George Orwell's Social Identity Theory

Social identity began with existence of human beings as various studies have shown. According to George Orwell (1945), “all animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” clearly shows that even then, some animals behaved in a different way since they belonged to a different group (ingroup) and this affected their relationship with other groups (outgroup). Orwell in his book explained the different classes and groups that existed and how these affected the intergroup behavior. Tajfel and Turner’s (1986) social identity theory asserts that a section of an individuals’ behavior arises from the groups to which that individual is associated with. The interpersonal behavior is always influenced by the intergroup behavior. This theory

In order to raise our self-esteem, the group members will tend to favor their group against other groups. Many things do occur during this process of comparison between an in-group and an out-group; the group members do tend to maximize the differences between their group and other groups. At the same time, they will minimize the differences that might exist between the group members in order to build a bond between them. While doing all these, the group’s members will be more aligned to positive things in the in-group and tend to remember more negative information on the out group (Tajfel & Turner, 1979).
Various aspects of Social Identity Theory do exist; the interpersonal-intergroup scope. Social identity theory posits that an individuals’ social behavior is derived from both interpersonal and intergroup behavior. A distinct interpersonal behavior is reflected by a person’s characteristics and the relationships that exist between him and another person. The same applies to a distinct intergroup behavior which is the behavior exhibited by a given social group. Chances are that these distinct behaviors don’t exist. According to Tajfel & Turner (1986), behaviors are therefore a balance between