Coalitional Instincts: What They Are, Characteristics, Advantages And Disadvantages

The American anthropologist John Tooby was the one who proposed the idea that The concept called “coalitional instincts” should have greater recognition within psychology and the scientific community because it is considered that they have a great influence on society and people’s beliefs.

Coalitional instincts are considered by many evolutionary scientists to be an inherent characteristic of human nature that considerably influences the behavior of people within their social environment.

In this email we will explain what the concept of coalitional instincts consists of, as well as the way in which they can influence people’s lives.

What are coalitional instincts?

Although there is no agreed definition for this concept, the definition that says that coalitional instincts are a repertoire of innate and universal instincts that influence the way human beings behave in social contexts

These instincts move people to seek to form a group, belong to an association, defend values, oppose or resist doing certain things, attack in certain contexts; In short, to form various coalitions in different contexts that move a person to act in different ways depending on having been moved by one type of coalition or another.

Each coalition is made up of a group of people who see themselves and/or are seen by others as sharing a particular identity that they all have in common.

This way of seeing others is characteristic of human beings, since Throughout evolution, the ability to join in coalitions was acquired, knowing that two people can beat one, three can beat two, and so on going from dominating the alpha males to a coalition group where the members join forces to respond to dangers and threats external to the group, since if someone was left alone they were at the mercy of the others and their life was in danger, therefore that coalitional instincts motivated all human beings to belong to some group for protection.

Thus, it has been shown that forming coalitions has been of great help to solve certain challenges as a group, because they could not be solved individually, it has great advantages.

It is because of that We descend from those who knew how to correctly use their coalitional instincts to join forces and survive, so we have inherited these instincts. For this reason, nowadays we follow our coalitional instincts to form part of various types of coalitions (at work, in the family, different social groups, associations, sports teams, and even nationalities, among others).

Coalition instincts as the need to belong to a group

Coalitional instincts generate the need in human beings to belong to a coalition, and in some cases, that need to be part of a coalition could, among other things, be the reason why some groups have a series of strange and disconnected beliefs. with reality (for example, in sects).

These instincts could even be one of the reasons why there is a need to be part of a group, even if it is one with radical ideas in which its members consider themselves morally superior to those who do not share their ideas and there is rejection towards them.

Furthermore, in some groups a series of requirements are demanded of those who want to be part of it, among which is usually unconditional support for the group against those who are against its ideas.

On the other hand, there are numerous cross-cultural studies that have shown that Human beings, in addition to being social, are cooperative by nature something that could be verified by studying the way thousands of children from different cultures behave socially, where they demonstrated to be psychologically adapted to cooperate with other people.

Problems that coalitional instincts can generate

On some occasions, coalitional instincts can generate conflicts in various sectors such as science, politics or sports.

In the science sector, when coalitions are formed by some scientists based on certain research issues, it can be detrimental if they maintain an iron and inflexible stance based on the ideas of the formed coalition, so that They can moralize the scientific process making it difficult for another group to refute the validity of their research.

Even when results are demonstrated against the hypotheses supported by their coalition, these groups could put their interests above scientific truth, which is what should take precedence over their own interests for the common good, since Science, above all, should seek development and advancement based on verifiable discoveries, without being biased by the ideals of any coalition.

Therefore, it is not uncommon that throughout History all kinds of attacks have been generated between different coalitions of members belonging to different scientific scholastics based on a struggle to be right. Something very similar to what has happened by different political parties, radical ideological groups, even in groups of fans of sports teams

When a group is moved by unhealthy coalitional instincts, the background of the matter can be based on various reasons, such as control of a territory, status, fight for certain resources, seizing power, moral strength, etc.

Likewise, in this type of coalitions, the situation often arises in which the members of their group criticize a certain behavior on the part of someone outside their group and, If a member of their group acted in a similar way, they would come to forgive their actions and even justify their behavior

Now, coalitional instincts do not generate conflicts in all cases, but tend to occur when groups are formed based on a series of extremist ideas and the members of the group maintain a closed and inflexible position, without opening the doors to debate.

Removing these extreme cases, They have generally helped human beings to form groups joining the forces of each and every member of different groups, so that great achievements have been achieved that a single person would not have been able to achieve, as we mentioned at the beginning.

Coalitional Instincts in the Workplace

Coalition instincts, just as they allowed human beings to join forces as members of a group to get ahead and survive in complicated situations, Nowadays they can also be positive for better development in the workplace

Coalitions are developed when different people come together for a common cause and, in the case of a workplace, it would be to meet the objectives of the company for which they work, each member contributing their grain of sand with the tasks they must perform, so that when everyone fulfills their functions, these objectives are usually achieved.

There are business leaders who are interested in fostering the creation of these coalitions within the workplace because they can be a great tool to create a good atmosphere in the workplace that helps your employees coordinate and work more efficiently, helping each other. With good cohesion and performance in the workplace, workers are more likely to achieve extrinsic (financial benefits) and intrinsic rewards (being satisfied with their work).

To this end, it may be useful for leaders to encourage their employees to search for a common meaning about the company, so that everyone has the same sense of belonging and the connection between them and with the company is intensified, which could be seen as the identity of the company.

These situations can also occur in other contexts that facilitate the development of coalitions such as, for example, between students of a university faculty, athletes on the same team, etc.