💾 Archived View for gemini.onedimension.net › thought › what-is-a-group.gmi captured on 2023-07-22 at 17:00:33. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2022-01-08)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Sydney and I have been on a road trip, which has given us ample time to discuss all sorts of topics at great length.
Interestingly, a couple conversations have eventually honed in on one difference of perspective around what a group is.
Does the group have characteristics independent of its individuals?
There's a certain kind of language that portrays groups as entities with their own characteristics; you might say that the U.S. values independence. But who is the U.S.? How does an entity value something? As I recall this is a pretty fundamental divide in the philosophy[1] of social science.
It seems to me like saying something broad and sweeping about the values of a group is necessarily a generalization. You're always going to be leaving some members of the group out, misrepresenting their true beliefs and motivations. Perhaps it's a better idea to consider specific individuals and their personal values, rather than those of a group they might belong to as a way of understanding their behavior. Do this for a few different instances and it's possible you'll understand the dynamics of the group, moreso than if you were to start at the top-level "values" and observed behavior.
But there's something about how we work that makes us see groups as entities with their own beliefs and motivations. Religions, political parties, and countries all exist in our minds as entities with certain attributes. So when we try to analyze a specific individual's behavior, there's an important sort of inference we have to make about how they saw the relevant other groups.
So this all boils down into a couple points:
1. When analyzing behavior, consider the motivations of the individuals rather than higher-level entities that don't really exist. Countries don't make decisions, but people do.
2. Consider that many people think of groups as entities with attributes. An individual's behavior may reflect what they infer a particular person's values are from their group affiliations. So it's important to consider how an individual thinks of a group when that group may be relevant to their decision making.
Last updated Tue Jan 04 2022 in Savannah, GA