Group Dynamics and Hooliganism

Groupish Tendencies

• Humans naturally form coalitions and groups, ranging from social clubs to national identities.
• This "groupishness" is evident in sports teams, youth subcultures (e.g., goth, punk), and primate social structures.
• Group-oriented actions, like sports hooliganism, are driven by evolutionary drives, more than socioeconomic factors like poverty.

Collective Behavior and Sports Hooliganism

• Group actions reflect focus on one's own team and confrontation with others.
• Evolutionary drives are the likely root of this behavior, not socioeconomic factors.

Minimal Group Paradigm and In-group Favoritism

• Even random group assignments (e.g., coin toss) can lead to favoritism toward one's in-group.
• This in-group bias stems more from an intuitive need for cooperation than a desire to belong to a group.
• Participants show bias toward in-group members without any prior stakes or history.

Coalitional Psychology and Evolutionary Benefits

• Humans gain fitness benefits through collective actions (e.g., sharing resources).
• The drive for collective action faces the problem of free-riders (individuals who benefit without contributing).

Mechanisms of Collective Action Stability

• Stability in collective action relies on monitoring participation, signaling commitment, and punishing defectors.
• These mechanisms deter free-riding and encourage continued participation.

Coalition Interests and Group Commitment

• Group success directly translates to individual benefits, driving group commitment.
• Costly actions, like rituals or sacrifices, reinforce individual dedication to the group's well-being.

Coalitions as Evolutionary Adaptations

• Coalitional psychology frames coalitions as going beyond social affiliations.
• It's driven by evolutionary pressures for cooperation and mutual support.
• Historical contexts of intense group rivalry and need for cooperation drove this.

Background: Ethnicity

• Ethnic groups are social categories (e.g., language, religion), often based on common descent.
• Membership is usually determined by birth and is typically exclusive.

Ethnocentrism

• Ethnocentrism views one's culture as central/normal and others as different or inferior.
• It's a perspective present across various societies, influencing social and political dynamics.
• Examples of ethnocentric views are reflected in self-perceptions (e.g., "human" by Miwok, Nahua cultures).
• Stereotypes and cultural markers (e,g., cuisine, clothes) highlight cultural distinctions, with groups viewing their customs as normal and others as exotic.

Ethnicity in the Modern World

• Ethnic identity persists in modern societies, leading to strong attachments amongst specific minorities.
• Such attachments can lead to conflict or violence. (e.g. Yugoslavia, anti-immigration sentiment in Europe).

Essentialism in Social Categories

• Essentialism believes that groups possess inherent qualities that define their members.
• This can lead to assumptions about group qualities/behaviors.

Biological Essentialism and Social Essentialism

• Biological essentialism attributes inherent properties to living kinds.
• Social essentialism similarly applies these concepts to social groups

Essentialism About Race and Racial Conflict

• Ethnic categorization becomes "racial" with common ancestry, distinct traits, and associated stereotypes.
• Racial categories are unstable with changing social criteria over time dependent on context. (e.g. Ainu in Japan, US).

The Ainu in Japan

• The Ainu, an indigenous group in Japan, face stereotypes of being "primitive."
• They experience low social mobility, limited political representation, and cultural pressures to assimilate.

Racial Conflict in Rwanda: Hutu and Tutsi

• Rwanda's ethnic structure involves Tutsi (elites), Hutu (farmers), and Twa (foragers).
• Historical inequality and colonial favoritism of the Tutsi led to Hutu resentment and the 1994 genocide.

Explaining the Rwandan Genocide

• Factors include endogamy norms, occupational restrictions, and reinforced stereotypes.
• A "security dilemma" in failing states, where groups feel threatened and act preemptively, also played a role.

Can Race Be Erased?

• Kurzban posits that "race" might be encoded as a proxy for coalitional affiliation, instead of a distinct category.
• Experiments show that coalitional context can influence racial encoding.

Ostracism and the "Other" as Danger

• Historical ostracism of specific social groups (e.g., Jews) based on perceived "impurity."
• This links to ideas of contamination and avoidance of outsiders.
• Xenophobia is linked to perceptions of disease vulnerability,

Explore the psychological and evolutionary roots of human group behavior through this quiz. It covers concepts like in-group favoritism, collective behavior, and the implications of coalitional psychology in various contexts, including sports. Test your knowledge on how groupish tendencies shape our social interactions.