Negational categorization is in sharp contrast to ‘affirmational categorization’, where the self and the in-group are defined by what they represent
When 16th century British poet John Donne coined the phrase “No man is an island,” he could not have known how widely embraced it would be, coming to signify the significance of other people to every individual’s sense of self. Indeed, we routinely identify ourselves by shared characteristics, whether it be demographics such as race or gender, organizational affiliations such as employment or church membership -- or even minimal group memberships established arbitrarily in a laboratory.
Whereas personal identity defines the individual as a unique person in terms of their differences from other individuals, ‘social identity’ refers to the aspects of the self that are based on social group membership. One of the key differences between personal identity and social identity is that the former motivates interpersonal behaviours whereas the latter motivates intergroup behaviour. When individuals identify negationally, they tend to focus on the difference between non-members and members on relevant dimensions. Their behaviours and attitudes toward out-group members are better predicted by the non-membership than by individual differences. Indeed, across three of our studies, we consistently found that negational identity induces in-group favoritism and out-group derogation.
[This article has been reprinted, with permission, from Rotman Management, the magazine of the University of Toronto's Rotman School of Management]