Inclusion, Exclusion, and Marginalization of Group Deviants

Abstract

Basic concepts and important processes about groups’ reactions to deviance, such as group affiliation, social norms, deviance, and its consequences for groups and behavior of their members, have largely been conceptualized by social psychological and sociological theoretical frameworks: the small group framework, the social identification framework, and the collective solidarity framework. Subjective group dynamics theory articulates between these frameworks on the understanding of antecedents and consequences of group reaction to deviance. Punishment or derogation of deviant ingroup members stems from an interplay between an intergroup descriptive focus and an intragroup prescriptive focus that are adopted by group members when faced by ingroup deviance in intergroup contexts. Ingroup deviants contribute negatively to individuals’ social identity, and they are punished or derogated, which may materialize in terms of negative evaluations and/or marginalization and social exclusion. However, normative individuals’ reactions to ingroup deviants are protective of the group’s identity and its norms, not because the group is purged from its deviants but rather because in derogating and punishing them, normative members strengthen their ingroup identification, their commitment to the norms the deviants have violated, and, ultimately, reinforce group cohesiveness and the solidarity among ingroup members. Derogation and punishment of ingroup deviants would therefore function as an ultimate device to ensure normative members’ social inclusion.