An integrative theory of intergroup conflict

Social identity theory — how a group becomes part of who you are, and why the minimal conditions for that are so shockingly minimal.

Tajfel & Turner (1979). In Austin & Worchel (eds), The Social Psychology of Intergroup Relations, 33–47.

Primary reading — read it before the lecture that sets it.

The minimal group studies found that people will favour their own group when the group is defined by nothing at all — a coin toss, a preference between two painters they have not heard of. From that, Tajfel and Turner build an account in which part of your self-concept is made of the groups you belong to, and you are motivated to keep those groups looking good by comparison.

Week 4 is about the counter — the bar, the café, the place where the staff know your order. Being a regular is a social identity, one of the cheapest available, and this reading is how you get from “I go there a lot” to “it is part of who I am”. It is also the reading that explains why a beloved local can be quietly hostile to outsiders without anyone intending it.