Ecology explains why individualist societies form depersonalized symbolic group identities

Evidence

In any case, the socioecological approach provides an explanation for why individualism in North America is associated with depersonalized, symbolic collective identities by suggesting ways in which ecological factors (e.g., the ability to choose in-groups with high status or similar characteristics) might bring about the psychological tendencies and behavioral consequences described by social identity theory, such as intergroup comparison and intragroup similarity. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1650

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1650
• XREF: connects to: Ecology cannot explain divergent cultural traits among neighboring Amazonian groups — Joe Henrich and Robert Boyd, The Evolution of Conformist…, 110; Identity development is produced by environmental settings, not individual processes alone — Tatiana I. Zamora and Amado M. Padilla, Making sense of conflicting messages of…, 44