People Tend To Generalise Based On Their Tribe

Humans love grouping and using shortcut language to simplify communication. In addition, people tend to generalise based on their tribe.

If you pay attention to conversations, you can hear this occurring. For example, when I am with friends with university degrees, I often hear them refer to ‘everyone’. This is usually in reference to everyone having a degree. I often find myself reminding them that less than half of the population, in any country, have a university degree.

The challenge is, if most people you know have a university degree, you extrapolate and assume everyone has one. This is a common occurrence and highlights the old phrase that ‘birds of a feather, flock together’.

You’ll often find that teachers know disproportionately more teachers. Same thing with electricians, rugby players, actors and politicians.

It is a natural occurrence for many reasons. However, because people tend to generalise based on their tribe, we should all be a little more aware of this before we communicate.

It is quite a skill to communicate across tribes. Tribes have different norms, culture and reference points. This is clear when noting which media people tune into. Of course, this is also why people clash over certain topics and always have.

Tribes will always be at odds with each other. Unless people (you, me) stop, think and explore to understand the other, it will continue on this way. Notice the tribes you are in and see if you can make bridges with other ones.