How to Harness Tribalism to Unify Americans

“To the contrary, we can take advantage of certain aspects of our tribal nature to ease tensions between groups and, critically, to pursue common goals that are important for human flourishing.”

By now, we have all heard that tribalism is part of human nature and the cause of many of our problems. And for good reason: There is a considerable amount of evidence at multiple levels of analysis—from historical studies to political science surveys and laboratory experiments—that humans naturally organize themselves in groups, think about the world in terms of groups, are biased in favor of those whom they perceive as part of their own group, and can relatively easily be provoked to distrust, dislike, and dehumanize members of other groups.

Many have argued that to reduce the negative consequences of our tribal nature, people should be encouraged to judge others as individuals. This is helpful and very much part of the classical liberal tradition that has not only advanced the cause of individual rights but has also deeply influenced the founding of the United States. The Founders understood the importance of treating each person as an individual under the law, even striving to break away from the group dynamics of social class by explicitly prohibiting the granting of titles of nobility.

However, we should also accept that no amount of conscious effort will fully liberate us from our tribal dispositions. To the contrary, we can take advantage of certain aspects of our tribal nature to ease tensions between groups and, critically, to pursue common goals that are important for human flourishing.

To accomplish this, we must first recognize the benefits of our tribal nature. Tribalism has a bad rap, but many of the social and group-oriented aspects of human psychology that can cause great harm and suffering are also key to the success of our species. Even in early individualistic America, the French commentator on American society, Alexis de Tocqueville, was struck by the ways in which Americans organized themselves into civil associations to accomplish everything from building hospitals to bringing to light some truth.