Individual attitudes and identities are produced by social groups, not held independently of them

Evidence

Rather than seeing social forces (conformity, obedience, etc.) as causing individuals to act differently than they would have if left to their own devices, many social-psychological theories now view individual attitudes, beliefs, cognitions, and identities as being derived from and defined by the social environment. … Individual cognitions, identities, and so forth depend to a large degree on the groups within which people affiliate and are determined by which group memberships are currently salient. In other words, individual attitudes, be­ liefs, and so on are social phenomena; they exist in and are produced by so­ cial groups. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 899

Categorization

• XREF: Reframes the reader’s ‘small exclusive subgroup / inclusion-need’ mechanism literature: group membership itself is the generative site of the attitudes that later license scapegoating. — connects to: Prejudice arises from group identities rather than individual psychology — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice: Society,…, 142; Individual self-esteem and emotions depend on the standing of one’s social groups; Collective identities like class, race, nation and gender positioned the individual self — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2: Identity…, 188
• DEFINE: Glick’s authors explicitly reject the older conformity/obedience frame in favor of socially derived individual-level constructs — useful terminology boundary for the Glick chapter search.

Broader Connections

• Prejudice arises from group identities rather than individual psychology #corroborates (0.95) — Cristian Tileagă, The Nature of Prejudice, 142
• Collective identities like class, race, nation and gender positioned the individual self #corroborates (0.95) — Stuart Hall, Essential Essays, Volume 2, 188
• Individual self-esteem and emotions depend on the standing of one’s social groups #expands (0.90)