Lacking shared identity, group members refuse to delegate and trust others to act

Evidence

Perhaps the most striking link between the lack of shared identity amongst the guards and their refusal to allow others to represent them came in their failure to develop a shift system. The guards had been advised to develop this in order to avoid the exhaustion that would otherwise result from the fact that their supervisory responsibilities extended from the moment the prisoners woke to the moment they went to sleep. However, this shift system never developed because going off shift required a level of trust in one’s colleagues that a lack of identity never allowed (Kramer, Brewer, & Hanna, 1996; Platow, Haslam, Foddy, & Grace, 2003; Tyler & Blader, 2000). Indeed, because there was no shared understanding of appropriate behavior, each guard felt it necessary to be on duty the entire time in order to monitor what the others were doing. This also meant that when one guard decided to treat the prisoners punitively in response to some rule violation, another would typically seek to pre-empt him by making a conciliatory gesture. — Stephen Reicher, S. Alexander Haslam, and Nick Hopkins, Social identity and the dynamics of…, 57

Categorization

• QUESTION: A sharp mechanism: the cost of shared identity failing is not just disorganization but constant mutual surveillance and uncoordinated oscillation between punitive and conciliatory behavior. Worth chasing what literature formalizes distrust-driven self-trust.
• XREF: Connects to the reader’s prior angle on leaders embodying shared identity — this is the inverse case: when identity dissolves, followership/delegation collapses too. — connects to: Outsider racialization failed to overcome an internal lack of self-identification as a group. — Mareike Riedel, Islamophobia, Racial Discrimination…, 55; Without shared identity, group members cannot trust one another enough to delegate.; Shared identity generates expectations of support and trust among group members — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 16

Broader Connections

• Without shared identity, group members cannot trust one another enough to delegate. #corroborates (0.97)
• Shared identity generates expectations of support and trust among group members #expands (0.88) — John Drury, The role of social identity processes…, 16