Tribal: How the Cultural Instincts That Divide Us Can Help Bring Us Together

According to their “tribal instincts hypothesis,” human groups have always been in competition to some degree with neighboring groups. The groups that figured out (or stumbled upon) cultural innovations that helped them cooperate and cohere in groups larger than the family tended to win these competitions (just as Darwin said).

Tribal members act in concert on the strength of one simple question: “Do people like me do something like this?” If the answer is yes, they do it. And if the answer is no, then they don’t. It’s as simple as that. We may not even be aware that we’re working through this framework, but make no mistake, it is indeed at work within the mind of every s