Shankar Vedantam

And so what it suggests is what is referred to in the literature as basking in reflected glory is that when your in-group does well, it makes you feel good.

You have a response in your brain as if you won or something good happened to you.

And the same thing I think happens to sports fans.

You can be sitting at home watching the TV all alone and running around and jumping and cheering as if you've accomplished something when your team wins.

And this is what we found in the lab.

There's a couple of key factors that determine why we're so attracted to groups.

I think the deepest one is it's something in our biology.

So humans evolved for almost the entirety of human history in these small tribal communities.

And we're pretty flimsy creatures.

We don't have sharp teeth or poison or wings to fly away if a predator comes.

And so we survive by cooperating in groups and coalitions within those groups.

And so we have those same tendencies.

And then what you have in a modern environment that matters is that groups fill our need to belong.

You know, they help us gain status if we're part of a successful group.

And they also give us a sense of distinctiveness.

If our group is different from others, it tells us a little bit in the world about who we are.

So these brothers, it was World War II, 1943.

And the one brother, Addy, he and his wife climbed into the same shelter as his brother Rudolf's family.

And Addy said, according to legend, the dirty bastards are back again.

And we don't know if Addy was referring to the Allied war planes who were coming to bomb them, but Rudy apparently interpreted this as an insult intended for himself and his family.