Each of us has experienced a feeling of kinship with someone who shares a love of chocolate, a passion for foreign films, or perhaps an affinity for a person with the same skin color or ethnic identity. We might also feel alienated from someone with the same qualities if he or she belongs to a "group" we do not like. But what exactly is this seemingly natural tendency to sort others into "kinds"? This question forms the core of Us and Them, which explores the conscious and unconscious ways in which people classify one anotherand more importantwhy. How humans can use this propensity constructively, rather than destructively, remains a central issue of our time, argues David Berreby, a veteran science journalist. Although this penchant may be hardwired into our brains, ultimately we choose how to live. Religious strife, political conflict and clan rivalries boil down to individual behavior.
Berreby says the sciences of brain and mind offer "a new way to look at love of country, at culture, at religion (and at hatred too)." Researchers are starting to understand "how and why people think and feel in tribes, and why all of us are capable of both tribal good and tribal evil." Advances are allowing scientists to grapple with such questions as "Why cant we all get along?" Berreby investigates the social, psychological and neurological mechanisms that move humans to categorize. For example, he considers how codes in the nervous system predispose us to organize perceptions, including ones that help us feel how other people feel. Sciences assault on our beliefs about race, religion and nationalism has shown that even much of "common sense" is both blind and cruel. Berreby reminds us that not long ago North Americans held by common sense that slavery was natural, women should not vote and only heterosexuals deserved respect. "Good riddance to all that," he says. Still, attitudes die hard. "A white person and a black person in todays New York City can agree over coffee that race is all in your mind," Berreby contends. "But when they leave Starbucks and raise their hands to hail a taxi, the white person is more likely to get a cab. In that moment, race is as real as gravity."
Given our drive to categorize, Berreby reflects thoughtfully on how to do so responsibly. "The Us-Them code does not own you," he concludes. "You own it."
Richard Lipkin
Berreby's aim is to demonstrate how greatly what he calls our "tribal" naturethe tendency to judge others according to categories, such as Muslims, lawyers, whitesgoverns our lives. Drawing on such diverse disciplines as psychology, genetics, and social neuroscience, he demonstrates both the frequent instability of such categoriesfor instance, the idea of Type A and Type B personalities, once influential in psychology, has been discreditedand their power. Berreby's thesis is often clouded by a superabundance of examples, but it is nonetheless a stimulating tour of a fascinating topic. He is particularly trenchant on the subject of race, a category more or less abandoned by geneticists but inexorable at a social level. He notes, "Racial and ethnic groups are real the way money is realbecause people believe they are and act on their beliefs."
Copyright © 2006 The New Yorker Remember the children's game "What Doesn't Fit and Why?" It's one thing to look at a group of objects and determine the odd item that doesn't belong; it's a different matter entirely when such exclusionary measures are applied to human beings. And yet, claims Berreby, that's just what occurs during virtually every interpersonal interaction humans undertake. Although it is natural and even essential to form alliances based on inherent criteria, the danger occurs when labels are assigned or stereotypes are reinforced that introduce a divisive rather than unifying element to social, cultural, political, and religious affiliations. How, when, and why such discriminatory thinking takes place is the subject of Berreby's engaging, timely, and relevant examination of the myriad ways in which humans group themselves according to specific affiliations. At a time when everything from high-school initiations to ethnic genocide can trace its root to such segregationist tendencies, Berreby's thought-provoking analysis is essential. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Review
"A provocative investigation of the tribal mindset.'' -- Kirkus Reviews
"A stimulating tour of a fascinating topic." -- The New Yorker, March 6, 2006
David Berreby's intellectually nervy new book ... arrives as an inspired mix of casual philosophy, applied science and acquired wisdom. -- Carlin Romano, Philadalphia Inquirer, Nov 13, 2005
Tribes are tricky, at once so solid yet so evanescent ... [they're] the protean subject of David Berreby's brave book. -- Henry Gee, Scientific American, December 2005
`` ... fascinating ... Not since Gordon Allport's Nature Of Prejudice has . . . belonging and not belonging received such serious treatment.'' -- Library Journal
From the Inside Flap
Red States and Blue States Old and Young Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists Married and Single Black, White, and Asian SUV owners and Minivan owners There are so many ways to sort people. We all do it, all the time. From everyday decisions (who to invite to dinner?) to life choices (who to marry?) to the great turning points of history (who to war against?), we re guided by an ever-present sense, in any situation, of who belongs with whom, and what that belonging means. Everyone is part of many groups at once, of course you might be a woman, a parent, a Republican, an American, and a Hindu. So how do we decide which identities matter? Why do they matter so much? What makes people willing to die, or to kill, for a religion, nation, race, or caste? In this groundbreaking book, David Berreby shows how science tackles these questions of group identity. Drawing on new findings from anthropology to neuroscience, he argues that this ``tribal sense is a part of human nature, expressing itself in every aspect of life.
The effects run deep, shaping our lives and opportunities. Us and Them elegantly explains how this tribal sense: Alters our thoughts: Show older people a negative image of the aged, and they act more feeble. Asian women reminded of their Asian heritage did better on a math test than those who were reminded they were women. In a small room, the lone holdout against a group s opinion usually gives in and changes even when it s obvious that the group is wrong. Affects our health: People s sense of their place in society directly links to measures of stress, depression, and cholesterol levels Can be manipulated for both good and ill to make people feel that injustice and oppression are perfectly normal, for instance, or at other times, to help people set aside hatred in favor of reconciliation. One experimenter made a group of young summer campers into warring ``tribes. And, just as easily, he brought them back together. Us and Them explains how and why it s all a matter of how the tribal buttons are pushed. We can t live without our tribal sense. It tells us who we are and how we should behave. It frees us from the narrow confines of the self, linking us to others and the past and the future. Some condemn this instinct, as if it were only a source of evil. Others celebrate it, as if loyalty and faith were never misused. David Berreby brilliantly describes a third alternative: How we can accept and understand our inescapable tribal mind.
From the Back Cover
````Us and Them is thoughtful, witty, and impressively wide-ranging. Drawing on research in biology, neuroscience, and sociology, David Berreby offers a compelling new look at how we divide ourselves against one another." -- Carl Zimmer, author of Soul Made Flesh and Evolution: The Triumph of an Idea "In Us and Them,David Berreby ranges from cutting-edge brain research to today s headlines, and his topic one that lies at the very root of human conflict couldn t be more compelling. Although there may always be some objective basis for a human group, all groups cross-cut and overlap.Our own circumstances and minds determine which groups we give importance to.Everyone should take Berreby s message to heart." Derek Bickerton, author of Language and Species, and Professor of Linguistics, University of Hawai i
"What makes Them different from Us? The answer, according to this surprising book, may reside in the twists and turns of the brain. In his witty, provocative, and very amiable look at the tribal mind, David Berreby uses modern neuroscience, philosophy, and plain old counterintuitive thinking to explore the psychology of racism, nationalism, religious persecution, social oppression, and all the other ways that humans categorize and then demonize their fellows. He has seen the enemy, and it is Us." Stephen S.Hall,author of Merchants of Immortality
"David Berreby bravely plunges into the most critical topic of this or any other time, our compulsion for dividing people into good guys and bad guys. Us and Them not only provokes, fascinates, and informs; it is one of those rare books that may actually make a difference." John Horgan,author of The End of Science and Rational Mysticism
"David Berreby brings wit, charm, and curiosity to his book about the ugliest habits of our species an amazing feat.He steers with a sure hand between the Scylla of earnestness and the Charybdis of detachment while he explains how the psychological, social, and brain sciences are learning about our readiness to divide all humanity intoUs and Them." Jonathan Shay,MD, PhD, author of Achilles in Vietnam
About the Author
David Berreby has written about the intersection of science, culture and politics for The New York Times, The New York Times Magazine, The New Republic, Slate, Discover, Smithsonian, The Sciences and many other publications. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.
