Under perceived threat, ambiguous group membership is resolved by classifying people as outsiders.
Evidence
In attempting to identify others, people are likely to err on the side of “overexclusion.” That is, under conditions of perceived vulnerability and fear, ambiguity in the group membership of any individual will be especially likely to be resolved by assuming that individual is an outsider. The Nuremberg Laws may be an illustration of this tendency: Unclear categories, such as converts from Judaism to Christianity, and their children and grandchildren, were legally clas sified as Jewish. Later, to avoid a failure to identify them as members of the out-group, Jews were legally required to wear the distinguishing yellow star. — Leonard S. Newman and Ralph Erber (eds.), Understanding Genocide, 497
Categorization
- DEFINE: Operationalizes overexclusion as the categorization error tendency — the enforcement side of the targeting mechanism.
- XREF: Echoes the archival-grain material on colonial racial classification expanding to cover ambiguous cases. — connects to: Changing how people categorize others can reduce intergroup threat. — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup…, 168; Group identities are invariably reinforced by reference to outsiders — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 356; Group identity is constructed by designating outsiders as others
Broader Connections
- Group identity is constructed by designating outsiders as others
#expands(0.85) - Group identities are invariably reinforced by reference to outsiders
#expands(0.80) — Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia The Business of…, 356 - Changing how people categorize others can reduce intergroup threat.
#qualifies(0.75) — Blake M. Riek, Eric W. Mania, and Samuel L. Gaertner, Intergroup Threat and Outgroup Attitudes, 168