Our ability to cooperate has resulted in humans existing in collaborative groups. This cooperation has made us the most influential factor ...
Our ability to cooperate has resulted in humans existing in collaborative groups. This cooperation has made us the most influential factor in the Earth's biosphere because it enables us to form unified societies.
It is characteristic of humans that this defining trait is less genetically determined than in other species. Certainly, instincts formed by evolution also play a role in community building to a certain extent. This role of evolution is supported for example by the fact that not only are human infants completely dependent on long time care, but mothers also need to be supported by others.
However, in humans, the developed, conscious brain capable of adapting by learning performs numerous functions that in other species must be fulfilled by properties developed through evolution. In the case of humans, identifying the exact role of traits, whether learned or inherited, in the formation of groups from unique individuals is more challenging. This is due to the fact that, for humans, living in a social community has long been a basic condition and a fundamental prerequisite for personal existence.
Group formation has been present to enhance human abilities, with the potential for even unlimited capabilities can be achieved through cooperation within the community. Despite its fundamental role, community formation does not appear to be predominantly genetically determined. The community essentially shapes human existence, yet community formation is more the result of a psychosocial behavioral form linked to the developed brain by mechanisms that are not obvious in this role. What is the process by which a human group transforms into a cooperative community? The question of how human society emerges is a profound and complex one.
It is evident that a variety of evolutionary human traits and abilities facilitate the formation of cooperative groups. These include acceptance of the presence of other individuals, ease of small-group cooperation, advanced speech and communication skills, complex and relatively large brain size, and dependence at birth. However, two points merit attention. On the one hand, evolutionary traits that enable cooperation have also developed in other animal species, albeit not to such a diferent, complex, and advanced extent. On the other hand, it is the most notable aspect of human cooperation unique to the human species, and it is the defining characteristic of the abilities that arise in human communities, that there is no limit to the size of the cooperative community or the degree of cooperation.
We are the only species on Earth capable of flexible cooperation, even across the entire human race. What is the unique characteristic of human abilities that enables the human race to be capable to this?
It is evident that this unique skill cannot be attributed to a single factor, as it emerges as a collective outcome of our diverse abilities. Community-level attention and the ability to have a common intention are high-level characteristics that contribute to creating advanced cooperative traits. However, these characteristics are also more a consequence of our other behavioral properties than something that can be linked to specific, well-defined, unique origins.
However, there is a scientific consensus regarding the emergent behavioral traits that arise from our characteristics and abilities, which enable widespread cooperation. It is a well-established scientific concept that shared stories developed during group togetherness have played a pivotal role in shaping communities into cooperative societies, and this phenomenon continues to be a driving force in society. What role do shared stories play in the formation of collaborative groups?
Early hominids, lacking the ability to write, could only preserve their acquired communal knowledge within the group by sharing information as stories together. These stories could include abstract knowledge, the functioning and rules of the community, and could also result in a widespread sense of mutual belonging.
The existence of shared stories is fundamentally dependent on the presence of complex, abstract language. Therefore, it is clear that the formation of communities based on shared stories is a form of behavior unique to humans. In the case of humans, the ability to think is also present in the use of language, and the possibility of spreading thoughts can also be realized through the use of language. The transmission of thoughts is necessary for cooperation to function, but it is not obvious what the operating mechanism is for stories created in linguistic form and transmitted as thoughts.
Human thinking seeks reasons and explanations for everything. If there is no obvious reason for the perceived phenomenon, humans still assign causes to the reality they experience based on their actual available knowledge. This fundamental cognitive ability, essential for comprehending reality, can give rise to narratives that deviate from actual causes, arising from imagination. These narratives, such as mythologies, are nevertheless accepted as explanations, underscoring the complexity of human cognition.
A newly conceived story can serve many purposes within the group. It can be descriptive or narrative in nature, serving as a form of shared memory preservation, providing explanations for events, and generating ideas and solutions to situations for which the community does not yet have a developed response. However, even such stories do not directly organize groups into a collaborative community. Shared stories can undoubtedly play a crucial role in preserving knowledge, establishing a framework for coexistence, and fostering a sense of belonging. However, to effectively direct and purposefully guide cooperation, as well as to ensure its flexibility - which are the essences of cooperation -, we must delve deeper into the psychosocial underpinnings of shared stories in fostering community cohesion, ultimately leading to cooperation. What is the process by which shared stories transform a group into a cooperative community?
A story becomes a community-building force when it articulates a goal that is valid for many members of the community and requires joint effort to achieve it. In its earliest form, it may be a story that assumes the success of the hunt, by which the group can act out together to give the community confidence in the outcome of their cooperation. In a more developed and advanced society, a classic speech could function as a story with a goal that accepts and enables the cooperation necessary to achieve a significant milestone, such as landing on the moon.
Effective community cooperation results from the creation of shared narratives that inspire collective action by addressing common goals. What narrative can achieve this objective by fostering collaboration even across social boundaries? Beyond chance, what factors enable a particular story to mobilize a community to achieve a given goal?
A story that addresses a common goal and can be successfully implemented must be created with the aim of generating widespread motivation within the group:
- The most effective story is one that resonates with the majority of the group, instilling a sense of importance and a desire to engage with the content.
- The story must also capture personal attention. That means it needs to be interesting, not obvious, and it must offer a solution to a problem that affects a significant part of the community.
- Additionally, for a newly conceived story to disseminate extensively and expeditiously within the group, it is imperative for the individuals at the nexus of the social network to accept it and actively engage in its propagation.
When utilized effectively, shared stories can serve a crucial role in preserving collectively acquired knowledge and fostering a shared identity. Furthermore, they can serve as a unifying force, representing shared goals and motivating active community cooperation. The described combination of mechanisms of shared stories has the potential to foster a cooperative community at even the level of society as a whole.
The process of humans organizing into a society capable of unlimited cooperation, as it was in the beginning, as it is now, and as it will be in the future, occurs through stories containing goals that can become shared, experienced intentions, which are created in the manner described.
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