The Gaze from Below

This chapter grapples with the political psychology of minority status by focusing on the attitudes and actions expressed by groups who are subordinated based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or other stigmatized attributes. We call on political psychologists to develop more unified theories that study the growing array of subordinated groups, with the goal of isolating the psychological mechanisms behind their politics. We model one response to this call by drawing on social identity theory and its offshoots to illuminate some of the cognitive and affective roots of minority status and its implications for inter- and intra-group behavior in politics. We discuss the micro-foundations of minority group formation, the structural roots of minority status, and, most critically, the connections between minority status and political attitudes and behavior. We conclude by discussing three broad areas where scholars can use these insights to (re)invigorate debates in studies of minority group politics.