Social identity theories presume unambiguous single-category membership that mixed individuals lack

Evidence

First, these classic theories assume a dichotomous conceptualization of ingroups versus outgroups, which may not fully capture the complexities of Mixed racial–ethnic identities, for whom such a clear-cut division of the social world into ingroups and outgroups is not always possible. Second, although work within the social identity approach has accounted for having multiple social identities, neither theory explicitly accounts for the possibility of belonging to multiple groups within one single social domain, such as race or ethnicity. Instead, predictions in SIT and SCT account for cases in which group membership on a social domain is clear and unequivocal. … Third, SIT and SCT do not account for situations in which self-identification and perceived identification (by others) are incongruent. Yet in real-life groups and interactions, Mixed individuals’ self-categorization frequently differs from how they are categorized by others (Franco et al. 2019). — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 16

Categorization

• XREF: Directly relevant to the reader’s question about entitativity pressure falling on mixed-identity group members — the essay’s own framing dovetails with this critique of SIT’s assumptions. — connects to: Mixed identities involve ambiguously crossing mutually exclusive categories within a single social domain — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 15; Mixed-identity individuals cannot pursue collective status mobility without being accepted as group members — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 70; Mixed-identity self-categorization strategies exceed what social identity complexity theory predicts. — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 48 (+4 more)

Broader Connections

• Mixed-identity people shift self-categorizations situationally because prototype-similarity assessments stay inconclusive #expands (0.82) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 60
• Mixed-identity self-categorization strategies exceed what social identity complexity theory predicts. #complicates (0.78) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 48
• Ethnic identity choices are constrained by socially defined categories carrying unequal advantage #expands (0.76) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 941
• Cultures differ in whether identity derives from relationships rather than from category membership #qualifies (0.74) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 1626
• Mixed-identity individuals cannot pursue collective status mobility without being accepted as group members #qualifies (0.72) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 70