-related gratifications from
doing so (Slater, 2015). Hence, the media (assuming positive ingroup representations
are available) can serve as a support system for marginalized identities, but can also be
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4 S O CI A L I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y

selectively consumed by dominant group members in ways that reduce exposure to

portrayals of marginalized groups.

What are social identity-related media effects?

As noted above, for members of marginalized communities, media can support their
identities by providing positive models of the ingroup. Beyond positive portrayals,
media can also model group activism, thus building support for a social change belief
system (see earlier section How Do Groups Respond to Marginalization?; Reid, Giles,
& Abrams, 2004).
For members of dominant groups, exposure to positive portrayals of marginalized
outgroup members in the media can reduce prejudice—such exposure is a mediated
form of intergroup contact (Allport, 1954). Such mediated contact effects are apparent
in exposure to multiple types of media and for a diverse array of outgroups (Harwood,
2018).
However, as noted above, marginalized groups are typically underrepresented or neg-
atively represented. Such portrayals have negative consequences for both marginalized
and dominant group members. For dominant groups, such portrayals can reinforce
stereotypes and encourage negative attitudes or reinforce the perceived irrelevance of
outgroups (Mastro, Lapinski, Kopacz, & Behm-Morawitz, 2009). For minority group
members, such portrayals (or their absence) can reinforce a sense that their ingroup is
devalued (Ortiz & Behm-Morawitz, 2015). To the extent that media can elicit higher
level identifications (e.g., with all humanity), there is promise for them to overcome
some dimensions of prejudice (Oliver et al., 2015). Trepte (2006) presents a social iden-
tity model of media effects.

New media
Many of the media processes described here also occur in the Internet world, but often
in new, complex, or amplified ways. The Internet provides massively increased ability
to find content supportive of social identities—inexpensive production and distribution
costs relative to traditional media make such content easier for marginalized groups to
create. Such content can facilitate collective action by groups (Chan, 2017). Of course,
the same processes, when combined with the relatively unregulated nature of Internet
content, make it easy to disseminate hate speech and encourage intergroup violence.
White supremacist websites, violent misogynistic pornography, anti-Semitic discus-
sion boards, and the like are easily accessible on the Web, reflecting the worst forms
of seeking positive intergroup distinctiveness. People who commit heinous intergroup
violence find places online where they are not ostracized for their beliefs and may find
support for their acts (Roose, 2018).
The Internet blurs some of the lines between mediated and interpersonal communi-
cation. Perspectives such as the social identity model of deindividuation (Klein, Spears,
& Reicher, 2007) and models of online intergroup contact (Amichai-Hamburger, 2012;
Walther, 2009) demonstrate the promise (and some potential problems) for online
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S O CI A L I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y 5

interpersonal media to bridge boundaries between groups—particularly physically

segregated groups.

SEE ALSO: Effects of Media Use on Development of Gender Role Beliefs; Ego and
Cognitive Biases in Perceptions of Media Influence; Gender and Children’s Media
Preferences; Gender Identity; Implicit and Explicit Measures of Prejudice; Intergroup
Contact; Media Use and the Development of Racial and Ethnic Identities; Media Use,
Sexual Identity, and Gender Identity; Parasocial Contact and Prejudice Reduction;
Race, Ethnicity, and Media Preferences: Content and Media Form; Same-Gender
Characters: Appeal and Identification; Selective Exposure; Social Identity Model of
Deindividuation Effects and Media Use; Using Media to Promote Inclusive Attitudes
in Childhood and Adolescence

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Further reading

Giles, H., & Harwood, J. (Eds.). (2018). The Oxford encyclopedia of intergroup communication
(Vols. 1–2). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
 10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0153, Downloaded from https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781119011071.iemp0153 by CAPES, Wiley Online Library on [18/07/2023]. See the Terms and Conditions (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/terms-and-conditions) on Wiley Online Library for rules of use; OA articles are governed by the applicable Creative Commons License
S O CI A L I D E N T I T Y T H E O R Y 7

Mastro, D., & Tukachinsky, R. (Eds.). (2015). Media representations of race and ethnicity:
Implications for identity, intergroup relations, and public policy [Special issue]. Journal of
Social Issues, 71(1).

Jake Harwood (PhD, University of California, Santa Barbara, 1994) is Professor of

Communication at the University of Arizona. He is author of Communication and Music
in Social Interaction (2018) and Understanding Communication and Aging (2018), and
coeditor of The Oxford Encyclopedia of Intergroup Communication (2018). He is the
(co-)author of about 150 articles and chapters on intergenerational communication,
intergroup communication, and communication and music. His research focuses on the
communicative implications of music for relationships between individuals and large
social groups.