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Social, not individual, identification is the key to understanding group phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Rupert Brown
Rupert Brown*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Sussex University, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom. r.brown@sussex.ac.uk http://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/95042
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Abstract

Baumeister and colleagues argue for the indispensability of groups in human life. Yet, in positing individual differentiation as the key to effective group functioning, they adopt a Western-centric view of the relationship of the individual to the group and overlook an alternative social identity account in which depersonalisation, not individuation, is central to understanding many group phenomena.

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Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e143
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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