tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post4147610959228832425..comments2024-03-23T03:21:04.152-07:00Comments on The Social Atom: Diversity IIMark Buchananhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11288455251267863265noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post-43287267774559900712007-08-12T11:41:00.000-07:002007-08-12T11:41:00.000-07:00Thank you for the nod! It gave me a thrill to see ...Thank you for the nod! It gave me a thrill to see my name in print.<BR/><BR/>The Kurzban, Tooby, and Cosmides finding is encouraging because the future is going to bring increasingly heterogeneous communities, whether the consequences are positive or negative. <BR/><BR/>Less encouraging is the assertion that humans are hard-wired to seek reliable signals of affiliative coalitions. That suggests that patterns of in-group resource-sharing will not change, that only that the nature of the in-group will morph. That strikes me as an argument for a government that values equality and that can maintain a level playing field.<BR/><BR/>With regard to lowered social capital within heterogeneous groups, I thought of a mechanism that might be involved. <A HREF="http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/research.html" REL="nofollow">Roy Baumeister's</A> research has found that <A HREF="http://www.psy.fsu.edu/~baumeistertice/baumeisteretal2005.pdf" REL="nofollow">people who believe they are going to be socially isolated</A> in the future (or who are told that their co-workers don't want to work with them) experience a loss of self-regulation, impaired logical reasoning, increased aggressiveness, an avoidance of self-awareness, and increased passivity. That sounds a lot like Putnam's "hunkering down" to me.<BR/><BR/>This is speculation, of course, but I wonder if the phenomena of decreased "social capital" in heterogeneous communities is related to the individual level mechanism of anticipated social isolation. That is, the emergence of out-groups within a homogeneous community may unconsciously threaten individuals with future social isolation, and they hunker down, accordingly.peaceable_tatehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16927995538292007453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3180555273509830586.post-13685632714546556042007-08-10T04:39:00.000-07:002007-08-10T04:39:00.000-07:00The question is whether the costs(that have been e...The question is whether the costs(that have been established by scientists) outweigh the benefits(promoted by the media and business). BTW I recommend Dr Frank Salter's "On Genetic Interests" for a more serious investigation into ethnic markers, our need for them and their inherent worth. He takes Dawkins self-gene to its logical conclusion. Really brilliant stuff.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com