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The Price Of Fear
Why we often rush to embrace actions that harm us
Group-think is a characteristic of all social primate species. Over millions of years of evolution, acting as a group meant much-increased odds for the survival of each individual within the group. Even today, after we’ve altered the world beyond recognition through the agricultural and industrial revolutions, the ape-brains of homo sapiens are still hardwired to conform to group norms without giving the matter much thought.
Our stories still praise group norms. As John Donne wrote, “No man is an island entire of itself.” Despite our modern notion of the lonesome cowboy or the individual super-hero we inherently recognize the importance of having a group that watches our back. Even the solitary hero has a group of some kind to provide essential support and when the hero goes off for a sulk it’s generally members of the group who look to coax them back or give them essential aid, as happens as far back as with Achilleus in Homer’s Iliad and in countless other tales up to the present time including the well-known Harry Potter stories.
Our desire for individual agency competes with the need for group cohesion. In times of ease and plenty we have room to indulge our individualism; during times of crisis our hardwired instinct is to comply with group norms and help reinforce them.
