One of the few social psychological studies that actually put real, ongoing groups into real and protracted conflict was the famous "summer camp" study carried out by Muzafar Sherif [1], who brought two groups of twelve-year-old boys to a summer camp in a state park in Oklahoma in 1954. At first, the two groups did not even know of each others' existence, yet even so, each group started marking territory and creating a tribal identify for itself. Both groups engaged in some mild tribal behaviors that would be useful if the group were to encounter a rival group that claimed the same territory. That is what happened on day 6 when the "Rattlers" discovered that the "Eagles" were playing baseball on what the Rattlers took to be "their" ball-field. The Rattlers then challenged the Eagles to a game, which initiated a weeklong series of competitions that Sherif had planned from the start.
Once the competition began, it was as though a switch was flipped in each boy's head. As Sherif described it: "performance in all activities which might now become competitive (tent pitching, baseball, etc.) was entered into with more zest and also with more efficiency." Tribal behaviors increased dramatically. Both sides created flags and hung them in contested territories. They raided each others' bunks, called each other names, and even made weapons (socks filled with rocks.)
Were these acts altruistic? Technically yes, because each tribal behavior had some cost for the individual, and it benefitted the group's cohesiveness or effectiveness. But I think the opposite of selfishness in evolutionary terms should not always be altruism. For the purposes of the present debate, things get clearer if we contrast selfishness with
groupishness. The hand of group-level selection is most vividly seen when we look at behaviors that impose some cost on the individual, but that do not transfer that cost as a benefit to one or several specific other group member (which would help the selfish individualists prosper in a multi-level analysis). Rather, mental mechanisms that encourage individuals to do things that help their team succeed, despite some cost to the self, are the most likely candidates for having come down to us by a path in which group-selection played a part.
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[1] Sherif, M., Harvey, O. J., White, B. J., Hood, W., & Sherif, C. [1961/1954]. Intergroup conflict and cooperation: The Robbers Cave experiment Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Institute of Group Relations.
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In sum, most of our social psychology, and even most of our moral psychology, was shaped by individual-level selection. There has always been competition among individuals within groups, competing for status, mates, and the trust of potential partners for cooperation. But if you examine the psychological traits that motivate and enable cohesion, trust, and effective coordination, and if you do this during times of intergroup conflict, you will find many behaviors and mental mechanisms that are much harder to explain using only individual-level mechanisms. You will find yourself swimming among group-selected traits.
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