Identification balances competing needs for inclusion and distinctiveness

Evidence

Optimal distinctiveness theory (Brewer, 1991) advocates that individuals are driven by two opposing needs—a need for inclusion and assimilation and a need for differentiation and distinctiveness. These needs may differ across individuals and contexts. In order to reconcile these opposing needs, individuals are thought to self-categorize and identify with categories that are optimally distinct, that is, that are sufficiently inclusive to meet their needs for assimilation, but sufficiently exclusive to meet needs for distinctiveness (see Leonardelli, Pickett, & Brewer, 2010, for a detailed review; see also Leonardelli, Pickett, Joseph, & Hess, Chapter 6, this book). … Group boundaries may change, for example, and groups may become too inclusive, thus posing a threat to the individuals’ need for distinctiveness. Such threats to distinctiveness may, then again, have consequences for in-group perceptions. Thus, since high threats to distinctiveness may prompt a high need for distinctiveness, they should lead to stronger preferences for exclusive than inclusive identities (see Pickett, Silver, & Brewer, 2002). — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 577

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 577
• XREF: connects to: Individual distinctiveness and shared origin coexist without contradiction — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 535; Mixed individuals strategically select contextual identity to jointly satisfy affiliation and uniqueness. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 92; Humans balance opposing needs for belonging and uniqueness through group identification. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 96