Uncertainty drives people to attach to highly entitative groups

Evidence

Uncertainty reduction theory postulates that humans have a universal need for certainty that stems from our desire to live in predictable and tractable environments (Hogg, 2000). When this need is not met, we search for ways to fulfill it. One way to achieve this aim is by attaching ourselves to groups of individuals that provide us with a greater degree of certainty. Groups that are high in entitativity are especially likely to provide this sense of certainty because they possess stable underlying properties, promote clarity in social representations, and facilitate the sense that one is part of a group that has a real existence. — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 254

Categorization

• XREF: Uncertainty as a driver of in-group identification echoes the Allport thread on how situation/threat produces prejudice attachment—fits the reader’s prejudice-psychology program. — connects to: Marginalized groups live more intensely in the present because they cannot escape uncertainty — Aris Komporozos-Athanasiou, Speculative Communities: Living with…, 531; Groups perceived as entitative reduce members’ self-concept uncertainty most effectively — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 85; Uncertainty reduction pushes Mixed individuals toward whichever group offers the clearest prototype — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 86 (+2 more)
• corroborated: 3 independent passages support this claim — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 254