Daily Tao – Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst – 3
Of course, this is not a uniform effect of religion; Norenzayan distinguishes between private and communal religiosity in surveying support for suicide bombers among Palestinians.17 In a refutation of “Islam = terrorism” idiocy, people’s personal religiosity (as assessed by how often they prayed) didn’t predict support for terrorism. However, frequently attending services at a mosque did. The author then polled Indian Hindus, Russian Orthodox adherents, Israeli Jews, Indonesian Muslims, British Protestants, and Mexican Catholics as to whether they’d die for their religion and whether people of other religions caused the world’s troubles. In all cases frequent attendance of religious services, but not frequent prayer, predicted those views. It’s not religiosity that stokes intergroup hostility; it’s being surrounded by coreligionists who affirm parochial identity, commitment, and shared loves and hatreds. This is hugely important.
An interesting quote I found that reflects much about human nature and why we tend to get into conflicts. Humans are capable of altruism towards members of their own group, but this same trend also reflects itself as people whom develop a group identity also tend to engage in conflict against other groups. People tend to find reasons to identify with themselves within a group.
Sapolsky also talks about intergroup hostility. As groups of people get into contact with each other, it provides a way to reduce the tension and build stronger bonds. However, contact can also elevate hostility. Getting groups to interact with each other can be a double-edged sword.
If you ever notice clique forming over at your workplace, or felt like a it is your clique at work against the rest of the company, it can also be a result of the above behaviour. Empathy is crucial as we should not only extend it to our friends and close one, but to those beyond our social group as well. It is only through taking a wider view that we can avoid unnecessary conflict. In some ways, the increasing divisiveness of the political landscape can be a good example of this.
