I’m here because I’m just as good as you: Ethnic minority CEOs, social categorisation processes and firm risk

Geopolitics are back as a subject of inquiry in international business and have increased the threat of political risk for MNEs and domestic firms globally. However, firms may struggle to assess political risk accurately due to the social identity processes within top management teams that influence information seeking and processing. This article offers a brief introduction to an intergroup bias which can harm political risk assessments, namely managers filtering risk through a national identity lens. Focusing on the consequences of identity bias, we suggest ways in which political risk assessment may be made more effective for managers – and accurate.

Although studies have focused on intergroup biases (e.g., discrimination) during the COVID-19 pandemic, little is known about the underlying mechanisms driving intergroup bias, specifically social categorization. In-depth interviews were conducted among 32 residents of Wuhan, P.R. China, during and after the initial COVID-19 lockdown (Jan-July, 2020). Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) was applied to describe perceived prejudice and discrimination and the intergroup interaction processes. Results indicated that: (1) Wuhan residents’ interpretations of perceived prejudice and discrimination evolved over time, especially regarding views of the pandemic prevention measures; (2) intergroup contact, emotional factors and cognitive factors influenced individuals’ perceptions of prejudice and discrimination; (3) social categorization and integration processes underwent changes across different stages of the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan, encompassing the lockdown and reopening; (4) the group identity of recovered COVID-19 patients was easily solidified; (5) in the group integration process, emphasizing common attributes between groups, individualized media coverage and positive aspects of intergroup interactions weakened intergroup boundaries and promoted group integration. These results enrich existing knowledge about perceived discrimination and social categorization processes of a suddenly marginalized group through qualitative research methods.

“Person perception” is an element of social psychology concerning how we process information about people. The term is somewhat misleading because person perception does not deal with perception per se. Rather, it concerns social processing issues like what information we extract when we see other people, how we interpret what we see, and how this interpretation influences our subsequent behavior. Research in person perception has focused on the social and cognitive biases that influence our interpretation of others, particularly of people we do not know (rather than intimate others). For example, models of person perception can offer accounts of what we remember about the person who serves us coffee, our impression of the couple sitting behind us on the bus, and how we feel when someone in our social group performs poorly on a task. Research has highlighted the non-veridical nature of person perception, revealing a number of biases that are relied upon in order to cope with the enormous complexity of social information processing. These biases include Attribution Errors, Context Effects, and the most widely studied element of person perception: social categorization. Social categories, or stereotypes, can have a significant influence on person perception, providing a framework through which the processing of stereotype-consistent information is facilitated. Dual-process models predict the situations in which social cognition is dominated by categorization, rather than individuation. Social categories also influence our sense of identity. The tendency to identify with particular “in-groups” and denigrate “out-group” members is modeled in Social Identity Theory (see Social Identity: Us and Them) and the related Self-Categorization Theory. More recent work has focused on identifying the neural correlates of social processing, highlighting roles for prefrontal and limbic areas in the brain. These wide-ranging aspects of person perception are addressed in this article.

Cooperation and intra-organisational knowledge sharing are vital for effective organisational functioning. However, inter-work unit competition, work unit subcultures and boundaries frequently inhibit knowledge exchange. There is a need for a greater understanding of the socio-psychological determinants of knowledge sharing. To this end, this thesis examined inter-group and inter-personal determinants of knowledge sharing, and investigated whether social identity-based categorisation strategies could be applied to promote inter-work unit knowledge sharing. A combination of research methodologies were utilised across the four studies in this thesis. Study 1 utilised in-depth interviews with 17 public sector employees to identify socio-psychological determinants of knowledge sharing. While several issues were identified, the two most prevalent themes were interpersonal and intergroup factors, highlighting the central role social exchange and social identity processes play in intra-organisational knowledge sharing. Studies 2 and 3 employed a combination of vignettes and a categorisation manipulation to investigate the effects of social exchange processes (i.e., reciprocity) and identity salience on interpersonal knowledge sharing within and between work units. Study 2 examined the effects of exchange history and group membership (in-out group) on knowledge sharing intentions with a sample of 90 public sector employees. Results showed that employees were more likely to share with co-workers with whom they had a positive exchange history and they were more likely to share with members from their own work unit than with members from other work units. Additionally, on the basis of the common ingroup identity model. Study 2 examined whether invoking a superordinate organisational identity would increase knowledge sharing across work units by overcoming the negative effect of in-group bias (i.e., silo behaviour). Participants resisted attempts to create a superordinate organisational identity at the expense of a subordinate work unit identity. Indeed, a rebound effect was observed, with employees in the superordinate organisational identity condition identifying more strongly with their work unit identities for distinctiveness. Study 3, on the basis of the dual identity model, examined whether a categorisation intervention, that simultaneously recognised both employees' work unit and organisational identities could overcome the rebound effect observed in Study 2. Ninety public sector employees were randomly allocated to one of three categorisation conditions (subordinate work unit identity, superordinate organisational identity and dual work unit and organisational identity). In accordance with the dual identity model, I found that redefinition of group membership (i.e., recategorisation) by acknowledging subordinate work unit identities within a superordinate organisational identity was more effective in facilitating inter-work unit knowledge sharing. Study 4 replicated and extended the findings of Studies 1, 2, and 3 by using a survey methodology (N=271) to examine the effect of social exchange processes, social identity processes and their interaction on intra-work unit and inter-work unit knowledge sharing. Levels of trust, exchange history and knowledge sharing were all higher within work units than across work units. Support for the role of social exchange processes was provided by the finding that trust mediated the association between exchange history and knowledge sharing. Additionally, support for the interrelationship between social exchange and social identity processes was provided by the presence of several mediation and moderation effects.This thesis makes several contributions to our understanding of knowledge sharing in organisations. First, it integrates research from the knowledge management. social exchange and social identity literatures to shed light on the process of knowledge sharing. Second, it demonstrates the importance of considering the intergroup context of knowledge sharing by reconceptualizing silo-behaviour as an intergroup problem. Third, it extends research on knowledge sharing as a social exchange by demonstrating the effects exchange history and trust have on knowledge sharing using different methodologies. Fourth, this thesis extended social categorisation research by testing categorisation strategies with two organisational samples. In doing so, to the best of my knowledge. Studies 2 and 3 are the first to directly manipulate employees' work unit and organisational identity salience. Previous research on recategorisation, while generalized to intergroup relations within organisations, has relied on ad hoc or minimal groups, with research on naturalistic groups limited to student samples. Fifth, this thesis showed that work unit and organisational identification affect employees' perceptions of social exchanges. Overall, the four studies provide cumulative evidence that social exchange processes, social identity processes and their interaction play an important role in intra-organisational knowledge sharing. Theoretical implications in reference to social identity research in organisations and practical implications for facilitating intra-organisational knowledge sharing are discussed.

This thesis argues that Farmer Field Schools in Nepal contributed to agriculture and rural development and to gendered empowerment. The Nepalese government, but also NGOs involved in FFS applied a rather technocratic approach towards development (Li, 1999) and assumed that will well-defined plans, agricultural development and other objectives are products that can be rationally transmitted to farmers to produce desired outcomes. They considered development as a product that could be delivered to the farmers. This technocratic approach did not address political (Ferguson, 1998) and economic inequities or gender differences of farmers. Neither did it incorporate the multi-rationality of actors involved in the intervention (Grillo and Stirrat, 1997; Büscher, 2010). Drawing on the experience of active involvement in FFS at the start of the project in 1997, and consequently by collecting data during a mid-term project evaluation in 2002 and as a part of a PhD research project in 2009 this has become a longitudinal study of the institutional, social-cultural and political changes that have taken place during more than a decade. I have collected measurable data such as yield increase and I used survey data from 2002 and 2009. I have also collected qualitative information through Focus Group Discussions and in-depth individual semi-structured interviews with male and female farmers, project staff and government officials and NGO staff. Additionally I have gathered information from relevant project documentation and participatory observation among a wide range of actors in and around FFS. By looking at the different stages of FFS in Nepal, I reflect on its contribution to rural transformation and gendered empowerment. The Farmer Field School was first developed in 1989 Indonesia as a response to problems associated with the failure of the Green Revolution and particularly with the misuse of pesticides. FFS follows a participatory approach to agricultural extension and research, and aims to bring about change in rural areas. FFS has been implemented all over the world by various organisations. FFS was introduced in Nepal as an integrated pest management project in 1997 with concrete output oriented goals: the increase of agricultural production and the reduction of pesticide use. Despite the on-going debate on the impact of FFS, this thesis shows a rather consistently positive picture of short- and medium–term impact, with farmers able to improve their yield, reduced pesticide use and a better balanced fertilizer application system. Changing donor paradigms as well as a growing insight that farmers' realities and needs were different and more complex than initially assumed during the planning of the project, made FFS more outcome and process oriented, focusing on empowerment and capacity-building of farmers. After more than a decade FFS indeed did contribute to rural development in Nepal not so much because of careful project planning, but rather in a complex way with largely unintended consequences, embedded in a socio-cultural context. When FFS started it was designed as a project, with a clear start, written documents in which the project duration was indicated, starting in 1997 and ending in 2002. I found that ten years after FFS was conducted, farmers still continued with some of the practices they learned in their FFS training. FFS has developed from a project into a continuous process of change. Although it might not be exactly the way project planners had envisaged in their documents, a fact is that farmers still apply agronomic practices as introduced in FFS. Farming practices have changed, yields increased. Fewer pesticides are used, less rice seedlings are planted per hill, and so on. Also more farmers started with vegetable production. For many women FFS was the first training in agriculture they received. It contributed to an increase in their knowledge and skills, boosted their confidence in participation in community events and speaking in public. Women appeared to be interested to participate in FFS to learn about farming and to contribute to the food security of their family. Men, on the other hand, were interested to use FFS to increase their livelihood options, to widen job opportunities or to earn a better income. At the turn of the century one of the objectives of FFS shifted from integrated pest management and agricultural production to farmer's empowerment. Farmer field schools are vehicles for empowerment of farmers (Ooi, 1998; Pontius et al, 2002). Empowerment is an often debated concept in the academic world but in development practice it seems to be used without much debate, assuming that it is always a 'good' thing having a positive impact on farmers. In the FFS programme it was assumed that everybody had the same understanding of the concept of empowerment. My data showed that male and female farmers differ in their view on empowerment and that there is a big gap between policy makers, FFS facilitators and female and male farmers regarding the perception of empowerment. This research showed that empowerment is a social process that challenges our assumptions about empowerment as a deliverable, a product. Men and women FFS participants said that they experienced empowerment, but not in the way FFS technicians and policymakers had planned it, going through a rationally designed set of steps: identifying a problem in the field, experimenting with a solution and drawing conclusions. Our survey showed that women without FFS experience saw empowerment as increased individual strength, personal growth, stretching their comfort zone. Women who took part in FFS mainly considered empowerment as self-confidence and involvement in work and group activities. Men's idea of empowerment was much more focused on their capacity to contribute to the improvement of society, on action outside the household, which would contribute to their prestige. FFS trainers spoke about empowerment in terms of a result of technology transfer or a change in behaviour that they had facilitated among farmers. Apparently, FFS staff had a very technical and non-political approach towards empowerment, not based on male and female farmers' realities in rural Nepal. Most FFS facilitators claimed that they could empower farmers and they did not consider farmers' interest and agency. FFS facilitators did not see empowerment as a process that farmers themselves are actively part of. Interviews confirmed that empowerment is a complex, multi-faceted process, which is not easily quantified or measured, let alone regulated in a technical way. Through participation in FFS men and particularly women expanded their framework of information, knowledge and analysis. It enlarged their room for manoeuvre, their negotiation space. They got involved in a process that enabled them to discover new options, new possibilities and eventually make better informed decisions in farming. Several female farmers replied that they could now make choices which were previously denied to them for historical and cultural reasons. They said that this was not the result of the discovery learning in FFS like it was assumed by policy makers, but of the group participation, singing and presenting, their learning to speak in a group. Women gained confidence, gained a voice in the weekly group sessions, as a result of the social space, the FFS team spirit and solidarity that was provided in the meetings. This 'social capital route' of empowerment (Bartlett, 2005), is rather different from the 'human capital' route that men follow in empowerment in Nepal. In this thesis I contend that FFS is 'rendering technical' (Li, 2007) a complex social, cultural, economic and political process of rural development by defining empowerment as a non-political tool, an asset that FFS participants can be taught, that they can learn to 'own'. Consequently, gender differentiation, experiences of women being different from men and institutional structures that surround the poor and disempowered Dalit farmers, keeping them in poverty and powerless, were not addressed. I consider empowerment as a process in which people strengthen their own power and capacities, and improve their position in society. Empowerment is a process in which several factors but also actors play a role. The actors within the FFS project but also external actors like the state, the Maoist movement, NGOs, and individual forces are involved. They all work together in changing constellations, in time and place. An actor-oriented and contextual analysis of FFS, of how the actors implement FFS in the cultural, historical and political environment of Nepal at the turn of the century creates an understanding of state-society relations and governance issues. It provides an insight in decision-making processes and the power dynamics influenced by socio-cultural factors. A closer look at FFS reveals how the state seeks to govern the farmers, and the extent to which government agencies offer the means of empowerment to farmers. It also reveals how certain social categories in society remained excluded from participation until recently, especially women and Dalit. In project documents and interviews farmers are usually depicted as passive citizens, who are poor and in need of knowledge and new technologies. Farmers, on the other hand, consider the state as responsible to look after their well-being to a large extent, as care takers. But it is a rather simplified view to consider the government or NGOs as the actors or care-takers who can decide on behalf of farmers as passive beneficiaries or oppressed citizens. In this thesis I have described how relations between state and civil actors are subject to complex power dynamics. Power is woven into social relations at different levels (Wolf, 1999) starting from individual potency, to group interaction and structural or institutional levels. The implementation of FFS took place in the context of a dynamic environment where major political and socio-economic changes took place. The contribution of FFS to the development of Nepal cannot be studied without reference to history and the wider social, political-economic conditions during the last decade. The year 1997 when the Farmer Field Schools were introduced in Nepal was also the time that the Maoists officially declared their revolution. When data were collected in 2002 as part of a mid-term evaluation for FAO and the donor AUSAID there was a revolution going on and there were heavy fights between Maoists, the army and civilians. Many men had fled their homes to escape the violence and to resist being taken by either the government or the Maoists army. In 2001 King Birendra and a large part of his Royal family were murdered and the political scene was in turmoil. Migration for jobs abroad was at a rise and female-headed households in rural villages had increased (Gartaula, 2011). In 2009 during the last series of interviews, Nepal was in a flux again; a federal government had been elected, the Maoists had become part of the government, but disputes remained. The interim constitution was developed with much attention on social exclusion of marginalized groups. These changing political-economic conditions of rural transformation have resulted in an increased awareness of ethnic diversity, rights claims by historically marginalised groups, and interventions to divert caste discrimination in the rural areas where FFS has been conducted. Despite these changes FFS project staff keep focused on a technical, non-political approach and continue to speak about yield increase, opening market linkages, cash crop opportunities, as if these local dynamics do not matter.

Regional studies has reemerged in recent decades as an important area of geographic analysis. In contrast to the traditional regional school which offers static descriptions of particular places and people, reconstructed regional geography approaches the region as a dynamic process where social relations are linked to spatial structures. Reconstructed regional geography, however, has largely neglected gender as a social category and focuses on class as the fundamental social relation under capitalism. This paper demonstrates how regions are constructed through social processes which include gender as well as class. Historical and contemporary analyses of women and household economic strategies in rural Appalachia illustrate the intersection of gender, place, and scale. Specifically, employment and poverty conditions are examined using county‐level data and household strategies are analyzed through intensive interviews with West Virginia women. This paper concludes that gender relations at the household, subregional, and regional scales are critical to the analysis of social and spatial processes in regional geography.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to form propositions about the relationship between top management team (TMT) heterogeneity and peer effects in investment decision-making and explore the mediating role of social learning processes. Design/methodology/approach To investigate the correlations between TMT heterogeneity and investment peer effects, we considered the TMT heterogeneity category, team process and contextual factors. With a sample of 8,467 firm-year observations from Chinese listed companies, we used the mean linear model and instrumental variable method to empirically examine their relationships. To identify the mediating role of social learning processes, we introduced a social learning model to find out the contextual factors influencing corporate social learning demands from three aspects and subsequently used comparative statics analysis to explore the variations in the main effect under these contextual factors. Findings For task-oriented heterogeneity (e.g. functional background, education and tenure heterogeneity), the opposite effects of information elaboration and social categorization processes make it a nonlinear multiplex correlation with investment peer effects. For relation-oriented heterogeneity (e.g. age and gender heterogeneity), the sole effect of social categorization processes leads to a negative linear correlation. Further, we identify the mediating role of social learning processes. In summary, we established a connection from the TMT heterogeneity, to information elaboration theory or social categorization theory, to social learning processes and ultimately to investment peer effects. Originality/value The results of this study provide a comprehensive perspective to predict the decision-making outcomes of team heterogeneity and contribute to heterogeneity research and practice.

Although extant research on expatriate management has explored the drivers of host country nationals’ (HCNs’) support for expatriates in traditional physical work environments, there is limited understanding in the context of virtual expatriate assignments. This necessitates further theorizing that departs from the presupposition that HCNs and expatriates interact physically. It integrates the particularities of working virtually to understand if and how the virtual context affects the provision of HCN support for expatriates, and whether related social categorization and identification processes work differently as part of virtual assignments. We draw on social identity and construal level theory and develop a conceptual model explaining the emergence of three types of HCN support that virtual assignees can receive, i.e., emotional support, appraisal support, and informational job support. We focus on the interplay between social categorization mechanisms and higher-level construals and, thus, more interpersonal neutrality and social disengagement originating from the virtual work context. We contribute by deriving a set of propositions that outlines the varied consequences of performing the expatriate job role virtually, with a particular focus on the provision of different types of support for expatriates by HCN co-workers.

For years the social categorization and the information/decision- making perspective have guided research to the relationship between work group diversity and performance. Recently, however, it has been noticed that status-related processes too may account for the diversity-performance relationship. In this conceptual paper, we advance a process model of the diversity- performance relationship that depicts how status-related processes relate to and interact with social categorization and information elaboration processes. Among others, we propose that work group diversity through social categorization processes more or less automatically yields within-group status differences, and that these status differences impact group behavior (of which information elaboration is just one aspect) and group performance. We advance a research agenda and discuss the implications of our model for managing diverse work groups.

Despite a well-documented gender pattern in adolescent mental health, research investigating possible explanatory factors from a gender-theoretical approach is scarce. This paper reports a grounded theory study based on 29 focus groups. The aim was to explore 16- to 19-year-old students' perceptions of what is significant for mental health, and to apply a gender analysis to the findings in order to advance understanding of the gender pattern in adolescent mental health. Significant factors were identified in three social processes categories, including both positive and negative aspects: (1) social interactions, (2) performance and (3) responsibility. Girls more often experienced negative aspects of these processes, placing them at greater risk for mental health problems. Boys' more positive mental health appeared to be associated with their low degree of responsibility-taking and beneficial positions relative to girls. Negotiating cultural norms of femininity and masculinity seemed to be more strenuous for girls, which could place them at a disadvantage with regard to mental health. Social factors and processes (particularly responsibility), gendered power relations and constructions of masculinities and femininities should be acknowledged as important for adolescent mental health.

(ProQuest: ... denotes formulae omitted.)IntroductionEach and every business evolves based on community's orientations, similar to the government being a social contract as an implicit suite of rights and obligations. However, the specifics of the contract could be changed according to the transformations within community, but generally, the contract remains the source of the business legitimacy (Donaldson, 1982). In fact, this social contract reveals the mean on which the business conduit is congruent with the aims of community. Likewise, according to Rawls (1971) and Ozar (1979), by considering the view of corporate social responsibility (hereafter CSR), the affairs are acting as a moral agent within community, the corporations reflecting and strengthening the values. Thus, the social contract, as well the moral agency, reproduces the fundamental prerequisites as regards the notion of CSR. In the sense of the Commission of the European Communities (COM, 2001, p. 366), 'corporate social responsibility is essentially a concept whereby companies decide voluntarily to contribute to a better society and a cleaner environment'. According to Crisostomo et al. (2011), CSR is related to an extensive spectrum of connections between company and various stakeholders, as well the environment. Additionally, social responsibility is considered an answer to social pressures, respectively a reply to the needs and expectations of stakeholders, concerns towards the environment, and social needs that characterize its dimensions. Moreover, corporate social performance of a certain company could be defined as 'a business organization's configuration of principles of social responsibility, processes of social responsiveness, and policies, programs, and observable outcomes as they relate to the firm's societal relationships' (Wood, 1991). Furthermore, according to World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED, 1987), sustainable development is viewed as 'development that meets the needs of the present, without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs'. As such, Elkington (1999) considered that sustainable development of business requests the measurement against the triple bottom line of people (society), planet (ecology), as well as profit/prosperity (economy). Consequently, Gimenez et al. (2012) noted that sustainability incorporates several responsibilities such as social, environmental, and economic. Besides, Sriram et al. (2013) noticed that 'lack of social/ecological sustainability in organizations entails the risk of modern business firms becoming the dinosaurs of tomorrow'.Our paper aims to provide empirical evidence on the link between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and firm value for a sample of listed companies on the Bucharest Stock Exchange (hereafter BSE). There was developed a global index of CSR, as well as four subindices, based on a multidimensional CSR policies questionnaire, for the following social categories: social involvement; the rights, health, safety, security, and development of the employees; ensuring the quality, safety, and effectiveness of the products and services; environmental protection. Thus, the aggregate measures of CSR will be compared depending on tier of listing. In the light of the renewed EU strategy 2011-2014 for corporate social responsibility (COM, 2011, p. 681), the importance of this research is emphasized by the aim of reinforcing a high level of consumer's trust in business, respectively a significant contribution of corporations to societal well-being.1. Corporate social responsibility as driver of firm valueSchuler & Cording (2006) emphasized several theoretical models, which suggest a direct link between corporate social performance (hereafter CSP) and corporate financial performance (hereafter CFP): good management theory, stakeholder contract costs theory, private costs theory, managerial guile theory, and affordability theory. …

Education by means of the Tibetan Classes (schools) in neidi, or China's interior regions (or the Tibet Class), was a creative measure in the history of China's ethnic minority education, and the cross-cultural growth and experiences of the Tibetan students as they went to school in China's interior regions was of special significance for the modernization of Tibetans. This paper analyzes the process of anticipatory socialization (yuqi shehui hua) of the students of the Tibet Class in terms of the special nature of the three most important entities of socialization—the family, the peer group, and the school—as they complete their process of socialization in the cross-cultural environment of China's interior regions; the article defines the results of their cross-cultural socialization using the Tibetan students' self-awareness as the main index of evaluation.

Relative risk for the brain disorder schizophrenia is more than doubled in ethnic minorities, an effect that is evident across countries and linked to socially relevant cues such as skin color, making ethnic minority status a well-established social environmental risk factor. Pathoepidemiological models propose a role for chronic social stress and perceived discrimination for mental health risk in ethnic minorities, but the neurobiology is unexplored. To study neural social stress processing, using functional magnetic resonance imaging, and associations with perceived discrimination in ethnic minority individuals. Cross-sectional design in a university setting using 3 validated paradigms to challenge neural social stress processing and, to probe for specificity, emotional and cognitive brain functions. Healthy participants included those with German lineage (n = 40) and those of ethnic minority (n = 40) from different ethnic backgrounds matched for sociodemographic, psychological, and task performance characteristics. Control comparisons examined stress processing with matched ethnic background of investigators (23 Turkish vs 23 German participants) and basic emotional and cognitive tasks (24 Turkish vs 24 German participants). Blood oxygenation level-dependent response, functional connectivity, and psychological and physiological measures. There were significant increases in heart rate (P < .001), subjective emotional response (self-related emotions, P < .001; subjective anxiety, P = .006), and salivary cortisol level (P = .004) during functional magnetic resonance imaging stress induction. Ethnic minority individuals had significantly higher perceived chronic stress levels (P = .02) as well as increased activation (family-wise error-corrected [FWE] P = .005, region of interest corrected) and increased functional connectivity (PFWE = .01, region of interest corrected) of perigenual anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). The effects were specific to stress and not explained by a social distance effect. Ethnic minority individuals had significant correlations between perceived group discrimination and activation in perigenual ACC (PFWE = .001, region of interest corrected) and ventral striatum (PFWE = .02, whole brain corrected) and mediation of the relationship between perceived discrimination and perigenual ACC-dorsal ACC connectivity by chronic stress (P < .05). Epidemiologists proposed a causal role of social-evaluative stress, but the neural processes that could mediate this susceptibility effect were unknown. Our data demonstrate the potential of investigating associations from epidemiology with neuroimaging, suggest brain effects of social marginalization, and highlight a neural system in which environmental and genetic risk factors for mental illness may converge.

Political ideology and social categorization

The processes through which personal identities are constructed are so hidden, out-of-consciousness, that the results, as W.S. Gilbert points out, often seem simply natural. But, of course, far from being innate, or just a matter of wondrous coincidence, individuals are socialized into categories like 'Liberal' and 'Conservative', 'Man' and 'Woman', 'electrician' and 'shopkeeper', 'Geordie' and 'Cockney', and a myriad more. The processes of socialization — the 'ways we bring up children' in the widest possible sense — vary from one period, one society and one group to another, as do the social categories available (for example, 'Liberal' and 'Conservative' were available, but, say, 'ecologist' or 'Member of Gay Pride' were not to Gilbert's boys and 'gals'). The components and architecture of identity, and thus identity itself, are cultural variables.