Collaborative Research: Building the Group Identity Concept from the Ground Up

Individuals in our increasingly connected society straddle multiple social worlds. Understanding the intersecting identities that result from these connections is a pressing challenge for social science and policy. This project uses both cross-cultural empirical research and theory-driven mathematical modeling to conceptualize and measure group affiliations, developing a suite of empirical and conceptual tools for social scientists to better engage with the complexities of modern social life. The project trains a post-doctoral scholar and PhD student in scientific and mathematical methods and theory. It also creates interactive, publicly available online tools that (1) explain theories of group membership, (2) illustrate how we can empirically measure group affiliations and the relationships between groups, and (3) demonstrate how the integration of theory and measurement can create a more accurate picture of how our social worlds evolve. This work builds on theories that assert that outward expressions of identity are used instrumentally to facilitate assortment and expedite social interactions, including cooperation and aggression. While these theories are well supported, they often present a limited, unidimensional characterization of identity. In this project, investigators develop cultural evolutionary theory to understand how multifaceted group affiliations respond to individual incentives, including the costs and benefits of coordinating identities and cooperation. Specifically, it builds a new statistical approach that identifies and measures the relationships between real groups. Models are iteratively refined via tests using ethnographic data collected to capture how people understand their own and others’ identities across multiple realms of interaction. Despite being evident that individuals hold multiple group affiliations, we do not currently have analytical tools or language that adequately describes the complex nature of group affiliations. This project builds these tools to contribute to understanding how individuals position themselves across a range of social relationships. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.