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Unlock This CourseSocial Identity Theory, developed by Henri Tajfel and John Turner in the 1970s, explains how our sense of who we are is shaped by the groups we belong to. This theory is crucial for understanding prosocial behaviour because it shows us why people are more likely to help members of their own group than outsiders.
Think about it - you're probably more willing to help a friend from your school than a complete stranger from another town. This isn't necessarily because you're mean, but because your brain naturally categorises people into "us" and "them" groups.
Key Definitions:
According to Tajfel and Turner, we don't just randomly help people. Our willingness to engage in prosocial behaviour is heavily influenced by whether we see someone as part of our group or not. This process happens automatically and affects everything from who we smile at to who we're willing to donate money to help.
Tajfel and Turner identified three key stages that explain how we develop our social identities and how this affects our behaviour towards others.
This is where we sort people (including ourselves) into different groups based on characteristics like nationality, religion, school, football team, or even something as simple as eye colour. We do this to make sense of the social world around us.
Students naturally form groups based on year groups, subjects studied, or extracurricular activities. A Year 11 student might see themselves as different from Year 7s.
Football fans categorise themselves and others based on which team they support. Manchester United fans see themselves as distinct from Liverpool fans.
People identify with their country and see themselves as different from people from other nations, even if they've never met them.
Once we've categorised ourselves into a group, we start to identify with it. We adopt the group's values, attitudes and behaviours. We begin to see the group's successes as our successes and their failures as our failures.
Many schools use house systems where students are randomly assigned to different houses (like Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, etc.). Even though assignment is random, students quickly develop loyalty to their house, cheer for their house in competitions and feel proud when their house wins points. This shows how quickly social identification can occur.
In this final stage, we compare our group to other groups. We want our group to be seen positively, so we tend to view our in-group more favourably than out-groups. This is where prosocial behaviour becomes selective - we're more likely to help our in-group members.
We tend to see our group members as more trustworthy, intelligent and deserving of help. This leads to increased prosocial behaviour towards people we identify with.
Social Identity Theory explains several important patterns in helping behaviour that we see in everyday life and research studies.
Research consistently shows that people are more likely to help members of their own group than outsiders. This happens even when group membership is based on trivial characteristics.
People donate more money to charities that help their own ethnic or religious groups compared to those helping other groups.
In emergencies, people are more likely to help someone wearing similar clothing or who appears to be from their social class.
Students are more willing to share notes and help classmates from their own course than students from different subjects.
Tajfel conducted famous experiments where he randomly assigned people to groups based on their preference for paintings by Klee or Kandinsky (artists they'd never heard of). Even with these meaningless groups, participants consistently favoured their own group members when distributing rewards. They would rather give their group less money overall if it meant their group got more than the other group. This shows how easily in-group favouritism develops and affects prosocial behaviour.
Understanding Social Identity Theory helps explain many examples of prosocial behaviour we see in society.
When natural disasters strike, we often see incredible examples of people helping their communities. Social Identity Theory explains why local residents are often the first to help - they share a common identity as members of the same community.
During the 2015 floods in Yorkshire, residents worked together to fill sandbags and help their neighbours. People identified strongly with their local community and were motivated to help fellow residents, even strangers, because they shared the same local identity.
Social Identity Theory also applies to online groups. People are more likely to help members of online communities they belong to, whether it's a gaming forum, social media group, or study platform.
Like all psychological theories, Social Identity Theory has both strengths and limitations when explaining prosocial behaviour.
Understanding Social Identity Theory can help us promote more inclusive helping behaviour and reduce discrimination.
One way to encourage prosocial behaviour across group boundaries is to create shared goals that require cooperation between different groups. When groups work together towards a common objective, they begin to see each other as part of a larger in-group.
Muzafer Sherif's famous study showed how competition between groups of boys at a summer camp led to hostility, but when the groups had to work together to solve shared problems (like fixing the camp's water supply), cooperation and friendship developed across group lines. This demonstrates how superordinate goals can promote prosocial behaviour between different groups.
Social Identity Theory provides a powerful explanation for why prosocial behaviour often follows group lines. By understanding how we categorise ourselves and others into groups, identify with our in-groups and compare our groups to others, we can better understand patterns of helping behaviour in society.
This theory reminds us that while group membership can promote strong prosocial behaviour within groups, it can also limit our willingness to help outsiders. Recognising this tendency is the first step towards developing more inclusive and universal prosocial behaviour.