This article offers personal observations of the emotional, cognitive, and behavioral reactions of New Yorkers in the days immediately following the World Trade Center attacks. Social identity theory is used as an interpretive lens through which to understand how a group facing extreme adversity found ways to fortify themselves by marshaling socioemotional, informational, and physical resources. Emphasis is placed on how initial emotional reactions to perceptions of threat in the hours after the attacks prompted people to seek out others to mobilize information and manage emotional distress. This article takes the position that these social gatherings became arenas in which people redefined group boundaries, modified the group’s identity, erected new symbols, and transformed each other’s emotions in ways that triggered actions to protect and restore the group.
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