Identification potency declines as group categories grow more inclusive but can be situationally revived

Evidence

Finally, Allport suggested that ingroup significance – or “potency,” as he called it – tended to decline with increasing size and inclusiveness of category memberships. He showed a figure consisting of a series of concentric circles with the “family” at the center and “mankind” as the outermost ring (see figure 5.1 of Gaertner & Dovidio’s ch. 5, below). However, he also acknowledged that this need not always be the case and that particular situational contingencies could bring even some very large category memberships to the forefront of people’s priorities. — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 425

Categorization

• QUESTION: What situational contingencies revive large-category identification? Relevant to how superordinate-group recategorization (Gaertner & Dovidio ch. 5) might actually work for prejudice reduction.
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 425
• XREF: connects to: Cachet diffuses along association chains but evaporates under lower-class adoption — W. David Marx, Status and Culture: How Our Desire for…, 212