Opinion
4A
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
My Voice
Science begins
to explain
why we act
the way we do
uman beings are wired to belong. We are
social animals. This is obvious. But the depth
and impact of this fact is not obvious and is
only now being teased out by science, and it explains
a lot.
Children form groups or cliques almost immedi-
ately (as shown in, for example, the famous Robbers
Cave Study).
Adults form
groups over
JOEL RICE
almost nothing
LA GRANDE
(even the color
of napkin they
are given).
Humans in the same group frequently dress alike,
have similar political beliefs, buy similar vehicles.
They respond very differently to people in their group
than they do to people outside their group. Members
of opposing groups tend to get very angry at each
other if they disagree. Members of social groups tend
to socialize almost exclusively with each other.
One unfortunate aspect of groups is that members
of groups think they are in general better, smarter or
more capable than members of other groups. “Those”
are the “stupid people” who believe “x.”
Group members even believe they are the one
group exempt from group thinking.
Different parts of the brain light up in response to
faces, opinions and countless other things of those “in
our group” as opposed to those “out of our group.” We
are largely unconscious of our bias toward outsiders
and rationalize our opinions. In the past men ratio-
nalized not allowing women to vote or own property
as natural. They were not consciously aware of any
problem with this. Slave owners likely believed they
were doing what was natural. They were not aware
of their horrible bias. It is stunning to read sermons
of pastors in the South before the Civil War using the
Bible to defend slavery. The Nazis believed what they
were doing was completely natural. We all swim in
highly irrational “group think” like fish swim in water
— and, like water to the fish, we just don’t see it.
No matter where scientists and travelers have gone
in the world they have found this same tendency to
form groups with a core feature being an opposition to
or struggle with another group. There is no in-group
without an out-group.
Humans and their forbearers evolved first in small
hunter-gatherer groups of between 30 and 300 people.
They lived like this for 1-2 million years with little
change in their tools or technology. Agriculture
began 10,000-12,000 years ago. Agricultural civili-
zations began around 5,000-6,000 years ago. Money
or coinage developed around 2,500-3,000 years ago.
With the development of coinage, then technology, the
complexity of societies exploded.
Evolution of humans occurs at a very slow process.
Over the 1-2 million years that the human lineage
were hunter-gatherers there was time for the brain to
adapt to its environment, and likely much of the way
we are “hard wired” has to do with evolutionary pres-
sures during that time period. Over the 6,000 years of
large society development there has not been time for
significant evolutionary change in the way the brain is
hard wired.
Members of small hunter-gatherer tribes had facial
recognition of all members of the tribe and knew most
of them well. Trustworthiness of tribe members was
well understood by all tribesmen. Successful hunters
shared their meat. There was tremendous social cohe-
sion and comradery much like a military squad or
platoon.
As societies became more complex our hunt-
er-gatherer brains kept things simple. Did you vote
for Trump? Are you a Seahawks fan? Are you a Dem-
ocrat? Are you for gun control? Do you do yoga? Do
you keep your lawn nice?
This is how the hunter-gatherer brain keeps track
of tribal membership. Starting with very small dif-
ferences, through interaction, individuals begin to
develop group norms, roles and attitudes, which define
the group and are internalized to influence behavior.
We develop bright lines of “us vs. them.” And we
do not see the random, irrational basis of this group
formation, a random artifact of our evolutionary past
no longer helpful.
About the Author
Joel Rice of La Grande is a psychiatrist and oper-
ates addiction recovery and mental health clinics in La
Grande and Pendleton.
H
Other Views
Why an anti-trust safe harbor is
the answer the news business needs
ews consumption is growing
exponentially, but for the past
decade, the revenue to news
publishers has been on a decline. This
is, in large part, because of the unbal-
anced relationship between news pub-
lishers and tech platforms. But that
N
DAVID
CHAVERN
NEWS MEDIA ALLIANCE
relationship could be changing thanks
to the bipartisan introduction of the
Journalism Competition and Preserva-
tion Act.
U.S. House Resolution 2054 was
introduced by House Antitrust Sub-
committee Chairman David Cicil-
line, D-Rhode Island, and former
House Judiciary Committee Ranking
Member Doug Collins, R-Georgia.
A bipartisan companion Senate bill,
S. 1700, was also introduced by Sen.
John Neely Kennedy, R-Louisiana,
member of the Senate Judiciary Com-
mittee; and Sen. Amy Klobuchar,
D-Minnesota, ranking member of the
Senate Antitrust Subcommittee.
The bill, which would provide
news publishers a safe harbor to col-
lectively negotiate with platforms such
as Google and Facebook, could help
news producers receive the fair distri-
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bution and monetization terms we’ve
long been fighting to get from the
duopoly.
Because of their market domi-
nance — and access to billions of
users — the major tech platforms
set the rules for news publishers and
determine how journalism is dis-
played, prioritized and monetized.
They also capture the vast majority
of all digital advertising dollars
because of their unique ability to col-
lect consumer data across the web.
All of this has degraded the rela-
tionship between news readers and
publishers and rewarded low quality
“clickbait” over quality informa-
tion from real journalists. It has also
greatly reduced the financial ability
of publishers to invest in newsrooms
at a time when our society most
needs great, substantive reporting.
It is simply not possible for any
individual news publisher to change
the basic terms offered by the online
behemoths. They are simply much
too big and much too influential.
However, there is power in num-
bers, which is what we need in order
to have a fighting chance. The anti-
trust safe harbor bill would provide
a four-year window for news pub-
lishers to collectively negotiate for
fair terms that would flow earned
subscription and advertising dollars
back to the publishers, while pro-
tecting and preserving Americans’
right to access quality news. Param-
eters included in the bill ensure that
these negotiations would strictly
benefit Americans and news pub-
lishers at-large, not just one or a few
publishers.
The JCPA has until the end of the
year to pass the 116th Congress, and
we need our representatives to act
now to support journalism’s future.
If passed, this bill would allow
our industry to more fully con-
trol our product by allowing market
forces, not two companies, to deter-
mine how and for what price our
content is offered. It would allow
everyone from small local publica-
tions to major online publishers the
opportunity to receive a return on
their investment and therefore sus-
tain quality journalism, which is nec-
essary for an informed democracy
and civic society.
About the Author
David Chavern is president and
CEO of the News Media Alliance.
Contact your public officials
U.S. PRESIDENT
U.S. REPRESENTATIVE
Donald Trump
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Comments: 202-456-1111
Greg Walden
185 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515
202-225-6730
La Grande office: 541-624-2400
U.S. SENATORS
Ron Wyden
221 Dirksen Senate Office Bldg.
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-5244
La Grande office: 541-962-7691
Jeff Merkley
313 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510
202-224-3753
Pendleton office: 541-278-1129