Adding to this, it seems to me [1] human brains are adapted to eagerly form group identification just from tiny cues. So we don’t need secret handshakes or any other formal group forming rituals. All it takes is just a bunch of well-written articles with subtle cues that trigger our group identification algorithms. Even though we might not objectively be part of a group yet, our brains have already decided that we are and this in turn will form a huge bias in our mind of the subject matter itself.
This occurred to me when I read the start of the article and felt the effect of the trick that original article was intended to bring. I am not yet, objectively, a member of this community, but my brain apparently has already decided that I am. I have no idea what triggered this group identification. All I think I did was to read some interesting articles and discussion and make couple of quite irrelevant comments myself.
This is of course generalizing from one, but I hope someone points to some relevant studies in this subject. (Human group identification, that is.)
[1] I’m assuming already that this has been studied extensively somewhere. I have no references myself, though.
Adding to this, it seems to me [1] human brains are adapted to eagerly form group identification just from tiny cues. So we don’t need secret handshakes or any other formal group forming rituals. All it takes is just a bunch of well-written articles with subtle cues that trigger our group identification algorithms. Even though we might not objectively be part of a group yet, our brains have already decided that we are and this in turn will form a huge bias in our mind of the subject matter itself.
This occurred to me when I read the start of the article and felt the effect of the trick that original article was intended to bring. I am not yet, objectively, a member of this community, but my brain apparently has already decided that I am. I have no idea what triggered this group identification. All I think I did was to read some interesting articles and discussion and make couple of quite irrelevant comments myself.
This is of course generalizing from one, but I hope someone points to some relevant studies in this subject. (Human group identification, that is.)
[1] I’m assuming already that this has been studied extensively somewhere. I have no references myself, though.