Self-categorization theory
We shift between seeing ourselves as 'I' and as 'we.'
What it means
An extension of social identity theory that specifies how people come to define themselves at different levels of abstraction, from unique individual to group member to human being. When a social identity becomes salient, the self is depersonalized: people perceive themselves and fellow in-group members in terms of the shared group prototype rather than individual idiosyncrasy. This shift from personal to social identity underlies group phenomena such as conformity, cohesion, stereotyping, and collective behavior, which the theory recasts as the rational consequences of seeing oneself as 'we' rather than 'I.' Which identity becomes salient depends on its accessibility and its fit to the immediate social context. The theory provides the cognitive mechanism beneath social identity processes and reframes influence as a product of shared group membership.
Examples
At a rival match, fans stop acting as separate individuals and behave, think, and feel as interchangeable members of 'our side.'
In a merger, staff who thought of themselves as individual specialists start saying 'we from the old firm' the moment the new owner's policies land.
Two Britons who would argue about everything at home find themselves nodding as fellow countrymen the moment they meet abroad — the salient 'we' has simply widened.
First described in Turner, Hogg, Oakes, Reicher & Wetherell (1987).