Cultural Division

After about three days into the shoot of the original Planet of the Apes it was noticed that all the orang-utans were sitting together at lunchtime. The chimps were also congregating at one table and the gorillas were eating together. People stopped eating with their long time friends and associated with their own “species”; why? In his book, The Most Dangerous Animal: Human Nature and the Origins of War, David Livingstone Smith places the dynamics of human interaction within the context of evolutionary biology. Smith first discusses David Hume’s theory of morality. Hume argued that our sympathies are skewed by three biases. The first is a bias toward similarity. Second, we are biased toward those with whom we come into direct contact, and Hume’s third bias is based on kinship. We are moral nepotists, favouring family members over people who are unrelated to us. Hume’s theory suggests that it is natural for human beings to be ethnocentric, xenophobic, and nepotistic. 

Smith notes that: Hume’s three principles fit biological theory like a glove. Human nepotism is identical to William Donald Hamilton’s “kin altruism”: we favour family members because they share our genes. Hume’s observation that we are biased toward people with whom we have direct contact can be explained by the fact that, as members of the same community, we are enmeshed with them in a web of interdependent, reciprocally altruistic relationships. Finally, Hume’s point that we are partial to people who resemble us in behaviour or appearance makes excellent biological sense given that these individuals are likely to share our genes or be members of our community or both. 

Aaron T. Beck, in his book Prisoners of Hate, suggests that “It probably was useful in our evolutionary past to react in an either-or fashion in discriminating friend from foe, prey from predator. It may have been adaptive to be on guard against the intrusive behaviour of other members of the clan when our own survival was at stake, but we generally no longer need the margin of safety provided by these archaic mechanisms in our ordinary interactions.” (p34)

To ensure that we do not fall under the evolutionary spell that encourages the exclusion of those we perceive as outside our ‘group’ we need to be consciously aware of the tendency. A shadow is removed by shinning a light on it. Once we are aware of the tendency we can put in place measures to counteract its effect and dismantle those structures that encourage it. If, as Hume suggests, we are positively biased toward people with whom we have direct contact, then opportunities must be created to allow direct contact. The Shared Education programmes do this by creating a series of opportunities for people to come together in shared activity. The learning of new skills in a group situation promotes social engagement whilst exploring the themes of cultural stereotypes and individual preferences encourages consciousness of the issues.

If we have a tendency to dehumanize those outside our ‘group’ then we need ways of reminding ourselves of our shared humanity. To do this we must see people as individuals and not as simply part of a generalized external grouping. Cultural stereotyping is the first step in placing the outsider in a ‘safe place’. They are not like us therefore they may not deserve the same level of respect. Indeed they can quickly become the enemy. There are various forms and degrees of dehumanization, but the most effective ones inspire hate, fear or repugnance. In his book, Smith suggests we can imagine the ‘enemy’ as a dangerous, subhuman beast that must be hunted and killed. He postulates that the human mind comes equipped with a predator detection module that is switched on by images of dangerous animals. Another image that enables dehumanizing the enemy is to picture him as a parasite, virus, rat, microbe, pest, louse, vermin to be eradicated. 

Discussions at the start of the Don't Judge a Book... project with the adult group revealed many experiences of this type of thinking leading to negative actions; being accosted in the street and told to go back were they came from, being racially abused, being socially excluded at communal events and instances of mixed-race children being bullied at school were reported. A youth participant described how pupils at the school they attended would not touch items they had touched, how they were verbally abused on a regular basis and even pushed down a flight of stairs. Hatred is not an academic discussion but has real world outcomes. "Hate is the consequence of fear," Cyril Connolly notes. "We fear something before we hate it."

The brain has evolved to use energy as efficiently as possible. One form this takes is the categorizing of things and people. Beck reports that the psychologist Gordon Allport suggested that placing people in categories has an adaptive function: “The human mind must think with the aid of categories....Once formed, categories are the basis for normal prejudgement. We cannot avoid the process. Orderly living depends on it.” By placing people in categories we help to make our adjustments to life “speedy, smooth and consistent.” This efficiency leads to stereotyping. Beck point out that this “readily leads to oversimplifying and consequently to distortion...When things go wrong, people are more likely to assign more blame to a member of the out-group than to a member of their own group.”  The Don’t Judge a Book... project, for example, acknowledges cultural stereotypes exist and accepts that not all cultural stereotypes are necessarily negative – 'the Northern Irish are friendly'. But these stereotypes do enable us to distance ourselves from others. By placing these generalisations on the cover of participants’ books they are exposed as the first thing people think about when they hear the word Mexican, German or African. 

Fortunately there are many positive features of human nature that can be used to lessen the hold of negative, evolved strategies. Empathy, generosity and altruism need to be promoted and rewarded. Beck suggests, “Corrective programs need to be directed at the kind of beliefs that justify violence: egocentrism and group egoism; punishment and retribution; diffusion of responsibility; permissive attitudes toward violence. Robert Fuller, in his article Somebodies and Nobodies states, “In order to open the door to accommodation, we have to show our antagonists the dignity we want them to extend to others and ourselves...Maintaining civility doesn't mean giving in to others' demands, but it does mean dealing with them respectfully...we remove hate from human intercourse--either by eliminating the causes of indignity or by restoring agency to indignity's victims...” 

Dignity is an attribute we apply to the individual. To treat someone with dignity we need to empathise with them on some level. Again, research suggests that people are more able and willing to empathise with those most similar to themselves. In particular, empathy increases with similarities in culture and living conditions. Importantly, empathy is more likely to occur between individuals whose interaction is more frequent. The Shared Education programmes are designed to facilitate interaction, discover similarities and counter identification with one particular culture.