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Social, not individual, identification is the key to understanding group phenomena

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 October 2016

Rupert Brown
Rupert Brown*
Affiliation:
School of Psychology, Sussex University, Brighton BN1 9QH, United Kingdom.r.brown@sussex.ac.ukhttp://www.sussex.ac.uk/profiles/95042
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Abstract

Baumeister and colleagues argue for the indispensability of groups in human life. Yet, in positing individual differentiation as the key to effective group functioning, they adopt a Western-centric view of the relationship of the individual to the group and overlook an alternative social identity account in which depersonalisation, not individuation, is central to understanding many group phenomena.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e143
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

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