Joseph Paul Forgas

The universal human tendency to think and act in ways that promote tribal cooperation appears to be an inevitable part of the human condition and the source of much of our evolutionary success. This chapter reviews evidence for the ubiquitous human propensity for collectivism and the consequences of our tribal nature for our personal lives, our relationships, and for society and politics at large. Although tribalism is an essential evolutionary feature of human nature, it is often in conflict with the Enlightenment assumptions of individualism, liberty, and universal humanism that inform our contemporary liberal democratic systems. The historical change from tribalism to individualism is discussed, and convergent evidence about the nature and consequences of tribalism from evolutionary psychology, experimental social psychology, cognitive psychology, and neuropsychology are reviewed. The importance of tribal narratives often promoting consensual delusions overshadowing reality is considered. The consequences of the recent growth of tribalism in politics and public life are discussed. Finally, the chapter reviews the contributions to the book organised into four topic areas dealing with (1) the nature and origins of tribalism, (2) the psychological mechanisms of tribalism, (3) how tribal narratives dominate rationality and reality, and (4) the role of tribalism in politics and public affairs.

Tribal conflict ideologies represent a serious challenge for liberal democracies, and none more so than various neo-Marxist theories in ascendancy today. Whereas liberal democracy is based on Enlightenment principles assuming that rational and pragmatic considerations by individuals will produce gradual social progress, Marxism is a collectivist tribal ideology that insists on the inevitability of social conflict and revolution to bring about change. This chapter surveys the origins and defining features of Marxist and neo-Marxist tribal ideologies. The psychological mechanisms that are responsible for the enduring attraction of Marxist ideology are discussed and that appeal to people’s evolutionary propensity to seek simplicity, epistemic certainty, positive group identity, moral absolutism, and utopistic idealism in tribal narratives. The strategies employed by populist tribal movements to gratify the psychological expectations of their followers are reviewed, and the reasons for the alarming spread of neo-Marxist movements are considered.

Tribalism is a key evolutionary feature of humans, and the recent growth in tribal polarisation presents a serious challenge to our highly individualistic civilisation. This fascinating book examines the psychological origins and consequences of tribalism both in our private and in our public lives. The chapters explore how social, evolutionary, biological, and cognitive factors shape our tribal habits, featuring contributions from eminent international researchers. The chapters review the nature and origins of tribalism, the psychological mechanisms promoting tribalism, how tribal narratives can distort rationality and perceptions of reality, and the role of tribalism in politics and public affairs. The contributions investigate how insecurity, the search for meaning and attachment, victimhood, grievance, and cognitive shortcomings can facilitate tribal bonding and how such groups once formed can foster conflict, hatred, and irrational behaviours. The book suggests that the survival of our extremely successful civilisation based on the enlightenment values of liberty and individualism may well depend on our ability to understand and manage the human evolutionary propensity for tribalism. The book will be of great interest to students and researchers in psychology, sociology, and other disciplines of behavioural and social sciences, as well as all readers who seek to understand one of the most intriguing issues that shape human social life.

Reply to Darlow and Gray: Censorship is exclusion

Can mood influence people’s ability to produce humorous verbal messages? Based on recent theories linking affect to social cognition and information-processing strategies, this experiment predicted and found that positive mood increased people’s ability to generate more creative, humorous, and elaborate verbal contents. Participants viewed positive, neutral, or negative videos, then produced verbal captions to fit four different cartoon images. Their messages were rated for creativity, humor, and elaboration by two trained raters, and the processing latency to produce each message was also recorded. Results showed that positive mood resulted in more creative and humorous messages, and that this effect was significantly mediated by mood-induced differences in information-processing strategies. The results are interpreted as supporting recent theories linking affect to cognition, and the theoretical and practical implications of the findings for everyday verbal communication are considered.

Can good or bad mood influence how people process verbal information about others? Based on affect-cognition theories, this experiment predicted and found that the way a question is phrased has a greater influence on impressions than actual answers when judges are experiencing a negative rather than a neutral or positive mood. After an audiovisual mood induction, participants witnessed interview questions and responses by two target characters. The same level of extroversion was communicated, either by affirmative responses to questions about extraversion, or by negative responses to questions about introversion. Question format had a significant influence on impressions in negative mood but not in neutral or positive mood. The implications of these results for interpreting linguistic information in everyday social life are considered, and their relevance to contemporary affect-cognition theorizing is discussed.