Question

What is the nature of the relationship between words and language and social and cognitive boundaries and distinctions?

Answer 1

Over the last twenty years, British and American social psychologists working on group categorization and identification have been studying the segmentation between “us” and “them.” In particular, focusing implicitly on symbolic boundaries, social identity theory suggests that “Pressures to evaluate ones’ own group positively through in-group/out-group comparison lead social groups to attempt to differentiate themselves from each other” This process of differentiation aims to maintain and achieve superiority over an out-group on some dimension. Hence, in-group favoritism is common, especially among high status groups. Social identity theory has been particularly concerned with the permeability of what we call symbolic and social boundaries and its effect on individual and collective mobility strategy. It has been argued that perceiving group boundaries as impermeable makes social change more likely for low-status groups: They then engage in social competition as opposed to individual mobility. Moreover, social psychologists show that people adapt to their environment through cognitive categorization and stereotyping