Essentialist beliefs about race incline mixed individuals toward a single distinct mixed identity

Evidence

We speculate that an individual’s beliefs about the nature of racial–ethnic categories and an individual’s conceptualization of the Mixed identity as essentialist versus socially construed influence how they navigate their racial–ethnic identities: Individuals with a social change belief system and essentialist views about race might rather conceptualize their Mixed identity as membership in one distinct group and may be more prone to using social competition or social creativity strategies. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 79

We speculate that an individual’s beliefs about the nature of racial–ethnic categories and an individual’s conceptualization of the Mixed identity as essentialist versus socially construed influence how they navigate their racial–ethnic identities: Individuals with a social change belief system and essentialist views about race might rather conceptualize their Mixed identity as membership in one distinct group and may be more prone to using social competition or social creativity strategies. Indeed, recent findings by Roberts et al. (2022) suggest that essentialist beliefs are associated with a higher likelihood of perceiving Black/White individuals’ racial identity as one discrete Mixed category, comprised by a mixture of Black and White (as opposed to being both 100% Black and 100% White). — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 79

We speculate that an individual’s beliefs about the nature of racial-ethnic categories and an individual’s conceptualization of the Mixed identity as essentialist versus socially construed influence how they navigate their racial-ethnic identities: Individuals with a social change belief system and essentialist views about race might rather conceptualize their Mixed identity as membership in one distinct group and may be more prone to using social competition or social creativity strategies. Indeed, recent findings by Roberts et al. (2022) suggest that essentialist beliefs are associated with a higher likelihood of perceiving Black/White individuals’ racial identity as one discrete Mixed category, comprised by a mixture of Black and White (as opposed to being both 100% Black and 100% White). This association may arise from the essentialist view that racial identity is biologically determined and constrained to one single, distinct racial category per person. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 86

Categorization

• SEED: Conflicts the internal heterogeneity of the ‘Mixed group’ as one essentialist category against protective-solidarity pressures — an angle on how a category’s own members police which self-conceptualization counts as authentic.
• QUESTION: If essentialism forces a single distinct category, then mixed members’ access to protective solidarity may hinge on conformity to that one category — precisely the reader’s homogenizing-pressure mechanism.
• XREF: Core to the reader’s thesis: essentialist self-conceptualization may make a mixed member comply with the homogenizing entitativity pressure rather than resist it. — connects to: Mixed individuals categorically shift toward whichever mono-racial prototype is absent — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 51; Mixed individuals endorse less essentialist racial beliefs than monoracial peers. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 88; Essentialist identity models treat cultural identity as fixed by birth — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 824
• ADDENDUM: Directly relevant to the reader’s study of ingroup essentialism/entitativity pressures on internally heterogeneous members; the essentialist view collapsing mixed identity into one discrete group is the hypothesized mechanism.
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 79; Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 86

Related

• Mixed individuals endorse less essentialist racial beliefs than monoracial peers. (similarity 0.93)
• Constructivist views of race enable mixed-race identity mobility (similarity 0.87)
• Mixed individuals categorically shift toward whichever mono-racial prototype is absent (similarity 0.87)
• Mixed-identity individuals shift between racial identities to meet context-specific needs. (similarity 0.87)
• Uncertainty reduction may push mixed-race people toward the most entitative available group. (similarity 0.86)
• Mixed people face most identity threats in settings that force mono-racial categories (similarity 0.86)
• Mixed individuals shift self-categorization across situations because similarity tests prove inconclusive. (similarity 0.85)
• Mixed individuals shift racial self-categorization situationally, but only within boundary conditions. (similarity 0.85)
• Social identity theories presume unambiguous single-category membership that mixed individuals lack (similarity 0.85)
• Mixed-identity people shift self-categorizations situationally because prototype-similarity assessments stay inconclusive (similarity 0.85)
• Mixed individuals shift identification within a single social domain. (similarity 0.85)
• Multiple distinct motives drive racial-ethnic group identification. (similarity 0.85)
• Mixed-identity self-categorization strategies exceed what social identity complexity theory predicts. (similarity 0.85)
• Mixed individuals face recurring identity questions, denials of belonging, and family pressures to choose (similarity 0.84)
• Mixed individuals’ identity choices are frequently invalidated by mono-racial others. (similarity 0.84)

Broader Connections

• Mixed individuals endorse less essentialist racial beliefs than monoracial peers. #contradicts (0.80) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 88
• Essentialist identity models treat cultural identity as fixed by birth #expands (0.75) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 824