Motivation and emotion/Book/2023/Identity fusion and motivation

Identity fusion and motivation:
What are the motivational implications of identity fusion?

Multimedia presentation (3 min)

Overview

Case study 1 Khalid al-Mihdhar was a 26-year-old Saudi Arabian, married, and a father of two young daughters. He was personally selected for a mission by Osama bin Laden in 1999 to live and train as a pilot in the United States. In mid-2000, against his orders and at risk of being removed from the mission, he travelled to Yemen to see his family. He returned to the United States and on 11 September 2001 he boarded American Airlines Flight 77 with the intention of never walking off it and never seeing his wife and daughters again. In the aftermath of the September 11 terrorist attacks many people have asked "what could possibly motivate an individual, especially one with a young family like al-Mihdhar, to give up their life for a group objective"? Those sorts of questions have led to the development of identity fusion theory to try and understand what motivates individuals to engage in personally costly behaviours for the good of other group members. (Varmann et al., 2023).

Figure 1: The impact point of American Airlines Flight 77 on the Pentagon. What motivates an individual to kill, and die, for a group?

Focus questions: What is identity fusion? What psychological theories underpin individual propensity to become fused? How does identity fusion affect motivation in a good way? What are the dangerous motivational ramifications for identity fusion?

Identity fusion and motivation

What is identity fusion?

Simply put, identity fusion is a ‘unique state of oneness with a group’ (Swann et al., 2009). It is used to describe a process where an individual’s self-identity fuses with a social identity or when their sense of self merges with a group they strongly feel a part of. In order to achieve such a strong bond, there are generally two types of fusion forming experiences. Biological, which is a major factor in family connections and explains why some people are prepared to take extreme action on behalf of their family. Fusion with groups outside the family, however, requires something more. Reese and Whitehouse (2021) found non-biological fusion occurs based on significant shared experiences, that forces a transformation of one’s personal identity. Shared experiences can be painful, emotionally intensive, and bonding, so that a relationship is forged. Kavanagh et al. (2020) suggest that the stronger the experience, the stronger the chance the individual is willing to take extreme action for the ingroup, whether that be prosocial or antisocial behaviour. Buhrmester et al. (2018) argued fused people are more likely to be antisocial towards an outgroup when their ingroup is threatened. Vázquez et al. (2023) show that, when there is no perceived threat by an outgroup, identify fusion can have the opposite effect on ingroup members, resulting in prosocial behaviours.

How does motivation interact with identity fusion?

Motivation is the process that drives an individual in pursuit of a goal. It is often described as an internal process, which is important in the context of identity fusion, as the drive towards group goals is the focus.

Many people have seen motivation and identity fusion, probably without realising it, in sport. People can become fused in support of a team they identify with, and players can become motivated to achieve success through their collective team identity. This can have strong positive effects as fans experience joy with others in victory and share the pain in defeat. When fans become so motivated for team success that they turn to violence, however, it can have serious ramifications (Newson, 2019). In sport, therefore, identity fusion can be good or bad depending on what behaviours the fused individual is motivated to engage in.

Even when football fans resort to hooliganism in the name of the team they support, the ramifications are not as extreme as the results of a suicide bombing. Understanding what drives hooligan behaviour can also provide insight into the motivation of extremism. When football unites people, researchers can look for ways to harness the positive motivation for better social outcomes. While still a relatively new psychological concept, there are lots of practical applications for better understanding the motivational implications of identity fusion but this chapter focuses on three:

Ingroup	Practical applications
1. Sporting teams and players	promoting unity through sporting teams and preventing hooliganism and antisocial behaviour
2. Prisoners	improve rehabilitation rates by breaking down barriers to identification with prosocial groups outside prison
3. Individuals who self-sacrifice	trying to prevent suicidal terror attacks

What psychological theories underpin identity fusion?

Social identity theory

According to social identity theory, the personal identity and the group identity are considered to be two ends of a continuum (Tajfel et al., 1979). This continuum is relevant to identity fusion studies in trying to understand how an individual is motivated to move along that continuum between personal and group. Further, the continuum helps analyse where the motivation to engage in pro group behaviour comes from – is it their personal identity or group identity?

Self-categorisation theory

In an extension of social identity theory, self-categorisation theory adds a contextual element to the social identity continuum. This theory considers how an individual fits into a group and whether they identify with the group based on similarities they feel with other group members, as compared to outgroups (Turner et al., 1994). This is relevant to identity fusion as the manner in which individuals identify with their group, through recognised similarities, can influence their motivation to take action against outgroup members. Us vs Them. Does it motivate someone to engage in adversarial behaviour against someone they determine is in the outgroup and challenges the ingroup in some way? In a sporting contest or standing up for one’s family, that is acceptable and expected to a point. If it motivates someone to sacrifice themselves for others, it can be considered the most noble of behaviours. When it evokes hostile feelings, identity fusion can be dangerous and motivate someone to violently lay down their life for a cause. Then it is one of the most frightening things to contemplate.

Identity fusion theory

Identity fusion theory considers how two versions of oneself, the personal and the social, interact in relation to a group they identify with. In their study, Swann et al. (2009) focus on the interaction between an individual’s personal and social identity and which side, if any, drives an individual to engage in extreme pro group behaviour. They proposed that the two versions of identity, personal and social, can combine with a more powerful willingness, when fused with a group, to engage in extreme pro group behaviour. Swann and Buhrmester (2015) set out four principles of identity fusion theory:

Principle:	Summary:
Agentic personal-self	the individual can turn their own self-motivation into group motivation.
Identity-synergy	the identity of an individual becomes intertwined with the identity of the group so that it can be perceived by the individual in its combined state.
Relational-ties	the individual is not only concerned for the group but also for the needs of other individuals within the group.
Irrevocability	when an individual is fused to the group, it is a permanent fusion.

That does not necessarily mean that a fused individual will value their collective self more than their individual self. Heger et al. (2022) found that fused individuals are motivated to maintain their self-identity even when they felt fused and engaged in pro group behaviour. They believed the fused individual’s self-identity is more likely to focus the efforts of themselves into the needs of the group.

Look at Figure 2 in the box below. Although the individual has become one with the group, they retain their original identity.

How fused are you? Think about a group that you are a member of. It could be your church, your community, your club, your cult or your country. Swann et al. (2009) asked participants about their perceived relationship level with their group using Figure 2 as a guide, answer the question on the right: Figure 2 Measuring identity fusion (Swann et al., 2009)

How strong is your relationship with your group? Choose your answer and click "Submit": A, 0% B, 25% C, 50% D, 75% E, 100%

There are no right or wrong answers in the question you have just attempted, but it was central to one of the original studies of identity fusion, used to determine how strongly individuals identified as one, or fused, with their group. The responses can be used as the basis for understanding what drives someone to take a particular action for a group they identify with. Swann et al. (2009) then asked the question Would you be prepared to die for your group? Given the results of this study, in which fused participants were more likely to be prepared to die for their group than non-fused participants, where to from here? If a fused individual is motivated to die for the good, or need of the group is identity fusion a good or bad thing?

Motivational implications for identity fusion in sport

Figure 3: The national team is one people can identify with, and Australia did in July-August 2023.

Case study 2 In July-August 2023 Australia became obsessed with the Matildas. The national women's football team captivated the nation on their charge towards the 2023 World Cup. On the field, the players identified as Australian, desperate to prove themselves on home soil. Off the field, Australians joined them on their journey, stopping the nation on a Saturday night to ride every one of the 21 penalty kicks (including 1 that was retaken, and resaved!) in the quarter final. In their semi-final, more than 11 million Australians tuned in to watch, more than any other sporting event in Australian history.

Uniting individuals through sport

In the sporting arena, identity fusion is a key motivating factor for athletes, and their fans, to achieve victory. Self-motivation aligns with group motivation and everyone wants to win, so individuals are motivated to do what is best for the team (Buhrmester et al., 2018). With the Matildas, Australia was disappointed to see them lose in the semi-final but there was no perceived threat. Although Australians fused, to an extent, it was not seen as a life-or-death situation and most people graciously accepted defeat with pride in what they had accomplished. While sports can be polarising for individuals fused to their team, there is also the possibility of using identity fusion in sports for good when used to break down other social barriers. In other football scenarios it can be more serious.

Sporting rivalries

	Celtic	vs	Rangers
Religious identity	Catholic	vs	Protestant
National identity	Nationalist	vs	Unionist
Ideological identity	Irish republicanism	vs	Loyalist

Fused individuals can be motivated to undertake extreme measures when they see the outgroup, the opposition team, as a threat to their team, the ingroup. The level of threat perception is varied. For example, there are several instances of sporting contests where desire for victory, amongst athletes and supporters, goes to a new level when there appears more at stake than just a result. When Glaswegian soccer teams Celtic and Rangers play against each other in what has become known as the Old Firm, there is often an extension to the contest as religion, politics, and ideology enter the fray as well. Fans become particularly fused with their team and players can be motivated to win at all costs in what is often regarded as one of the fiercest sporting rivalries in the world. The table to the right highlights some of the key differences:

When sport becomes vicious

Sporting rivalries can escalate when those fused with a sporting team are motivated to become violent, with a specific objective of affecting the other team’s performance. When the ingroup view the opposition as threatening, above the standards expected of a normal sporting contest, then fans and/or players of the ingroup may act violently against the outgroup. Buhrmester et al. (2018) pointed to sporting contests including the infamous water polo match at the 1956 Olympic Games where Hungary played the Soviet Union shortly after the Hungarian Revolution had started. The Hungarian team, well aware of Soviet troops in their country, clearly saw their opposition as more than simply a threat to their chances of a gold medal. This became known as the 'Blood in the Water match' as it has been described as one of the most vicious matches in the history of sport. The tensions between the countries spilled over into the sporting arena as players and spectators fought and spat at each other. This was not typical of an Olympic event.

Although this was an isolated event, football hooliganism is more prevalent, especially in the United Kingdom. Understanding the motivation to riot, in the name of a football team, helps inform preventative measures and also better understand the social psychological environment (Newson, 2019).

Utilising identity fusion for rehabilitation purposes

Prisoner reform

Can identity fusion be utilised for good for those who have done wrong? Whitehouse and Fitzgerald (2020) analysed the concepts of fusing with an ingroup in order to motivate a group of prisoners towards a path of rehabilitation. They found that prisoners experienced very little fusion with both their families, and Australian society at large, compared to the general population. This was often due to the broken family environment they came from and feeling isolated from other people. Isolation is one of the most challenging things to overcome when trying to help someone rehabilitate and reassimilate into a normal functioning society. The only fusion they felt was with the ingroup of other prisoners who are more likely to have an adverse effect on their ability to rehabilitate. Therefore, through an identity fusion lens, attempting to reform prisoners requires two types of fusion adjustment. Reducing identification with other prisoners and increasing fusion with prosocial groups who are likely to have a more positive influence.

Combining rehabilitation with sport

Prisoner reform, identity fusion, and football combine in the Twinning Project, which seeks to increase fusion with prosocial groups through football by helping individuals engage with participating football clubs (Newson & Whitehouse, 2020). This program is delivered by qualified coaching and refereeing staff from professional football clubs in the UK to select prisoners towards the end of their sentences. The participants are exposed to physical exercise and learn skills they can utilise outside which increase their employment opportunities. Most importantly from a social psychology perspective, they are motivated to seek identity with those previously considered outgroups, outside the prison system. The project is still fairly new but results are promising. If it continues to work there are benefits for society overall, reducing the costs of imprisonment and reducing chances of reoffending.

Self-sacrifice

Motivation for family

The initial reason identity fusion emerged as a theory was to research the reasons why individuals are prepared to die for their group. When asked, many individuals would be prepared to die for a small ingroup, such as their family, because of the strong biological bonds they have with family members. Researchers have suggested individuals can actually see ingroups they belong to, and fuse with, as “family” even when there is no biological connection. Fredman et al. (2015) suggests that the family link is almost essential as fused ingroup members perceive their fellow members as family, sometimes more than their biological family. In their analysis, Swann et al. (2014) sought to identify elements of commonality between individuals who would be prepared to die for a larger ingroup and found it was when those fused individuals saw fellow members of the larger ingroup as family. This makes sense when terms such as ‘brotherhood’ are used to describe a larger ingroup as a way of identifying non-biological members as family.

Self-sacrifice to save

Although identity fusion started as an attempt to explain self-sacrifice in order to commit a violent act of terror and kill others, it can also be used to examine motivation for saving others.

Figure 4: Cameron Baird's medals including the Victoria Cross (far left) and Medal of Gallantry (2nd from left)

Case study 3 On 22 June 2013 an Australian commando platoon entered hostile enemy territory in Uruzgan province, Afghanistan with an objective to disrupt enemy activity. They engaged an enemy force and the platoon commander was wounded early in the action. Corporal Cameron Stewart Baird quickly responded, taking charge of the platoon, and leading the offensive. He repeatedly put himself in harm's way, drawing fire from the enemy, away from his fellow soldiers. As they approached a target building, Corporal Baird led from the front, trying three times to breach a doorway. Despite drawing heavy enemy fire on each occasion, and needing to rectify weapons issues, he remained a focal point for enemy fire, determined to take the building. On the third attempt, the platoon succeeded, but Corporal Baird was killed. For his actions he was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for Australia. It is actions like these that help form the legend of Australian comradery in battle, where soldiers act selflessly for the sake of their mates. Corporal Baird's self-identity was fused with that of the mates in his unit, and he was prepared to lay down his life for them.

Self-sacrifice to kill

As Ebner et al. (2022) outline, identity fusion is insufficient of itself to explain, or more importantly predict, extreme behaviour such as suicide bombings. Identity fusion alone is just as capable of inspiring good acts rather than terrorism. Once amplified by inciteful language, however, susceptible individuals can become fused and dangerous. The same individuals who would be prepared to die for their family, or a small ingroup they regard as family, may be less prepared to die for a larger ingroup, such as their country because the bond is not as strong. Importantly, Swann et al. (2014) concluded that when people were prepared to die for the larger ingroup, it was more obligation driven motivation than it was selflessness. These findings help understand why people like Khalid al-Mihdhar decided to board American Airlines Flight 77 and will hopefully help develop ways to prevent people thinking such drastic action is required in future.

Where to next?

There are a number of other contexts in which understanding motivation with an identity fusion lens has practical applications. For example, understanding how individuals are motivated to act in group interests with political parties is important in developing policy platforms that could set a country's future direction. Misch et al. (2018) analysed the result of the 2016 US presidential elections to determine if it was driven by identity fused party politics and how both sides reacted afterwards. As democracies around the world are grappling with identity politics, an identity fusion approach may help make sense of individual motivation to act on behalf of a political party.

Conclusion

Sometimes, identify fusion motivates individuals to be constructive, as shown by prison rehabilitation programs that strive to reduce recidivism. It also motivates individuals to rally around a sports team, as it did with many ordinary Australians during July-August 2023 during the Matildas' quest for World cup glory on home soil. Player and fan alike fused with the national identity in that pursuit. But, fusing with a football team can lead to extreme behaviour too, as players and fans see opposing teams as a threatening outgroup that must be beaten at all costs. It is this overwhelming desire for victory that motivates some individuals to engage in drastic extreme behaviour. In the sporting arena this is not generally socially acceptable, but the ramifications are rarely fatal. When the fusion motivates someone to die, and kill others, for a cause, most people can only piece together a vague understanding of self-sacrificial motivations. If these motivations are understood better, then prosocial preventative action can be taken, and young people may choose not to abandon their families to kill and die for a group. Furthermore, young people may not need to lay down their lives for their mates, when fighting against what motivated the self-sacrifice in the first place.

See also

• Cults and motivation (Book chapter, 2014)
• Identity fusion (Wikipedia)
• Identity politics (Wikipedia)
• Validation seeking motivation (Book chapter, 2016)

References

Buhrmester, M. D., Newson, M., Vázquez, A., Hattori, W. T., & Whitehouse, H. (2018). Winning at any cost: Identity fusion, group essence, and maximizing ingroup advantage. Self and Identity, 17(5), 500–516. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2018.1452788

Ebner, J., Kavanagh, C., & Whitehouse, H. (2022). Is there a language of terrorists? A comparative manifesto analysis. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1–27. https://doi.org/10.1080/1057610X.2022.2109244

Fredman, L. A., Buhrmester, M. D., Gomez, A., Fraser, W. T., Talaifar, S., Brannon, S. M., & Swann Jr, W. B. (2015). Identity fusion, extreme pro‐group behavior, and the path to defusion. Social and Personality Psychology Compass, 9(9), 468–480.

Gómez, Á., Bélanger, J. J., Chinchilla, J., Vázquez, A., Schumpe, B. M., Nisa, C. F., & Chiclana, S. (2021). Admiration for Islamist groups encourages self-sacrifice through identity fusion. Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, 8(1). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-021-00734-9

Heger, A., Voorhees, V. A., Porter, B., & Gaertner, L. (2022). Does identity fusion moderate the motivational primacy of the individual self? Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506221141144

Kavanagh, C. M., Kapitany, R., Putra, I. E., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). Exploring the Pathways Between Transformative Group Experiences and Identity Fusion. Front Psychol, 11, 1172. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01172

Misch, A., Fergusson, G., & Dunham, Y. (2018). Temporal dynamics of partisan identity fusion and prosociality during the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election. Self and Identity, 17(5), 531–548. https://doi.org/10.1080/15298868.2018.1430063

Newson, M. (2019). Football, fan violence, and identity fusion. International Review for the Sociology of Sport, 54(4), 431–444. https://doi.org/10.1177/1012690217731293

Newson, M., Buhrmester, M., & Whitehouse, H. (2016). Explaining Lifelong Loyalty: The Role of Identity Fusion and Self-Shaping Group Events. PLOS ONE, 11(8), e0160427. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0160427

Newson, M., White, F., & Whitehouse, H. (2023). Does loving a group mean hating its rivals? Exploring the relationship between ingroup cohesion and outgroup hostility among soccer fans. International Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology, 21(4), 706–724. https://doi.org/10.1080/1612197x.2022.2084140

Newson, M., & Whitehouse, H. (2020). The Twinning Project: How football, the beautiful game, can be used to reduce reoffending. Prison Service Journal(248).

Reese, E., & Whitehouse, H. (2021). The Development of Identity Fusion. Perspect Psychol Sci, 16(6), 1398–1411. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620968761

Swann, W. B., & Buhrmester, M. D. (2015). Identity Fusion. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 24(1), 52–57. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721414551363

Swann, W. B., Buhrmester, M. D., Gomez, A., Jetten, J., Bastian, B., Vazquez, A., Ariyanto, A., Besta, T., Christ, O., Cui, L., Finchilescu, G., Gonzalez, R., Goto, N., Hornsey, M., Sharma, S., Susianto, H., & Zhang, A. (2014). What makes a group worth dying for? Identity fusion fosters perception of familial ties, promoting self-sacrifice. Journal of personality and social psychology, 106(6), 912–926. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036089

Swann, W. B., Jr., Gomez, A., Seyle, D. C., Morales, J. F., & Huici, C. (2009). Identity fusion: the interplay of personal and social identities in extreme group behavior. Journal of personality and social psychology, 96(5), 995–1011. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0013668

Tajfel, H., Turner, J. C., Austin, W. G., & Worchel, S. (1979). An integrative theory of intergroup conflict. Organizational identity: A reader, 56(65), 9780203505984-9780203505916.

Turner, J. C., Oakes, P. J., Haslam, S. A., & McGarty, C. (1994). Self and collective: Cognition and social context. Personality and social psychology bulletin, 20(5), 454–463.

Varmann, A. H., Kruse, L., Bierwiaczonek, K., Gómez, Á., Vázquez, A., & Kunst, J. R. (2023). How identity fusion predicts extreme pro-group orientations: A meta-analysis. European Review of Social Psychology, 1–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/10463283.2023.2190267

Vázquez, A., Gómez, Á., López-Rodríguez, L., & Swann, W. B. (2023). Can identity fusion foster social harmony? Strongly fused individuals embrace familiar outgroup members unless threatened. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 107. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2023.104462 Whitehouse, H., & Fitzgerald, R. (2020). Fusion and Reform. Anthropology in Action, 27(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.3167/aia.2020.270101

External links

• The Most Dangerous Way to Lose Yourself.
• Dr Dan Pronk Blog: The Friday Responder
• The Conversation: