According to Abraham Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (Maslow, 1954 and revised in 1970, cited in Burger, 2004), individuals require belongingness and love, and also esteem (Burger, 2004). In order to achieve these needs an individual would typically display socially accepted behaviour within cultural or social norms to instigate social acceptance and commence the formation of social bonds (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). In forming relationships with others, a social identity is formed and the individual is likely to ensure social values of the group membership are maintained, to avoid ostracism or rejection from the group.
Although evolutionary theory and Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs may indicate a basis for the nature of social identity and social values as a positive outcome, other research can suggest social identity and social values may be seen as a negative bi-product of a group membership. Tajfel's Social Identity Theory (Tajfel, 1981, cited in Smith & Bond, 1993), which states an individual's social identity is derived from groups they belong to (Smith & Bond, 1993), could indicate that this social identity could be based on the groups’ beliefs, attitudes and values. However, from this theory, research experiments into the minimal group paradigm found that when participants were randomly divided into groups they would indicate favouritism to their group more readily by behaving more favourable to the group they belonged to; this was seen in one experiment as an in-group bias by providing more rewards to their group over the other group (Dick, Wagner, Stellmacher, Christ, & Tissington, 2006).
In addition to this, research conducted by Muzafer Sheriff (Sheriff & Sheriff, 1954, cited in Baumeister & Bushman, 2008), identified the ease of establishing an ‘us versus them” mentality in a study conducted by dividing 22 eleven year old boys into two groups and having them complete activities within their groups and then in competition between the two groups (Baumeister & Bushman, 2008). From the findings of this study intergroup relations were apparent and negative behaviour was displayed toward out-group members. Competition and rivalry between the two groups caused prejudice and anti-social behaviour towards members of the out- group, which demonstrated the negative effects of social identity.
