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Salience of Category

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Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science

Synonyms

Category salience; Salience of social categorizations

Definition

A person’s social category is salient when he or she is perceived, or perceives himself or herself, as a group member rather than as a unique individual. Category salience implies that the impression of and the behavior towards the person shift from the interpersonal level to the intergroup level.

Introduction

Psychological theory and research has extensively focused on the process of social categorization, its antecedents, and consequences. A person’s social category is salient when he or she is perceived, or perceives himself or herself, as a group member (e.g., a “woman” or a “manager”) rather than as a unique individual. Category salience implies that the impression of and the behavior towards the person shift from the interpersonal level to the intergroup level. Without category salience, intergroup behavior is not possible – behavior between groups can only be shown if people categorize each other into...

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Dublin City University, Dublin, Ireland

    Janine Bosak

  2. Chemnitz University of Technology, Chemnitz, Germany

    Frank Asbrock & Bertolt Meyer

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  1. Janine Bosak
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  2. Frank Asbrock
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  3. Bertolt Meyer
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Correspondence to Janine Bosak .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychology, Oakland University, Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Todd K. Shackelford

  2. Rochester, Michigan, USA

    Viviana A. Weekes-Shackelford

Section Editor information

  1. University of South Carolina – Beaufort, Bluffton, SC, USA

    Carey Fitzgerald

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Bosak, J., Asbrock, F., Meyer, B. (2018). Salience of Category. In: Shackelford, T., Weekes-Shackelford, V. (eds) Encyclopedia of Evolutionary Psychological Science. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-16999-6_2425-1

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