The High Price We Pay for Tribalism
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TIME Magazine
Israel versus Palestine. Liberals versus conservatives. The Mets versus the Yankees. Whichever we favor, we’ve come to believe that our unwavering, religious-like allegiance is not only normal and unavoidable, but advantageous: stemming from an evolutionary adaptation that allowed our species to survive over time.
The accepted wisdom goes something like this: since the dawn of our species, human communities have been stitched together by the belonging impulse. Without it, the cooperation-driven advantage would not have been possible. Humans, therefore, are assumed to be inherently tribal because of our prehistoric ancestors. Membership in a group or tribe increased an individual’s chances of survival.
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