Targets can offset discrimination’s harm by either embracing or rejecting their group

Evidence

Branscombe and her colleagues (1999) have proposed Rejection-Identification Theory to account for the dual role that perceiving discrimination can have on psychological well-being. Consistent with Crocker and Major’s (1989) theorizing, they find that positive effects of attributing outcomes to prejudice are found if the outcome is discrete or situationally specific, whereas adverse psychological responses are likely when discrimination is enduring and pervasive (see also Taylor & Turner, 2002). Nevertheless, even the adverse effects of pervasive discrimination are not inevitable. The potential negative psychological impact of pervasive discrimination can be mitigated by diverse coping strategies, such as by strengthening ingroup identification (Leonardelli & Tormala, 2003) or, alternatively, by disidentifying with one’s group (McCoy & Major, 2003). — , Rudman, Laurie A - On the Nature of…, 1069

Categorization

• SEED: A contrarian pair — ingroup identification and disidentification both buffer against pervasive discrimination — could anchor a piece on the paradoxical psychology of coping with prejudice.
• DEFINE: Rejection-Identification Theory is given its core proposition: perceived discrimination harms well-being, but group identification can restore it.
• XREF: connects to: Mixed-identity members may exit a rejecting group rather than fight for inclusion — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 109