Page 31 - Cultures and Organizations

16 THE CONCEPT OF CULTURE

We and They

Social scientists use the terms in-group and out-group. In-group refers
to what we intuitively feel to be “we,” while out-group refers to “they.”
Humans really function in this simple way: we have a persistent need to

classify others in either group. The definition of in-group is quite variable
in some societies, but it is always noticeable. We use it for family versus
in-laws (“the cold side of the family”), for our team versus the opponents,
for people looking like us versus another race. In one experiment, U.S.
researchers tested affective reactions of African-American and European-
American participants to pictures of members of their own and of the
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opposite ethnic group. Both African-American and European-American
participants showed more emotional and physiological reactions when
viewing pictures of people of their own race than when viewing people of
the other race. They were more emotionally involved with in-group mem-
bers. While the experiment supported in-group empathy, it did not fi nd a
general out-group antipathy.
Gender also plays a role in we-they dynamics, as we might expect in a
species in which gender roles have historically been very different regarding
crossing group boundaries. Women have usually come into other groups
as young adults, to live as loyal members of the new group. Men have fre-
quently come to new groups to dominate or to fight them. Both males and

females can easily learn to overcome fear of an unfamiliar- looking female,
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but they tend to remain scared of faces of out-group males. Of course,
this depends on which faces are thought of as out-group, and that in turn
depends on exposure in infancy.
In we-versus-they experiments, physiological measurements can be
used alongside questionnaires to measure fear. People’s bodies can tell sto-

ries that their minds feel as taboo. These results confi rm that family in a
very wide sense is linked to human social biology and that ethnic charac-
teristics are important as a quick aid in determining who belongs. People
are we-versus-they creatures. In infancy they can learn to consider anyone,
or any kind of face, as “we,” but after a few months their recognition is
fi xed. Later in life it becomes hard for people to change intuitive we-they
responses to racial characteristics. Physiological reactions to a we-they
situation can be based on any distinction among groups—even that among
students from different university departments. 15