Religious Group Identifications: Toward a Cognitive Theory of Religious Mobilization

During the 1980s, political scientists rediscovered the importance of group identities. After nearly two decades of concentration on party identification, scholars in the 1980s began to focus on identification with other social groups. The concept of group identification was posited to include two components: an awareness of membership in a group, and a psychological attachment to the group (Tajfel 1981). Those who felt a psychological attachment to a group but were not objectively members of the group were defined as exhibiting group sympathy (Conover 1986). ¹ Conover (1984) reported that group identifications were significant predictors of political attitudes. She argued that politically significant group identifications usually emerged slowly through normal socialization processes, but that dramatic political events might lead to more rapid change.