Negative Dimensions of Identity: A Research Agenda for Law and Public Policy

Legal scholarship has long concerned itself with race, gender, and other core identities. Economics, and law and economics, is now turning its attention to other dimensions of identity. What is identity? Identity is a person\u27s sense of self. \u27 Identity has genetic, cultural and neural bases grounded in an evolutionary process.\u27 Identity helps individuals make sense of themselves and provides a feeling of grounding or belonging. There are many potential identity dimensions, including gender, facial features, and height, as well as religion, ethnicity, social-group affiliation, sports-team loyalty, family, profession, artistic preferences, culinary preferences, and place of origin. The significance of different dimensions varies across individuals; some people derive a stronger sense of identity from their religion, others from their sports team fanship, others from their occupation, and so on