"Will is right that in-group/out-group bias is pretty darn innate"
Yeah, exactly. I agreed with Will about this. The point I was trying to drive home with him is that there's a difference between in-group bias and bigotry. As I said to somebody else here, there's a difference between feeling a certain degree of solidarity with somebody be…
"Will is right that in-group/out-group bias is pretty darn innate"
Yeah, exactly. I agreed with Will about this. The point I was trying to drive home with him is that there's a difference between in-group bias and bigotry. As I said to somebody else here, there's a difference between feeling a certain degree of solidarity with somebody because they share certain traits with you, and believing somebody to be inferior or to possess undesirable characteristics because they possess certain traits that are different to yours.
The former is, let's say, as close to innate as makes no difference. But the latter is learned. Which is why the traits we've used to characterise the "undesirables" throughout history have changed in all kinds of ways. And now, many of them would seem absolutely ridiculous to us. My favourite example of this is phrenology.
"Will is right that in-group/out-group bias is pretty darn innate"
Yeah, exactly. I agreed with Will about this. The point I was trying to drive home with him is that there's a difference between in-group bias and bigotry. As I said to somebody else here, there's a difference between feeling a certain degree of solidarity with somebody because they share certain traits with you, and believing somebody to be inferior or to possess undesirable characteristics because they possess certain traits that are different to yours.
The former is, let's say, as close to innate as makes no difference. But the latter is learned. Which is why the traits we've used to characterise the "undesirables" throughout history have changed in all kinds of ways. And now, many of them would seem absolutely ridiculous to us. My favourite example of this is phrenology.