Individual Salience

Individual salience is how much an identity characteristic stands out as important, relevant, or noticeable to us and others in a specific context. What’s salient depends on the social setting or who we’re interacting with. Social identity theory states different aspects of our identity, or which of multiple identities, have varying levels of salience depending on the situation. A highly salient aspect of identity can influence behavior and interactions with others, like gender identity where gender becomes highly salient in a discriminatory situation.