Coping with identity threats to group agency as well as group value: Explicit and Implicit routes to resistance

Social resistance is defined as a group's opposition to economic, political, and social circumstances that perpetuate social disadvantage, or differences within society. Social identity researchers (SIT), amongst others, have theorizes about the psychological process underlying social resistance. Social identity is that of an individual's identity derived from their membership of groups, be they chosen, such as sport-team supporters, or acquired, such as gender of ethnicity. SIT outlines various social resistance strategies, ranging from indirect to the more direct, in response to threats to social identity. However, SIT typically conceptualizes identity threats primarily in terms to group value. In this chapter we argue that to conceptualize threat primarily in relation to group value or identity content is limiting, especially as the responses to such threats involve a range of different actions.