What Is Social Identity Theory?
Social identity theory is a theory which is designed to explain how it is that people develop a sense of membership and belonging in particular groups, and how the mechanics of intergroup discrimination work. This theory in psychology plays an important role in the study of social psychology. Everyone from sports fans to students of elite colleges is influenced to some degree by social identity theory, and this theory explains how intergroup competition and discrimination can get so vicious that people will be driven to acts as extreme as murder or the promotion of legislation which is designed to marginalize members of other groups, such as Jim Crow laws in the American South.
