Political distinctiveness: An identity optimising approach

‘Our way of life is worth defending’: testing a model of attitudes towards superordinate group membership through a study of Scots' attitudes towards Britain

“…First, our results also show that, overall, there remains a positive relation between identification and support for separatism (see also Abrams, 1994). This can be explained as resulting from the fact that no low identifiers are likely to support separatism under any circumstances, whereas some high identifiers will.…”

A functional perspective on group memberships: Differential need fulfillment in a group typology

“…Large majority groups generally fail to engage a great deal of social identiWcation. Because smaller groups provide greater satisfaction of both assimilation and diVerentiation needs, members of smaller groups are more likely to identify with their groups (Abrams, 1994;Brewer, Manzi, & Shaw, 1993). Members of majority groups, such as our participants, may be less reliant on their social category memberships for the fulWllment of identity needs.…”

Identity Needs Versus Social Opportunities: The Use of Group-Level and Individual-Level Identity Management Strategies

“…Indeed, in research with artificial (Blanz, et al 1995;Brewer and Weber 1994;Simon and Brown 1987;Simon and Hamilton 1994, exp. 1) as well as real-life groups (Abrams 1994), stronger in-group identification was consistently observed in minority groups than in majorities. Brewer (1991), in her "optimal distinctiveness" theory, argues that this may be the case because minoritygroup membership enables people to reconcile the desire to belong to a social group with their striving for personal uniqueness.…”