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1、The political power of ethnicity: A psychological perspectiveClark McCauley Professor of Psychology and Co-Director of the Solomon Asch Center for Study of Ethnopolitical Conflict at Bryn Mawr College Co-director of the National Consortium for Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) Co
2、rrespondence to Clark McCauley, Psychology Department, Bryn Mawr College, Bryn Mawr, PA 19010. 610 526 5017 cmccaulebrynmawr.eduIn the 20th century, many eminent observers believed that economic divisions would be the fault lines of political conflict. Socialists expected that the working class woul
3、d unite to take control of modern states. Communists expected that the false- consciousness of ethnicity and nationalism would fall away as the dictatorship of the proletariat emerged. Even a socialist scientist as acute as Benedict Anderson was surprised, as he explained in the preface to his first
4、 edition of Imagined Communities (1983), that Vietnam and Cambodiatwo peoples democraciescould fall into nationalist warfare. Surprise at the tenacious hold of ethnicity and nationalism has been itself surprisingly tenacious. The handwriting was on the wall early in the century, when working people
5、in Europe and North America answered the call to the colors for WWI. Many socialist and trade union organizations had opposed a war that would have workers killing workers for capitalist interests, but once war was declared most turned to support the war. This was only the first of many indications
6、of the power of nationalism, a power that for a hundred years now has trumped economic interest as a source of group cohesion and political power. As a contribution to “Rethinking Ethnicity and Ethnic Strife”, my paper aims to explore the psychological power of ethnicity that lies behind its capacit
7、y to mobilize individuals for sacrifice in an ethnic cause. I begin by setting ethnic attachment in the larger context of the human capacity for identification with others. I rehearse briefly the argument for rejecting objective definitions of ethnicity and nation in favor of psychological definitio
8、n. Finally, I offer three ways of thinking about the special power of ethnicity and nation for mobilizing political sacrifice. The human capacity to identify with othersEconomists and evolutionary psychologists often trip over the obvious fact that human beings care about a wide variety of people an
9、d things in ways that cannot be explained in terms of self-interest - whats in it for me and mine (including my genes) right now? Examples of this kind of caring include not only groups we are part of (ethnic or religious groups) but groups we are not part of (East Timorese, refugees in Darfur). Sim
10、ilarly we care about sports teams we are not part of (Red Sox), and about individuals we know but who do not know us (Princess Di, Tiger Woods). We can even care about fictional characters (Tiny Tim, Scully and Mulder) to the extent of real tears and real excitement. Beyond the human, we care about
11、pets and possessions in ways that often go far beyond their monetary or functional values. The kind of caring that goes beyond self-interest is so commonplace that it might better be considered as a need than as a capacity. It has important implications for direction of behavior. We feel good when t
12、he other we care about is safe and successful, and we feel bad when the other is in danger, diminished, or failing. We act to support and assist a threatened other, and we experience their survival and success as our own reward (McCauley, 2001). Identification with other does not mean losing the sel
13、f in the other or losing sight of self-interest as separate from the interest of the other. When a monster threatens the hero on screen, we feel fear for the hero but do not lose track of the fact that we are safe in a seat watching a film. We do not dial 911 to save the on-screen hero. Similarly, i
14、dentification with a group does not mean losing sight of the difference between our personal interest and the group interest. When we send money to support refugees in Darfur, we do not lose sight of the fact that these are dollars no longer available for our next vacation. When we volunteer time to
15、 help a group we identify with, we do not lose track of the opportunity costs of helping. Rather we weigh the costs of helping against the costs of not helping, and help if we believe we will feel better about helping than not helping. In this way the welfare of the group is weighed against our own
16、welfare in an economy of choice that recognizes two kinds of self-interest. Identification with other introduces the kind of interest that can compete with “whats in it for me and mine, right now.” When the group identified with is an ethnic or national group, ethnic or national interest can compete with self interest in a way that can be described as sacrificing self for group. Self-sacrifice for
