Humans seem to be wired for connection with groups. But it seems that's both good news and bad news.
The good news is that group connection is a powerful motivator for positive behavior. We will sacrifice for members of our own group. And we will join groups in generous activities on behalf of others. Teams who work together in a benevolent shared task sustain their work longer because of rewarding relationships within their team.
Nevertheless, the instinct for human group connection is mostly bad news. Group identity may be the primary source of divisions and conflicts that infect humanity.
There is a famous series of studies called "the minimal group experiments." Jon Mooallem recently recalled them in the New York Times. The experiments started with 64 teenagers who were asked to estimate how many dots were flashing on a screen. Then they were divided into two groups, "overestimators" and "underestimators." Another set of subjects were asked which of two sets of paintings they preferred, and then assigned to two groups labeled by the name of each artist. In fact, the experimenters actually randomly assigned the teens. The purpose was to create groups that had little or no meaning. They called them "flimsy and unimportant" collective identities. Then, each teen, working in isolation, was instructed to divide money to members of their own group or to members of the other.
The biases kicked in right away. The subjects seemed determined to create as wide a disparity as they could. Offers to maximize the amount of money for everyone at no cost to one's own group weren't persuasive. The experimenter wrote that the behavior seemed vindictive, "a clear case of gratuitous discrimination."
They tried even more neutral labels like "Group A" and "Group B." Tell people they are in Group A, and they are immediately psyched to be in Group A. Their brain activity changes. Shown a picture of a stranger labeled as Group A, they react positively toward the other "A," even superseding racial biases that might cut the other way. Sadly, the negative biases toward people in Group B kicked in as well.
Whenever we identify with a group, powerful consequences can follow for good and for ill. Profound human identities can be created with a mere flip of a coin.
This research helps me understand some things that seem baffling. Why do people believe things that seem unbelievable? Maybe it's the power of group identification.
If people in your identity group spread misinformation about covid vaccines, you are powerfully motivated to believe them. A recent study shows that people generally can't be reasoned out of their anti-vaccine opinions with evidence based in science. Just about the only thing that has worked to persuade anti-vaxxers to take the shots is workplace requirements that threaten their livelihood. This week former President Donald Trump began urging his followers to take the vaccine. That is creating some complicated identity questions.
Our nation is crippled by the destructive identity politics between Democrats and Republicans who seem unable to recognize the values of the other.
Racial bias is profoundly destructive. Nothing has been as damaging to our nation as our pervasive and systemic racism. Second to racism, I would point to elitism and the resentment it provokes as our nation's other terrible curse. Race and class identity divisions tragically mark American and human history.
Religious identity bears its own sad and bloody heritage.
I've often found it helpful to suspend arguments about what we say we are against, and to ask the person on the other side to tell me, What are you for? What are your values? I frequently find that our values have alignments. People are often right in what they affirm and wrong in what they deny.
It is possible to value and affirm our own group identity connections and choose not to condemn others.
We can become more aware of our identity attachments, and we can hold them more gently. Recognizing the human tendency toward pack mentality, we can question ourselves. Group A need not condemn Group B. When we disagree, we can do so with reverence. Isn't our greatest identity our common humanity?
A mindfulness practice, meditation or contemplation can loosen our compulsive tendencies. Christianity and every enduring religion has contemplative traditions.
Practice gently observing your divisive identities and letting go of them. Allow your larger identity to transcend your smaller identities. We are all children of God. The human family is one family. One simple identity. Embrace that greater reality and then, love your neighbor as yourself.