ABSTRACT
Large groups are known as tribes; clans; ethnic, nationalistic, racial or religious entities; or believers in and followers of a political ideology since childhood. This chapter, however, is on one of its least desirable by-products: shared prejudice against the members of another large group. It describes how an individual’s identity develops and becomes linked to his or her large-group identity, and then explores how the shared large-group identity and shared prejudice become intertwined. If the child cannot fully accomplish differentiation and integration, due to biological as well as environmental reasons, the individual’s identity, also in adulthood, remains weak, divided, even fragmented. Youngsters loosen their investments in the images of important others of their childhood, modifying, sometimes strengthening, and even disregarding their identifications with them. Chosen glories link children of a large group with each other and with their large group, and the children experience increased self-esteem by being associated with such glories.
