Tribalism has been used for centuries by some politicians, dictators, authoritarians, etc. (including religious leaders) and, more recently, by some large corporations to divide, dominate, and manipulate societies. Statements by the Trump administration in the United States, Vladimir Putin in Russia, Viktor Orban in Hungary, Narendra Modi in India, among others, offer prime examples. The motivations to divide and dominate are often power and greed.
Tribalism is the possession of an identity (cultural, ethnic, national, etc.) that divides a member of one group from members of another group. The identity can be based on residence, membership in political parties, skin color, ethnic background, religion, occupation, income level, mental health status, gender, age, health status … all the way to support of different sports teams.
With tribalism, there are in-groups and out-groups. We tend to seek the approval, comfort, and sense of safety within our in-group. We feel threatened by members of out-groups. They may look different from us, talk differently, believe different things … they threaten our safety–the threat is mainly psychological.
Tribalism can definitely be bad for a society–it leads to disunity, separation, rancor, political paralysis, us vs. them; it breeds extremism, inequality, it impacts life and death … No one in a divided society benefits in the end.
Social media feeds tribalism. Partisan politics encourages and uses tribalism for narrow, often corrupt and authoritarian purposes. America during the Trump era is a classic case.
Tribalism is driven by fear; an example —
“Humans generally fear those different to them (i.e. an out-group) in the same way they fear natural predators. But fear pushes us to derogate [disparage, belittle] others, whether they constitute a threat or not. Research has examined how fear associated with specific intergroup relations interferes with how individuals relate to in-group and out-group members. However, we know relatively little about how intergroup relations might be affected by incidental emotions. We tested how incidental fear affects empathy towards in-group and out-group members. We found that exposing participants to fearful imagery was sufficient to reduce empathy, but only in response to out-group suffering. We discuss how these findings provide insight into how fear is often leveraged to encourage social tribalism.”
Go to the source —
Richins, M. T., Barreto, M., Karl, A., & Lawrence, N. (2021). Incidental fear reduces empathy for an out-group’s pain. Emotion, 21(3), 536–544. [PDF] [Cited by]
See also —
Fear — impacts on decision-making and behavior
This is an update of a post that originally appeared on April 11, 2020.
Questions? Please let me know (engelk@grinnell.edu).
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