Uncertainty reduction may push mixed-race people toward the most entitative available group.

Evidence

We speculate that uncertainty reduction motives may also play an important role for social identity formation and change in Mixed individuals. Moreover, Mixed individuals may experience frequent situations that trigger self-concept uncertainty, for example, when others question their identity by asking about their ‘true’ racial–ethnic background, when their self-categorization and belonging is denied or invalidated by fellow ingroup members (e.g., being ‘not Black enough’; Campion 2019), or in family settings where Mixed individuals feel conflicting expectations or pressures to choose one identity or identify more strongly with one or the other side of their heritage. … The desire to reduce this uncertainty may prompt Mixed individuals to identify with the racial–ethnic group that offers the clearest prototype, and/or the highest degree of entitativity. We presume that mono-racial groups generally provide clearer consensual prototypes and entitativity, because a Mixed group often lacks a clear definition (Vinluan and Remedios 2020). — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 94

Categorization

• XREF: This directly maps onto the reader’s research interest in how ingroup entitativity pressures internally heterogeneous mixed-identity members; connects to uncertainty-identity theory (Hogg) applied to mixed-race populations. — connects to: 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; Mixed individuals seek high-entitativity ingroups to reduce identity uncertainty — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or…, 29; Uncertainty drives people to attach to highly entitative groups — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 254 (+6 more)
• QUESTION: Does the colour-blindness threat claim (Rios 2022) generalize across contexts, and is it testable for mixed versus monoracial minorities?

Broader Connections

• Mixed individuals seek high-entitativity ingroups to reduce identity uncertainty #expands (0.97) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 29
• Uncertainty drives people to attach to highly entitative groups #corroborates (0.90) — Roderick M. Kramer, Geoffrey J. Leonardelli, Robert W. Livingston, Social Cognition, Social Identity, and…, 254
• People join entitative groups to restore a universal need for certainty #corroborates (0.88)
• Mixed individuals may recategorize into broader minoritized superordinate groups. #exemplifies (0.80) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 47
• Essentialist beliefs about race incline mixed individuals toward a single distinct mixed identity #qualifies (0.78) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 79
• Mixed members treat racial-ethnic identities as context-switchable need satisfiers #expands (0.76)
• Identity denial may make mixed-race people shift identification to a different ingroup #exemplifies (0.75) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 119
• Different identity motives drive Mixed individuals toward different target groups. #expands (0.72) — Anna X. Huang, Jacqueline M. Chen, and Juliane Degner, Being One or the Other, Both or Neither, 105