The Price of Tomorrow: Why Deflation is the Key to an Abundant Future

by Jeff Booth

Many of those same choices are because we want to belong. That influence on us, much of which we don’t realize, traps us in our own bubble of reality that may look very different than others’.

Belonging to one group most likely also means not belonging to another group. As a consequence, a natural by-product of deepening some relationships is not deepening others—or worse. This can create “us versus them,” and it is a far more powerful force in your life than you may realize.

Now consider the competition with other groups, and whether that competition is good-natured. Without realizing, we can easily fall into a trap of believing that we are somehow better than others outside of our group.

Over the course of competition, the groups became increasingly hostile to each other. What started as good sportsmanship escalated to quickly to name calling, cheating, raiding of cabins, and fistfights. Some of the boys carried around rocks in their socks as protection in case they were ambushed by the other team. As Sherif noted in his 1966 book Group Conflict and Co-operation, competition generally led to “us versus them” group identities. Through this experiment, boys with no behavioural issues were turned into hostile, narrow-minded opponents.60