How do you feel when you consciously identify with a particular group or category?

It’s something I haven’t really thought about. I’m not even sure how to answer.

Sometimes I feel I’m just another person with nothing special about me, and other times, usually during some sort of conflict with a person outside of a group, I am reminded that I am part of a group.

For example when you’re debating with someone, you realize you think much differently than a whole demographic of people. Then my confidence rises because I know I’m more than just a dumb animal compared to certain individual, haha.

Just kidding about that last part.

I don’t think I “feel” anything when identifying with a group, or when categorizing myself with others who have like qualities. For the sake of your question, I guess I’m more likely to feel something when agreeing with something that someone in that group has said (perhaps affirmation, or a sense of belonging), or when disagreeing with something that someone in that group has said (maybe a very mild form of embarrassment).

But on the whole, I don’t expect everyone in a group I identify with to agree with me all the time, so these are not strong reactions at all.

Interesting. I don’t feel much when identified as a human. I just am. If however I identify as a member of a group, I feel a sense of pride in it. A computer technician, college grad, conservative, etc. I am proud to be in those groups.

Something that a lot of people do that I think we need to be careful of is to adopt a wide range of ideas based on whatever label they identify with.

E.g. someone decides they’re a Republican because they identify with Republican fiscal policy, but then sees that many other Republicans oppose gay marriage, and then they think they have to do this too in order to be a real Republican even though they didn’t originally have a strong view on the matter.

It’s dangerous. You don’t have to be all one thing or another. You can choose the policies from each camp that you agree with and fall somewhere in the middle.

The human brain is just bad at dealing with nuance, it’s so much easier to assign a label to oneself and have your expected ideology spelled out for you than it is to personally analyze each issue on your own. Categorization is a classic way to simplify tasks but our brains are wired to overdo it a bit in my opinion.

I’m not saying I don’t do it myself. I am susceptible to it too. I’ll sometimes find a group online whose opinions on certain aspects of feminism really appeal to me so I’ll start to get into a groove of “everything these people say is right.” Then I see them doing some man-hating or something and I have to consciously take a moment and mentally separate myself from that. I have to remind myself that people can have good opinions on some things and bad opinions on others and I don’t have to 100% agree or disagree with anybody or any group on how I see the world.

@Jaxk: “Interesting. I don’t feel much when identified as a human. I just am. If however I identify as a member of a group, I feel a sense of pride in it.”

Great answer. This mirrors my experience in a way. The larger the scope of the group that I am currently considering myself to be in, the less “self” there really is. The smaller the group, the greater the sense of self. I think. The feeling of belonging – and the strengthening of “self” – that happens when I identify with a smaller group feels pleasant in many ways. But I notice that there is a distinct shift in how I think of those who are outside the group. When I am consciously aware of being human or conscious, there is little to no “other”, and there are different – but also pleasant feelings. There also seems be a minor shift in ethical and empathetic considerations.

In a way, the shift I feel, if I’m paying attention, is similar to moving from conceptualizing different nations and/or ideologies to considering the fact that Earth is a tiny speck in an unfathomably-large universe.

@hominid Too bad you hate vocal fry too much to listen to Invisibilia – they had a very interesting program on categories recently.

^ :) I’ll look for a transcript. Thanks!

Edit: There appears to be no transcript :(