There are big lessons for all of us who oppose Trump from one of the most famous social psychological experiments of all time.
In 1954, Sherif and his colleagues brought twenty two boys to a summer camp. The boys were chosen to be as similar to one another as possible. They had all just completed fifth grade. They were all 11 or 12. They were all White. They were all middle class. They were all protestant. They were all doing well at school.
The Sherifs separated the boys into two different areas, each with their own cabins, camping areas, and swimming holes. After a week of bonding with one another they were introduced to the other group. And lo and behold, they hated one another.
Two groups of boys, similar in every seemingly important way and divided by random draw, despised one another simply because they were in different groups. They argued. They name called. They stereotyped. They fought.
It is that simple to make humans hate one another — just divide us into two groups. Other psychology experiments have show that hatred can be instilled by separating people by eye color or preference for paintings or even just by randomly splitting a room in half.
This very human tendency to divide humans into “us” versus “them” is strong and real and threatening the future of our country right now.
In 2016 we separated into “us” versus “them” within our very party and we are in danger of doing it again this primary season.
Luckily, Psychology has also found an easy answer for us. Those boys at the Sherifs’ camp were brought together when they found that they had common goals that could only be achieved when they worked together. Having those common goal made them into one group that was able to work together. It eliminated their stereotyping, hatred, and fighting. It made them a powerful and peaceful force.
In that way, we are lucky. We have common goals unlike any other I have seen in my lifetime. We need to defeat the steady rise of fascism and hatred and fear and prejudice and save our planet from environmental catastrophe. We need to win in 2020. And we can’t do it unless we work together.
We can only do it if we realize that we are one group with one goal and one heart. It doesn’t matter if you voted for Bernie or Hillary or Jill or you didn’t vote in 2016: you are on the same team. We all have only one goal.
You can skip the primary bickering all together and donate to the Unify, or Die fund set up by ActBlue. The money will go to the eventual winner of the primaries whomever she or he might be.
We are a part of the greatest American movement of our lifetimes. We are fighting for the ideals or truth and equality and democracy. Let’s do this. Together.
Reference: Intergroup Conflict and Cooperation: The Robbers Cave Experiment: Muzafer Sherif, O. J. Harvey, B. Jack White, William R. Hood, Carolyn W. Sherif (1954/1961)
***** A version of this diary was published yesterday as well ****