Group Identity
We have recognized that humans are social animals who interact continuously.
There is a constant tension between self-identity and group membership; between
self-interest and group interest; between bonding, belonging and being a free
independent person. There are important differences between acting alone and
acting within a group. Group size also influences behavior. We have recognized
that humans do best living in working in small groups and become dysfunctional
when they join larger groups. With settlements, agriculture and increasing
language sophistication, groups grew larger. Group stories were repeated by
leaders and adopted by followers. The stories addressed common concerns such as
the origin of group, the fate of individuals after death and the rules and
regulations required by the group. The spread of these fictional stories along
with symbols, artifacts, tools and weapons has facilitated the progressive
size and expansion of groups. A modern human is immersed in overpopulated world
congested with fictions that regulate identity and behavior
In this book, I make frequent references to the local group and emphasize the
importance of group activity and group identity. The aptitude and skills
required for affiliations and bonding originated with interactions in small
groups. Our tendencies developed in small hunter-gatherer groups; with humans
who knew each other and depended on each other to find food, protect the young
and defend the group from predators.
Humans are social animals and generally depend on each other to provide
rules of conduct, information, context and meaning. Mostly, humans are free to
conform to the norms and expectations of the local group. Human’s copy what
other humans do and are usually limited to repeating the speech and behaviors of
others. Innovations are small modifications to existing methods, ideas or
beliefs. While there are a great variety of social organizations and diverse
expressions of social interactions, there are a limited number of root
tendencies that give rise to the many variations
Humans live in the paradox of being isolated creatures with selfish
interests, linked inextricably together by needs, thoughts, feelings, gestures
and language. Because of a deep assumption of the independent self, humans tend
to exaggerate the importance and the autonomy of individual experience and
individual action. The idea of personal freedom is misleading. A
self-determining individual is seldom if ever an independent agent acting only
on his or her ideas and intentions. The more closely you look at any individual,
the more you find group activity and the more you recognize that individuals
seldom act alone. Even when humans do act alone, each person is an agent of a
common understanding both innate and learned. Each person has the sense of
others watching A human tendency is to suffer loneliness and to become
despondent or suspicious and hostile when alone for extended periods.
Rather than viewing society and culture as real things, an observer can
recognize that humans live in groups that repeat and modify innate behaviors to
produce prolific variations on a few underlying themes that are common to all
societies. The smart observer will consider the grouping characteristics
of humans and discern basic patterns and problems underlying the apparent
complexity of modern civilization. The organization of society begins with small
local clusters that link family groups into clans that are more or less
cooperative units. Clans associate forming bands that tend to affiliate with
other bands forming tribes, looser affiliations that occupy larger geographic
areas. The band-tribal structure emerges from ancient animal groupings.
Stories
Storytelling is the social glue that keeps human groups together and focused on
common goals. The story begins with an inner narrative, selftalk. When you are
not busy doing tasks, you are usually talking to yourself in the privacy of your
own mind. Selftalk is something like the voiceover commentary in a documentary
movie. Storytelling merges with other forms of persuasion and negotiation in
strategies of business and social success. Humans tell stories and make deals,
all out of self-interest. The stories and deals are always tilted in someone's
favor. If you censored television and movie scripts to rule out displays
of lying , systematic deception, felonies and fighting, the entertainment
industry would all but disappear.
Every day humans tell stories to
each other. At the deepest level, storytelling is sound communication that
enhances group cohesion and social regulation. The progression from sound
communication to language to social regulation with stories is seamless and
continuous. Peer pressure is exerted by sound communication and stories.
Some stories are repeated often and become societal scripts that regulate
the play of life. Each group has an implicit verbal script that is seldom
written down or even acknowledged as a daily influence on how each member
thinks, feels and behaves. Each member of a family has a predetermined
role. Children are taught their lines and parents repeat the slogans and beliefs
that children must learn. Organized families tend to have coherent scripts and
disorganized families have causal and eclectic scripts. Family scripts
are derivatives of community scripts, determined by the local culture and the
moral authority of political, educational and religious organizations. Each
adult person has a self-story that locates him or her in the larger story of the
group. As human groups enlarge, a hierarchical assembly of stories
emerges. A group story collects individuals into a larger assembly that give
direction and purpose while placing limits on the possibilities that group
members can entertain. Storytelling is important for survival. Stories provide
examples of other humans who make mistakes and perish and humans who are
flourish because they are skillful and wise. News is a professional version of
storytelling that emphasizes bad outcomes and warns against dangers.
Patterns of organization, rules, and institutions that regulate human behavior
are in flux and will continue to be unstable. As human populations expand and
interactions become increasingly complex, innate abilities are stretched and
distorted. The ability of individuals to relate to other humans remains limited
and limits the effective management of enlarging groups. Managers and leaders do
not become smarter as the organizations they lead become larger. It is axiomatic
that organizations that exceed a threshold number become dysfunctional. It is
matter of empirical study to recognize group size thresholds, and too little is
known about the cognitive limitations of leaders.
At the deepest level, humans discriminate and select only a few humans out of
many to trust and share time and space. In modern urban communities, humans of
many descriptions come together to learn, work, and play. They pass through a
common space every day. Strangers are ignored or actively avoided. A ride on an
elevator reveals a remarkable innate resistance to interaction with strangers.
Most humans feel tense and awkward in an elevator and avoid eye contact with
other riders. If you override this strong tendency and say something to your
fellow riders, the tension builds, and everyone is focused on getting out of the
elevator as soon as possible.
A human can scan a thousand faces every day, ignoring most; reliably
identifying an occasional attractive face or the face of a friend in the crowd.
This remarkable facial identification is essential to social adaptation.
