At the risk of being too thorough, I wanted to comment on Russ's point:
"For example, group members will often favor other group members over
> outsiders even if the outsider is the better choice for the individual
> to make on some objective basis. This is often an evolved preference .">
Groups that are successful in having their members behave in this way
> have a better chance to survive as a group."
I would add the word "temporarily" at the end of Ross's last quoted
sentence. Over time, groups that do not allow "outsiders" in, tend to be
inbred and develop major genetic problems and often die out or remain very
very small in number due to losing most of members from either genetically
inherited health problems or members moving due to boredom with group cause
of lack of original thought included into their overall thinking or due to
economically frozen structure. I think it is argued in Emergence theory that
those behaviors that are sort of "beyond the pale", that operate on the
fringe, tend to help the central group develop better as they witness these
more unusual forms of behavior.
Peggy
--
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