Authority is not merely a structural feature of institutional life, but a core dimension of self-meaning that shapes how individuals interpret and respond to social interaction. This chapter introduces the concept of the authority identity—a principle-level person identity that reflects internalized conceptions of authority and standards for how authority should be exercised. Drawing on symbolic interactionism, identity theory, and expectation states theory, I argue that the authority identity provides a cognitive and moral framework that guides behavior across authority roles. When challenged or unsupported by situational feedback, this identity can compel emotional and behavioral responses—ranging from persuasion to coercion—in an effort to restore alignment between self-meanings and interactional outcomes. Because authority is asymmetrically embedded in social hierarchies, these dynamics are particularly prone to reproducing patterns of inequity, domination, and deference. The chapter advances a set of hypotheses about how status, discretion, and emotional feedback mediate the identity-verification process in authority-subject interactions, offering a framework for understanding both everyday and institutional abuses of authority. Ultimately, this conceptualization clarifies the micro-mechanisms linking identity to systemic inequities and invites empirical inquiry into how the meanings of authority are enacted, challenged, and sustained.