Social identity and health: An intergroup communication approach to cancer

This article describes the ways in which group identifications and stereotypes can in-form our understanding of cancer prevention and treatment as well as more general social processes surrounding the experience of cancer. From a perspective grounded in social identity theory, we describe the ways in which understanding primary iden-tities (i.e., those associated with large social collectives such as cultural groups), sec-ondary identities (i.e., those associated with health behaviors), and tertiary identities (i.e., those associated with cancer) can help explain certain cancer-related social pro-cesses. We forward a series of propositions to stimulate further research on this topic. This article examines the role of social group memberships in health communica-tion. Much work has focused on the ways in which individuals are influenced by their group memberships. People orient to one another in terms of not only individ-ual characteristics but also group identifications. This occurs in terms of individu-als ’ perceptions of their own groups (social identities), and their perceptions of others’group memberships (e.g., stereotypes). Identities and stereotypes influence how we communicate with others. We term this an intergroup approach, grounded in the pioneering work of Tajfel (Robinson, 1996; Tajfel & Turner, 1986). We con-tend that intergroup processes are relevant to health communication. Althoug