Group identity is flexible and memberships can be recategorized

Evidence

Allport also clearly recognized how group affiliation affects the ways in which people value others and how individuals differ in their identification with their group (Brown & Zagefka). He remarked that “the sense of belonging is a highly personal matter. Even two members of the same actual in-group may view its composition in widely divergent ways” (p. 36). Moreover, he illustrated how the salience of group identity is alterable – how categorization can become recategorization – and how people can be members of multiple categories and possess multiple identities (Gaertner & Dovidio). For example, he wrote that “in-group memberships are not permanently fixed. For certain purposes an individual may affirm one category of membership, for other purposes a slightly larger category” (p. 35). — John F. Dovidio, Peter Glick, Laurie A. Rudman, On the Nature of Prejudice, 111

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to Social Identity Theory and the common ingroup identity model; also relevant to the flexible-identity ideas in The Namesake.