Group Think
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How do our group identities shape our sense of self?
This is Hidden Brain. I'm Shankar Vedantam. When Nelson Mandela became South Africa's first black president in 1994, he had big dreams for his bitterly divided country. We enter into a covenant that we shall build a society, a rainbow nation, at peace with itself and the world. He had spent a lifetime fighting the racist apartheid regime, including more than a quarter century in prison.
He was a heroic figure already by that time. But to many white South Africans, they saw him as a criminal and a terrorist.
This is psychologist J. Van Bevel. As president of a united South Africa, Nelson Mandela, or Madiba as he was known to his supporters, needed to find a way for the people in his rainbow nation to see themselves as South Africans first. Other politicians might have turned to speeches and policies. Madiba turned to sports.
Play continues. Offside by New Zealand. He used the Rugby World Cup, which was being hosted in South Africa.
What role does sports play in uniting divided communities?
And during the apartheid era, South Africa had been banned from competition. And the South African team was known as the Springboks. And they were beloved by the white South Africans and despised by the black population. But what Mandela did was he went out onto the podium, not just as the president, but as a fan, he had the green Springboks cap and jersey, and he used it as a way to make a statement that we're one team, we're one country now, and he took a symbol of oppression and used it as a symbol of togetherness. The president to the captain.
The Springboks team captain, Francois Pienaar, remembers the moment Madiba walked into the team's locker room. It was before the finals against New Zealand. He said, good luck boys, and he turned around. And my number was on his back and that was me. I couldn't sing the anthem because I knew I would cry. I was just so proud to be a South Africa that day. The match was a nail-biter. It went into overtime. South Africa ended up winning 15 to 12. Across the country, black and white South Africans cheered together in triumph.
Francois Pienaar and Nelson Mandela is cheering along with the whole of the stadium.
How do group identities influence our preferences and choices?
Nelson Mandela knew that getting enemies to cheer for the same sports team was only a start. Much work remained to heal the wounds of apartheid. But his intervention revealed how a psychologically astute leader can find ways to create connections among people, even better enemies. This week on Hidden Brain, how the groups we belong to can bring us together, tear us apart, and transform our understanding of the world.
When we think about what we do and why we do it, we often assume we are acting intentionally and autonomously. I do something because I want to do it. I choose to do it. In recent years, social scientists have shown that this is often untrue. Our actions, our preferences, the very way we see the world is filtered through the prism of our group identities. This idea has fascinated J. Van Bevel for a long time. He's a psychologist at New York University. He has studied how our group loyalties pull us together, how they tear us apart, and how we can apply what we have learned about the science of group identity to build better lives and better communities. J. Van Bevel, welcome to Hidden Brain.
Thanks for having me.
I want to start by talking about some of the ways in which our group identities can draw us together with other people, Jay.
What surprising effects do scary movies have on our emotions?
You grew up in Canada, and I understand your parents told you to sew the Canadian national flag onto your backpack. Did you ever find yourself bonding with other Canadians when you traveled overseas?
Yeah, so this is a great piece of advice you learn if you're ever going to travel in Canada. Your family, your friends will tell you to sew a Canadian flag on your backpack so that it serves as a signal to other people in other parts of the world who you are and where you're from. Canada is a reasonably well-liked and respected country, but it does something even better, which is it allows you to connect with people. So I was actually on my first ever international trip in high school, and we were in Venice, you know, one of the most beautiful, interesting cities in the world, some of the best food in the world.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
How do our group identities shape our sense of self?
0:00–1:07
2
What role does sports play in uniting divided communities?
1:07–2:23
3
How do group identities influence our preferences and choices?
2:23–3:59
4
What surprising effects do scary movies have on our emotions?
3:59–5:25
5
How does morbid curiosity benefit our psychological resilience?
5:25–6:36
6
What are the psychological effects of experiencing fear in a controlled environment?
6:36–7:41
7
How can group identities be harnessed to overcome divisions?
7:41–9:16
8
What lessons can we learn from the stories of individuals affected by group dynamics?
9:16–1:27:50