Michael Morris07 December 2024

Why Are We More Divided Than Ever? - Michael Morris - #874

0Frameworks

19Insights

Insights & moments

The myth-busts, hot takes, explainers, and tools worth keeping.

Myth Buster· 5

Myth Buster02:00

The 'Toxic Tribalism' Doom Narrative Is Wrong

Morris pushes back on the popular pundit framing that tribalism is a resurgent evolutionary curse dooming modern democracy. He argues tribal instincts are fundamentally instincts for solidarity, not hostility, and that every generation believes it's living through uniquely dire tribal conflict.

Pundits use 'toxic tribalism' as a catch-all, despairing explanation implying the 'genie is out of the bottle.'
Every generation thinks it's living through 'the end times' of social conflict.
Tribal instincts are instincts for solidarity with your own group, not instincts for hating others.
Conflict with other groups is a side effect, not the evolved purpose, of tribal wiring.

“I call it the trope of toxic tribalism.”
Michael Morris · 03:00

“They're not instincts for hostility. They're instincts for solidarity.”
Michael Morris · 04:00

#tribalism#myth-busting#politics#evolution

Myth Buster07:30

Tribalism Is 95% About 'Us,' Not 'Them'

Morris corrects the assumption that tribalism is primarily about hating outsiders. He argues ancestral humans had little contact with other tribes, so almost all tribal psychology evolved around cooperating with your own group — not fighting rivals.

Stone Age population density was so low that daily contact was almost entirely within one's own tribe.
Evolution favored traits for effective in-group collaboration, not for seeking conflict with outsiders.
Roughly 95% of tribal wiring is 'us' instincts; 'them' instincts wouldn't have been adaptive to evolve.
An out-group can still serve as a foil that sharpens in-group identity and distinctiveness.

“I would say 95% of our tribal wiring is about us, not about them.”
Michael Morris · 08:00

“It wouldn't have been adaptive to go looking for other tribes to fight with.”
Michael Morris · 09:30

#tribalism#in-group#evolution#psychology

Myth Buster19:00

DEI Bias Training Can Make Prejudice Worse

Morris challenges the premise behind much unconscious-bias training, arguing racial and ethnic tension stems from 'us' instincts (in-group conformity) rather than a hidden hatred of other groups. Telling people they harbor unconscious hate, he says, makes them feel falsely accused and can measurably increase polarization and workplace avoidance.

Rising ethnic/racial tribalism is better explained by in-group ('us') instincts than by an innate drive to hate.
Bias-training workshops that tell people they harbor unconscious hate often produce a false-accusation backlash.
Evidence suggests such training can polarize groups rather than unite them.
It can make people more inhibited about interacting, mentoring, or hiring across ethnic lines — the opposite of the intended effect.

“It makes people feel falsely accused, and there's a lot of evidence that it polarizes groups.”
Michael Morris · 19:30

#dei#bias-training#workplace#polarization

Myth Buster25:00

Babies Judge You by Your Accent, Not Your Race

Morris cites research showing infants form group preferences based on language and accent long before they show any race-based bias — even prenatally, from hearing their mother's dialect in the womb. Studies with food-preference experiments show babies expect people who share a language to share food tastes, but show no equivalent race-based assumption until around age six.

Fetuses hear and register their mother's dialect in the womb; neonates prefer food shown to their mother's-dialect speaker over a different dialect speaker.
Children don't preferentially socialize by race until around age six.
In experiments, babies show surprise when a French speaker reaches for 'English' food, showing an early language-food association.
Race is not a universal trigger for tribal sorting — it's learned in societies where physiognomy correlates with cultural groups (unlike, e.g., Israel/Palestine or Russia/Ukraine).

“Babies are not racist... but they already judge you on your accent.”
Michael Morris · 28:00

“I have been spouting this people are more racist against accents than they are against skin colors thing for a while.”
Chris Williamson · 26:30

#language#race#psychology#child-development

Myth Buster91:00

'Most Divided Ever'? Not Even Close, Says History

Morris rejects the common claim that America has never been more politically divided, pointing to the Civil War era as a far more severe rift: Lincoln won with under 40% of the popular vote, seven states seceded before he was even inaugurated, and outright war followed weeks later.

Abraham Lincoln took office with less than 40% of the popular vote.
Seven states seceded before his inauguration, and the Civil War began weeks after.
Calling today 'the most divided ever' ignores basic American history.
Doomsaying rhetoric implies today's problems are uniquely unprecedented, which the historical record contradicts.

“America has never been more divided politically. That is absolute nonsense if you know your history.”
Michael Morris · 91:00

“Abraham Lincoln took over with less than 40% of the popular vote. Seven states seceded before his inauguration.”
Michael Morris · 91:00

#history#polarization#politics#myth-busting

Hot Take· 1

Hot Take05:30

Media Incentives Created a 'Cascade of Cassandras'

Morris argues the doom-laden 'we're more divided than ever' narrative is driven less by reality and more by media and thought-leader incentives that reward the most dramatic, worrisome claims with clicks and attention.

Dramatic, worrisome statements get more clicks, creating an arms race among commentators.
Everyone tries to 'out-Cassandra' the other Cassandras to become the pundit du jour.
'What makes for good op-eds doesn't necessarily make for good policies.'
Grounding tribalism discussion in science would elevate the public conversation.

“There has been a cascade of Cassandras... everybody wants to out-Cassandra the other Cassandras.”
Michael Morris · 06:30

“What makes for good op-eds doesn't necessarily make for good policies.”
Michael Morris · 07:00

#media#incentives#punditry#tribalism

Explainer· 6

Explainer00:00

Tribalism Was Evolution's 'Killer App'

Morris explains why tribal instincts evolved: they let humans live in large culture-sharing groups (unlike chimps, capped near 50 members before violence breaks out). This allowed cultures to compound in complexity generation after generation, letting humans out-compete every other species without getting any smarter individually.

Chimp troops cap out around 50 individuals before turning violent; human tribal instincts removed that ceiling.
Tribes are large groups united by shared culture, not just kinship.
Each generation could inherit an improved culture rather than reinventing it, compounding advantage over time.
Humans out-competed other species by getting better cultures, not bigger brains.

“Tribalism is what got us out of the Stone Age.”
Michael Morris · 00:00

“It just turned out to be the ultimate killer app of evolution.”
Michael Morris · 01:00

#evolution#tribalism#culture#anthropology

Explainer04:00

Your Sweet Tooth Explains Why Tribal Instincts Misfire

Morris uses the evolved preference for sweet taste (adaptive for finding fruit, maladaptive next to two donut shops) as an analogy for tribal instincts: they aren't flawed or malicious, they're just being triggered by a modern environment they weren't built for.

We evolved a sweet-taste preference because fruit was nutritious, not to make us gluttons.
Living near two donut shops turns a healthy instinct into an unhealthy behavior — the instinct itself isn't broken.
Framing tribal conflict as 'flawed wiring' vs. 'misapplied wiring' changes what solutions look like.
Understanding the original adaptive purpose gives a better way to cope than assuming humanity is 'cursed.'

“It doesn't mean that it's an instinct for gluttony. It's an instinct for fruit.”
Michael Morris · 04:30

#evolution#psychology#tribalism

Explainer12:30

Residential Sorting and Cable News Split America

Morris traces the sharp rise in US political polarization over the last two generations to two concrete historical shifts: residential sorting (liberals to coasts/college towns, conservatives to exurbs) and the fracturing of media from three balanced network channels into partisan cable, then even more partisan websites and social media.

Two generations ago most people didn't know their neighbors' or coworkers' party affiliation.
Residential sorting created ideologically 'inbred' communities where nearly everyone heard the same opinions.
FCC-mandated balanced network news (Walter Cronkite era) gave everyone shared 'common knowledge.'
Cable news (Fox, MSNBC), then partisan websites, then social media each deepened the echo-chamber effect.
Social media lowered the cost of virtue signaling while raising the social reward for it.

“Two generations ago, my parents, they didn't know whether their neighbors were Democrats or Republicans.”
Michael Morris · 13:00

“The costs of virtue signaling have gone way down and the rewards have gone way up.”
Michael Morris · 15:30

#polarization#politics#media#history

Explainer17:00

Why We Assume Opposing Politicians Are Liars or Cognitively Impaired

Morris explains that because political beliefs form largely through unconscious conformity (the 'peer instinct') within a narrow media bubble, we mistake our own conformist views for objective reality — so when we hear the opposing side, we can't fathom how they believe it and default to assuming they're insincere or intellectually deficient.

The peer instinct is an unconscious tendency to absorb beliefs from the people and media around us, 'learning by osmosis.'
Because we consume a lot of news, we feel confident in beliefs that actually come from a narrow slice of the opinion spectrum.
When confronted with the other side's views, the common reaction is disbelief, followed by accusations of insincerity or cognitive decline.
Both Biden and Trump faced accusations of dementia/IQ deficiency from opposing partisans — a symptom of this pattern.
We don't recognize our own conformist bias, so the other side's conformist bias looks extreme by comparison.

“We're just dumbfounded... we don't understand how they could possibly believe what they're saying.”
Michael Morris · 17:00

#polarization#politics#psychology#bias

Explainer52:30

Soldiers Don't Fight for Country — They Fight for Their Buddies

Morris explains that military research consistently finds soldiers risk their lives on the battlefield primarily out of loyalty to their immediate 'buddies from boot camp,' not abstract patriotism. He extends this to a surprising finding about terrorists: studies show they tend to be above-average in mental health and social connectedness, not isolated or mentally ill.

Studies of militaries find combat risk-taking is driven by loyalty to close comrades, not country or ideology.
The common assumption that terrorists are mentally ill loners doesn't hold up — research finds they're typically above-average in mental health and well-connected.
Central, popular members of a radicalized community (e.g. a mosque) are the ones most likely to escalate to violence, for the same social-bonding reasons soldiers fight for buddies.
This reframes extremism as a social-bonding phenomenon rather than a pathology of isolated individuals.

“Why do people risk their life on the battlefield? Is it for their country?... No, it's because of their buddies from boot camp.”
Michael Morris · 52:30

#military#extremism#social-psychology#hero-instinct

Explainer76:00

The Cult Recruitment Playbook: Love Bombing and Network Isolation

Morris lays out the specific recruitment mechanics cults use — targeting socially unmoored people, 'love bombing' them with attention and flattery, then isolating them at a retreat with no phones or news before pulling them away from friends and family. He notes this same playbook is used by seminaries and other legitimate institutions, and explains why it becomes dangerous specifically when a single leader monopolizes all status.

Cults use 'network isolation' — targeting people not tightly embedded in existing communities, like transfer students or recent army veterans.
Recruits get 'love bombed': surrounded by people hanging on their words and telling them they have special potential.
Retreats cut off phones, news, and normal routine, replacing it with early mornings, low-protein diets, chanting, and confession sessions.
After the retreat, cult members are told to distance from friends and family, and family pushback ends up confirming the cult's narrative.
The real danger point is when the cult leader gains a monopoly on status — unlike normal life where admiration is spread across multiple heroes (the Pope, Messi, Mick Jagger).

“Network isolation, where they will find somebody who maybe is not tightly embedded in a community... and they love bomb them.”
Michael Morris · 76:00

#cults#psychology#hero-instinct#manipulation

Story· 5

Story36:30

The Bushmen Ritual That Keeps Star Hunters Humble

Morris tells the story of 'insulting the meat,' a ritual among the Bushmen/San people where elders mock successful hunters' kills to prevent status from going to their heads. Despite the outward egalitarianism, modern anthropologists measuring actual hunting success found it correlates with reproductive success just as strongly as in openly hierarchical societies.

When a hunter returns with a big kill like an antelope, elders mock it as scrawny and worthless-sounding.
Older anthropologists read this as evidence hunter-gatherer groups had no status hierarchy at all.
Modern biological anthropologists measured hunting success against number of children fathered years later.
The correlation between hunting success and reproductive success was just as strong as in stratified, unequal societies — the ritual levels status expression, not actual status rewards.

“Look at that scrawny thing. There's practically no meat on it. What is that? A mouse?”
Michael Morris · 37:30

#anthropology#status#hunter-gatherer#hero-instinct

Story48:30

What Predicted Who'd Risk Their Life for Civil Rights

Morris recounts a study of the 1964 Freedom Summer voter-registration program in Mississippi, where several volunteers were murdered by the KKK just as the program began. Researchers later analyzed applications to find what distinguished the roughly one-third who stayed from the two-thirds who quit — and it wasn't ideology.

Freedom Summer trained idealistic college students to register Black voters in Mississippi in the 1960s.
Several early volunteers were murdered by the KKK shortly after the program launched, prompting a wave of dropouts.
A sociologist later compared applications between 'stayers' and 'quitters' — political values and activism history showed no difference.
The only predictor: stayers had close personal friends in the program or belonged to a sponsoring organization — social embeddedness, not ideology, predicted courage.

“The stayers were people who happen to have close personal friends who were also in the program.”
Michael Morris · 51:30

#history#courage#social-psychology#civil-rights

Story61:30

The Myth That Saved a Village From a Tsunami

Morris tells the story of the 'sea gypsies' of Thailand, whose oral traditions about how the ocean behaves before a tsunami — including the counterintuitive warning that a receding ocean means danger, not opportunity — meant they suffered far fewer deaths than surrounding coastal villages in the 2004 tsunami.

The sea gypsies' songs and myths described what the ocean looks like before a tsunami hits.
A receding ocean can look like an invitation to explore tidal pools, but their lore taught 'if the ocean recedes, head for the hills.'
They lost comparatively few people in the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami versus nearby coastal villages.
Illustrates how seemingly superstitious traditions can encode real, life-saving adaptive knowledge across generations.

“They have all these songs and myths about how the ocean looks when there's a tsunami.”
Michael Morris · 61:30

#myth#tsunami#ancestor-instinct#tradition

Story62:30

Noah's Flood Myth May Be Real Ancient Geology

Morris explains that flood myths appearing across unrelated cultures worldwide, including Aboriginal Australian groups, may be oral-tradition memories of a real sea-level rise roughly 7,000-8,000 years ago. Geologists simulating ancient coastal flooding found Aboriginal flood myths matched the simulated events for their specific regions.

Flood myths (like Noah's) appear independently across cultures worldwide, not just in the Bible.
A real global sea-level rise occurred roughly 7,000-8,000 years ago at the end of a mini ice age.
Anthropologists collecting Aboriginal Australian flood myths teamed with geologists who simulated ancient flooding by region.
The myths matched the simulated historical flooding patterns for their specific locations, suggesting oral tradition preserved a real geological event for thousands of years.

“The Noah story is our primordial flood myth, but it likely is the remnant of this event that happened that really happened.”
Michael Morris · 65:00

#myth#geology#ancestor-instinct#history

Story91:30

Lincoln Invented Thanksgiving to Unify a Divided Country

Morris reveals that the popular belief Thanksgiving has been celebrated continuously since the Pilgrims is a myth largely created by Abraham Lincoln, who instituted the holiday during the Civil War specifically to give the fractured nation a shared ancestral tradition to rally around.

Most Americans believe Thanksgiving has been practiced continuously since the Pilgrims — that continuity is itself a myth.
Lincoln and contemporaries invoked precedents like the Pilgrims and George Washington to make the new holiday feel like a time-honored tradition rather than an invention.
Lincoln's first inaugural address invoked 'the mystic chords of memory' — shared ancestry — as the resource for healing division.
The holiday became an instant, sacred national tradition within about a decade, helping bring the country back together after the Civil War.

“The mystic chords of memory will yet swell the chorus of the Union.”
Michael Morris · 91:30

“Most Americans have the notion that Thanksgiving has been practiced ever since the pilgrims... that's a myth that was created in part by Abraham Lincoln.”
Michael Morris · 92:30

#history#thanksgiving#lincoln#ancestor-instinct

Q&A· 1

Q&A42:30

Your Conscience Is Basically an Internal PR Agency

Prompted by Chris's reflection on how therapy amplified his own conscience, Morris reframes Freud's 'superego' not as an internalized voice of authority but as an internalized panel of respected community members — functioning like a PR agency that pushes you toward approved behavior and encourages you to publicize your wins and hide your losses.

Morris reframes Freud's superego as 'the internalized voice of the respected members of the community' — an internal board of advisors.
Pride and shame function like a PR agency: encouraging behavior the group approves of, discouraging what it disapproves of.
People universally showboat (expanding posture, speaking louder) after wins, like Olympic medalists, and shrink after losses.
This system evolved because social rewards for prosocial behavior are delayed and uncertain — internal pride/shame drives consistent good behavior even without guaranteed payoff.

“It's the internalized voice of the respected members of the community. It's like your board of advisors.”
Michael Morris · 43:30

#psychology#conscience#status#evolution

Tool· 1

Tool94:30

Michael Morris's Book 'Tribal'

Morris points listeners to his book Tribal and its companion website for a deeper dive into the three-instinct model of tribal psychology discussed throughout the episode, plus his broader academic research.

Book: 'Tribal' by Michael Morris, with a dedicated site at tribalbook.org.
Personal site michaelwmorris.com covers his research and courses.
Recommended for readers wanting the full science behind the peer/hero/ancestor instinct framework discussed in the episode.

“I have a book website that's called tribalbook.org.”
Michael Morris · 95:00

#book#recommendation#tribalism