Part of the Learn library. Loyalty, us-versus-them thinking, conformity and the pull of what others seem to believe.
People are social animals, and much of what they believe arrives through the groups they belong to. Group membership shapes whom people trust, how they read evidence, what they are willing to say aloud and what they will do when an authority asks. These pages cover the research on identity, loyalty, conformity and consensus, and how messages that speak to "us" and "them" draw on it.
Each page carries an evidence rating explained in How we rate the evidence.
Pages
- Social identity — Social identity (evidence: strong). Group membership as part of who people are.
- In-group favoritism — In-group favoritism (evidence: strong). Treating one's own side better than outsiders.
- Out-group homogeneity — Out-group homogeneity (evidence: moderate). "They" all seem alike; "we" are individuals.
- Conformity — Conformity (evidence: strong). Going along with the group, and what Asch actually found.
- Social proof — Social proof (evidence: moderate). Treating what others do as evidence of what to do.
- Obedience to authority — Obedience to authority (evidence: moderate). Milgram's findings and how they are read today.
- Dehumanization — Dehumanization (evidence: moderate). Portraying people as less than human, and what it predicts.
- Group polarization — Group polarization (evidence: strong). Like-minded discussion pushes groups further out.
- Pluralistic ignorance — Pluralistic ignorance (evidence: moderate). Everyone privately doubts a norm but assumes others hold it.
- Moral foundations — Moral foundations (evidence: mixed). The theory that political groups weight moral concerns differently, and its critiques.