Identity and the developmental origins of fusion: an exploratory approach / La identidad y los orígenes de la fusión en el desarrollo: un enfoque exploratorio

Abstract

Identity fusion involves a visceral feeling of oneness with a group, despite personal and social selves remaining differentiated. Previous research on identity fusion has focused on samples of adults and adolescents. The present studies aim at exploring how and when identity fusion develops in childhood. Our first goal was to find out to what extent personal and social identities must be developed for fusion to become possible. We conducted two exploratory studies where school-age children (six to 12 years old) participated in either focus group sessions or individual interviews. Our results show that although children are able to feel strongly connected with a group and express willingness to make significant personal sacrifices for the group, they fail to show fusion as it is found in adults, since their personal identity is not fully developed yet. Instead, these findings suggest the existence of a prior feeling that we called ‘protofusion’, the core of which is the strength of the relational ties with the members of the group.

The Development of Identity Fusion

“…Verbal fusion measures, on the other hand, are probably dependent on children’s verbal abilities. Simplified versions for children of the standard verbal fusion measure for adults are not always reliable (Gaviria et al, 2015; Tasuji, 2019). One promising avenue would be to instead use the simpler three-item psychological kinship measure (e.g., “My [group] is like family to me”; Buhrmester et al 2015), which in adults is strongly correlated with verbal fusion ( r = .77; Newson et al, 2018).…”

“…Verbal fusion measures, on the other hand, are likely dependent on children's verbal abilities. Simplified versions for children of the standard verbal fusion measure for adults are not always reliable (Gaviria et al, 2015;Tasuji, 2019). One promising avenue would be to Buhrmester et al (2015), which in adults is strongly correlated with verbal fusion (r = .77; Newson et al, 2018), but is cast in much simpler language (e.g., My (group) is like family to me).However, this measure assesses only the relational ties component of fusion, so would need to be supplemented by additional, plainly worded measures of other components such as collective ties and reciprocal strength (see Gómez et al, 2019).…”

“…Despite the wealth of theory and research on identity fusion with adults in the past decade, the ontogenetic development of identity fusion along either of these two pathways has not yet been addressed in depth (but see Gaviria et al, 2015). We propose that identity fusion first develops along a shared-biology pathway in early childhood and then via a shared-experience pathway from early adolescence (see Fig.…”

The power of ‘feeling one’ with a group: identity fusion and extreme pro-group behaviours / El poder de ‘sentirse uno’ con un grupo: fusión de la identidad y conductas progrupales extremas

“…Little is known about the causes and origins of identity fusion. Future research should delve into the origin of fusion from a developmental perspective (see Gaviria et al, 2015). Also, researchers need to determine what makes individuals remained fused with a group when they already belong to that group or become fused with a group before technically being a group member.…”

Four things we need to know about extreme self-sacrifice

“…Most children wish to join groups and avoid rejection by them but would not be willing to lay down their lives to protect the group against its enemies. Efforts to uncover the developmental pathways to fusion are only preliminary (Gaviria et al 2015), but early evidence suggests that the ability to fuse with a group, in the way that adults do, actually emerges relatively late in development, during adolescence (Tasuji et al, in preparation).…”