Out Of Social Identity Theory

Social Identity Theory is a group theory that serves to explain the way in which people organize their social world. The means by which we determine individuals as being part of our in-group or out-group are largely explained by the minimal group paradigm. This paradigm implies that people randomly decide who is part of the out-group almost instantaneously and assign negative stereotypes to them solely on the basis of their affiliation with that group. Within one’s in-group, members are seen as unique individuals while those in the out-group are viewed as homogenous, being of similar undesirable personalities and characteristics (stereotype and prejudice formation). This is explained by the ultimate attributional error, which asserts that in-group members are more likely to think highly of themselves, but make negative assumptions about the out-group, this distances the in-group from the out-group even more. …show more content…
This perpetuates the polarization of in-group and out-group affiliation. Growing out of the Social Identity Theory is the idea of optimization, in which a person is more likely to be drawn toward a group that offers both distinction from out-groups and inclusiveness to in-group members. In the context of intercultural communication SIT plays a large role at the intergroup/contextual stage in Communication Accommodation Theory. At this point group identity is more prominent and willingness to diverge from the out-group increases with the motivation to protect your in-group