The role of identity performance

While people may see themselves as members of multiple groups, others’ assumptions about who they are can override and confine their real nuances and multifaceted-ness. Hopkins and Blackwood (2011) note how some British Muslims in their study felt their views on political topics e.g. the Iraq war, are often viewed by others as coming from the perspective of their Muslim identities as opposed to their British identities. In such instances, their identity as Muslim is seen to be over-visible in the eyes of others, becoming the primary identity through which their opinions and behaviours are understood and interpreted. This echoes Renault's (2009) writings on recognition who notes “over-visibility” as one of the ways in which misrecognition can occur. Other examples of this can be seen in research on biracial individuals. Single racial identities can become ascribed to biracial individuals, resulting in many taking on specific performative strategies described by Khanna and Johnson (2010) as ‘identity work’ to highlight other, less visible, group memberships. Indeed, individuals are particularly motivated to emphasise identities when these are seen to be not respected or recognised (Ethier & Deaux, 1994). According to Swann (1987) strategies of identity negotiation

involve two competing processes between the perceiver and the target. The perceiver is described as expecting the target to behave in the way they anticipate based on their understanding of members of a given group, while the target strives to bring the perceiver to treat them in a way that verifies their self-view. As part of this, Swann describes that identity cues are taken on, i.e. visible or verbal markers to ‘look and sound the part’, minimising tension caused by the lack of self-verification. Klein,

Spears, and Reicher (2007) discuss similar identity management strategies through what they term identity performance. They define it as “the purposeful expression (or

suppression) of behaviours relevant to those norms conventionally associated with a salient social identity” (p.30) and it becomes an interesting component through which to understand identities in practice. The emphasis on intention within Klein and

colleagues’ definition of identity performance is important to note, as this focuses on behaviours or acts that are consciously and purposefully carried out in order to assert (or hide) one’s belonging and membership to a social category.

A number of studies have demonstrated how identity performance plays out in relation to identification processes (e.g. Alexander, 2004; Blackwood et al., 2015; Cheryan & Monin, 2005; Hopkins & Greenwood, 2013; Semrow, Zou, Liu, & Cheryan, 2019). In a study on British Muslim experiences at airport security, Blackwood et al., (2015) demonstrate how some interviewees described selectively playing down their Muslimness by considering the clothes they wear in these settings (avoiding cultural dress, wearing a hijab as opposed to a niqab). These visible cues are considered because of how they can highlight their Muslimness, and therefore result in undesired visibility and possible negative experiences because of being misrecognised as a potential security threat. Meta-perceptions are important here, in that there is an active contemplation and evaluation of how we may be seen by others within particular contexts, thus in turn playing a part in the performative strategies undertaken

(Blackwood et al., 2015; Vorauer, Hunter, Main, & Roy, 2000). In another empirical example, Cheryan and Monin (2005) looked at identity denial as experienced by Asian Americans in the US. Despite participants’ own claims to being both American and Asian, many felt they were often misperceived as foreign by white (i.e. prototypical) members of their American ingroup because of being asked, for example, what

language they spoke and where they were from. Thus, their identity as Asian overrode and perhaps even erased their American identity by these relevant others. As a result, participants described highlighting their prototypicality to the dominant ingroup from which they were excluded by, for example, self-stereotyping as American through demonstrating their knowledge of American culture and their participation in it by watching specific TV shows. In emphasising such behaviours they hoped to gain some ingroup credit, the results of which could lead to the recognition of their American identities (see also Wang et al., 2013).

Klein and colleagues (2007) also importantly note how expressions of identity performance can play out differently for people with single identity constructs as opposed to dual or multiple constructs, and that the performance of multiple identities can be constrained by understandings of compatibility between the identity categories. Thus, where categories are seen to be incompatible, passing becomes an important identity negotiation strategy to consider. While stemming from sociological literature, passing has parallels with SIT’s notion of individual mobility. Where the recognition of one’s identity is not desired because of potential stigmatisation for example, and

importantly where such identities can be masked, passing may be the route of ‘choice’. Indeed, as Goffman (1963, p.95) notes, “because of the great rewards in being

considered normal, almost all persons who are in a position to pass will do so on occasion by intent”. Thus, passing can be understood “at the most basic level as an attempt to control the process of signification itself” (Schlossberg, 2001, p.3), reflecting

attempts to possibly take back control of experiences of misrecognition. In this way, as well as the examples of performative negotiation strategies outlined in the empirical research above, the various strategies of identity performance discussed emphasise the enactment of agency in response to, or in anticipation of, experiences related to

processes of identity (mis)recognition. Therefore, despite the way in which societal power dynamics can constrain the lens through which individuals are seen and the degrees of belonging and acceptance one is afforded, individual acts of resistance can be, and are, enacted. In attempting to develop a deeper understanding of identity-related processes and the dynamics at play for individuals with multiple identities that may be seen to be in opposition, the related concepts of identity recognition and performance become important to incorporate. Indeed, as the thesis will come to demonstrate, these are central factors that need to be more actively and consciously integrated into

theorisations and understandings of identities and processes of identification.

2.4 An integrated framework: recognition, performance, and interactional