I just tried criticizing my ingroup. Did my blood boil? No. My Scotsmen got truer. Every time I could identify a flawed behavior, it felt inappropriate to include those people in my “real ingroup”. Now, if I had a more objectively defined group based on voting record or religious belief or something, then maybe I’d be able to force my brain to keep them in my ingroup, but right now, my brain flips to “sure, I’m happy to criticize those people giving us a bad name. Look, I’m criticizing my ingroup!”
I tried 2 other experiments: 1. Think about criticisms toward my ingroup that do make me angry—maybe those are the ones hitting home. Result: I found myself disagreeing with all of them. And my brain asked “what, am I supposed to like wrongheaded arguments just because they are against my group?” 2. Just go straight for the inner-est group I have: me. Result: I was able to think of criticisms of myself and it didn’t make my blood boil, and it wouldn’t to write them. I suspect that when I shrink the group to {me}, I may expect extra social points for criticizing myself, making it much more palatable.
So, my quick experiment suggests that, at least for someone without a clearly defined in-group, trying to criticize one’s ingroup can be more ‘slippery’ difficult than ‘grueling’ difficult.
I just tried criticizing my ingroup. Did my blood boil? No. My Scotsmen got truer. Every time I could identify a flawed behavior, it felt inappropriate to include those people in my “real ingroup”. Now, if I had a more objectively defined group based on voting record or religious belief or something, then maybe I’d be able to force my brain to keep them in my ingroup, but right now, my brain flips to “sure, I’m happy to criticize those people giving us a bad name. Look, I’m criticizing my ingroup!”
I tried 2 other experiments:
1. Think about criticisms toward my ingroup that do make me angry—maybe those are the ones hitting home.
Result: I found myself disagreeing with all of them. And my brain asked “what, am I supposed to like wrongheaded arguments just because they are against my group?”
2. Just go straight for the inner-est group I have: me.
Result: I was able to think of criticisms of myself and it didn’t make my blood boil, and it wouldn’t to write them. I suspect that when I shrink the group to {me}, I may expect extra social points for criticizing myself, making it much more palatable.
So, my quick experiment suggests that, at least for someone without a clearly defined in-group, trying to criticize one’s ingroup can be more ‘slippery’ difficult than ‘grueling’ difficult.