Optimal Distinctiveness Theory

“Everyone needs to belong.” “Everyone needs to be unique.” That both of these statements are true is the basis for the theory of optimal distinctiveness, which helps explain why we join social groups and become so attached to the social categories we are part of. Optimal distinctiveness theory is about social identity—how we come to define ourselves in terms of our social group memberships.

According to the optimal distinctiveness model, social identities derive from a fundamental tension between two competing social needs—the need for inclusion and belonging on the one hand, and a countervailing need for uniqueness and differentiation, on the other hand. People seek social inclusion to alleviate or avoid the isolation, vulnerability, or stigmatization that may arise from being highly individuated. Researchers studying the effects of tokenism and solo status have generally found that individuals are both uncomfortable and cognitively disadvantaged in situations in which they feel too dissimilar from others, or too much like outsiders. Conversely, too much similarity or excessive deindividuation provides no basis for self-definition, and hence, individuals are uncomfortable in situations in which they lack distinctiveness. Being “just a number” in a large, undifferentiated mass of people is just as unpleasant as being too alone.

Because of these opposing social needs, social identities are selected to achieve a balance between needs for inclusion and for differentiation in a given social context. Optimal identities are those that satisfy the need for inclusion within one's own group and simultaneously serve the need for differentiation through distinctions between one's own group and other groups. In effect, optimal [Page 513]social identities involve shared distinctiveness. (Think of adolescents’ trends in clothes and hairstyles; teenagers are anxious to be as much like others of their age group as possible, while differentiating themselves from the older generation.) To satisfy both needs, individuals will select group identities that are inclusive enough that they have a sense of being part of a larger collective but exclusive enough that they provide some basis for distinctiveness from others.

Although a theory of group identification, optimal distinctiveness theory has direct implications for self-concept well-being at the individual level. If individuals are motivated to sustain identification with optimally distinct social groups, then the self-concept should be adapted to fit the norms and expectations of such group memberships. Achieving optimal social identities should be associated with a secure and stable self-concept in which one's own characteristics are congruent with being a good and typical group member. Conversely, if optimal identity is challenged or threatened, the individual should react to restore congruence between the self-concept and the group representation. Optimal identity can be restored either by adjusting individual self-concept to be more consistent with the group norms, or by shifting social identification to a group that is more congruent with the self.

Self-stereotyping is one mechanism for matching the self-concept to characteristics that are distinctively representative of particular group memberships. People stereotype themselves and others in terms of salient social categorizations, and this stereotyping leads to an enhanced perceptual similarity between self and one's own group members and an enhanced contrast between one's own group and other groups. Consistent with the assumptions of optimal distinctiveness theory, research has found that members of distinctive minority groups exhibit more self-stereotyping than do members of large majority groups. In addition, people tend to self-stereotype more when the distinctiveness of their group has been challenged.

...