Proud to be Human

The Queens Diamond Jubilee

With the Queen's Jubilee this weekend, it's got us all rather patriotic and proud to be British. Everyone seems to be coming together into their communities, with the lighting of over 2000 beacons across the UK, street parties and more bunting than you can shake a stick at. This has got me thinking, what is the effect of coming together as a community and why do we do it?

As humans we have evolved as social animals. In an evolutionary sense, being in a group offered protection and the sharing of resources such as food to our ancestors - making the idea of a group appealing to an individual. On a social level, groups offer emotional support and a sense of belonging. Furthermore, research shows that happiness spreads through social networks - making the jubilee an opportunity for happiness and positivity to spread through the nation. This happiness can spread through even three degrees of separation - so for example, if a friend of a friend is happy, your chances of happiness increases by around 6%. Although sadness spreads in the exact same way, this spreads slightly less compared with the spread of happiness. So national pride this weekend may be making many of us feel slightly more chipper.

When will we unite as human?

One of the main things I think of when I think of a united Britain is war time. Being British doesn't make us come together in spirit daily, but when threatened this can make us unite against the opposing force. Which leads to the question - do we only unite when faced with opposition? Interestingly, Jason Manford actually sums this up pretty well. Let's start with someone from Newcastle, who would stereotypically rival someone from Sunderland (football team rivalry shows this well). But if a Londoner comes in, they unite as Northerners. If a Scotsman comes in, they unite as English. If a European comes in, they unite as British. As Manford puts it, will we only unite as human when something non-human comes into the picture? Either way, uniting together under a leader we become a stronger unit, and science can show the benefit of being a member of a community to the individual.

So, being in a group is better for our survival and spreads our happiness - but why do groups have leadership? Why have we evolved from cave men to a current society ruled by the Queen? The evolutionary leadership theory shows how leadership was important for the survival and reproduction of our ancestors. Leadership is a behavioural strategy which has evolved to solve social coordination problems from ancestral times - such as moving areas, and conflicting with other groups. Furthermore, research shows groups with leaders do better than those without leaders, as the leader improves group performance and effectiveness. If leadership helps the individual then it’s wise to follow.

This guy's having none of it...

Interestingly, a study found that community spirit can backfire. Feelings of social power and connections may lead us to dehumanise people outside our own community. This relates to something called the fundamental attribution error (FAE). Now as scary as this sounds, in simple terms, this is the idea that you favour people and sympathise with them more when they identify with you socially. The FAE occurs when we overestimate how much someone's behaviour is explained by their personality, and underestimate the importance of situational factors. An example is if you were to trip over an uneven pavement, you would know that the pavement tripped you. But if someone else were to trip you may consider them clumsy, putting it down to their personality not the situational factor of a pavement slab sticking out. You are more likely to see someone as clumsy if they do not relate to you socially. This explains why people from different social backgrounds can be judged with inaccurate character traits.

What a happy bunch coming together this weekend
to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee.

So it’s not all good news to be part of a community. It can help spread sadness, cause us to misjudge those outside our social groups, and a united community can often be driven by opposition to an outside factor. Despite this, I think being proud and British this weekend should bring out the best in people - through sharing happiness and encouraging community spirit. Now I'm no royalist, but I think the Queen inspires unity, pride and good will for a lot of people, so for this, I wish you all a merry jubilee. And for those who don't favour the royals 
- it's two days off work.

Now, this week I decided to go a bit out of my usual scientific box and branch into the world of psychology and human behaviour. This isn't my speciality and although I have read around the subject, I'm no expert on this. If you have any comments, share them on facebook.com/humaninterests.

References
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20827882.300-how-community-spirit-can-backfire.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16194-happiness-spreads-like-the-plague.html
http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21328472.800-the-happiness-equation--the-making-of-a-satisfied-scientist.html
http://www.buzzle.com/articles/fundamental-attribution-error-examples.html