Coalitional instincts: what are they, characteristics, advantages and disadvantages

It was the American anthropologist John Tooby who proposed the idea that the concept called “coalitional instincts” should have greater recognition within psychology and the scientific community Because he considers that they have a great influence on society and people's beliefs.

Coalitional instincts are considered by many evolutionary scientists to be an inherent characteristic to human nature that considerably influences the behavior of people within their environment Social.

In this email we will explain what the concept of coalition instincts consists of, as well as the way in which they can influence people's lives.

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What are coalition instincts?

Although there is no consensual definition for this concept, the definition that says that coalitional instincts are a repertoire of innate and universal instincts that influence the way human beings behave in social contexts.

These instincts move people to seek to form a group, belong to an association, defend certain values, oppose or resist doing certain things, attack in certain contexts; in short, to form diverse coalitions in different contexts that move a person to act in different ways depending on having been moved by one type of coalition or another.

Each coalition is made up of a group of people who see themselves and / or are seen by others as sharing a particular identity that they all have in common.

This way of seeing others is characteristic of human beings, since Throughout evolution, the ability to unite in coalitions was acquired knowing that two people can beat one, three can beat two, and so on., moving from dominating alpha males to a coalition group where members join forces to respond to dangers and threats external to the group, as if someone were to was left alone was at the mercy of others and his life was in danger, so coalitional instincts motivated all human beings to belong to some group to have protection.

Thus, it has been shown that forming coalitions has been of great help in solving certain challenges in groups, because they could not be solved individually, it has great advantages.

It is because of that we are descended from those who knew how to use their coalition instincts correctly to join forces and survive, so we have inherited these instincts. For this reason, nowadays we follow our coalition instincts to be part of various types of coalitions (in work, in the family, different social groups, associations, sports teams, and even by nationality, among others).

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Coalitional instincts as a need to belong to a group

Coalitional instincts generate the need in human beings to belong to a coalition, and in some cases, that need to be part of a coalition. coalition could, among other things, the reason why some groups have a series of strange beliefs and disconnected with reality (for example, in the sects).

These instincts could even be one of the reasons why there is this need to be part of a group, even if it is for radical ideas in which its members consider themselves morally superior to those who do not share their ideas and there is a rejection towards them.

In addition, in some groups a series of requirements are demanded from those who want to be part of the himself, among whom unconditional support for the group is usually compared to those who are against its ideas.

On the other hand, there are numerous cross-cultural studies that have shown that human beings, in addition to being social, are cooperators by nature, something that could be verified by studying the way of behaving socially of thousands of children of different cultures, where they proved to be psychologically adapted to cooperate with other persons.

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Problems that coalition instincts can generate

On some occasions, coalition instincts can generate conflicts in various sectors, such as science, politics or sports.

In science, when coalitions are formed by some scientists based on certain investigated questions, It can become harmful if they maintain an iron and inflexible posture based on the ideas of the coalition formed, in such a way that that can moralize the scientific process, making it difficult for another group to dispute the validity of their research.

Even when results are proven contrary to the hypotheses supported by their coalition, these groups could put their interests above scientific truth, which is what should prevail over one's own interests for the common good, since the Science, above all, should seek development and advance on the basis of verifiable discoveries, without being biased by the ideals of any coalition.

Therefore, it is not uncommon that throughout the History all kinds of attacks have been generated between different coalitions of members belonging to different scientific scholastics based on a struggle to be right. Something very similar to what has happened by different political parties, radical ideology groups, even in groups of fans of sports teams.

When a group moves or insane coalition instincts, the background to the issue may be grounded in various motives, such as the control of a territory, status, fight for certain resources, seize power, force moral, etc.

Likewise, in this class of coalitions there is often the situation that the members of their groups rebuke a certain behavior on the part of someone outside their group and, in the event that a member of their group acted in a similar way, they would come to forgive their actions and even justify their behavior.

However, coalitional instincts do not generate conflicts in all cases, but tend to occur when groups are formed in based on a series of extremist ideas and the members of the group maintain a closed and inflexible posture, without opening the doors to the debate.

Removing these extreme cases, they have generally helped humans to form groups, uniting the forces of each and every one of the members of different groups, in such a way that they have achieved great achievements that a single person would not have been able to achieve, as we discussed at beginning.

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Coalitional instincts in the workplace

Coalitional instincts, just as they allowed human beings to join forces as members of a group to get ahead and survive in difficult situations, today they can also be positive for better development in the workplace.

Coalitions develop when different people come together for a common cause and, in the case of a workplace, it would be to meet the company's goals for the who work, each member contributing his grain of sand with the tasks that he must carry out, so that when all fulfill their functions, these objectives are usually achieved.

There are business leaders who are interested in fostering these coalitions within the workplace. because they can be a great tool to create a good atmosphere in the workplace that helps your employees coordinate and work more efficiently, helping each other. With good cohesion and good performance in the workplace, workers have more probabilities of obtaining rewards extrinsic (economic benefits) and intrinsic (being satisfied with his work).

For this, it can be useful for leaders to encourage their employees to search for a common meaning about the company, so that all have the same sense of belonging and the connection between them and with the company is intensified, which could be seen as the identity of the company.

These situations can also occur in other contexts that facilitate coalition development., for example, among the students of a university faculty, the athletes of the same team, etc.