In some respects, collaboration seems like one of the most natural things humans do.
After all, we work together to raise children, make more profit, mutually help one another, and enjoy one another’s company. But in the era of cave-dwelling when our human brains were starting to develop, we lived in isolated groups of people. Those within a community or tribe worked together to help ensure their survival, and, as such, those within the clan were considered safe. Anyone else, however, was a potential threat.
In his book, Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them, Dr. Joshua Greene asserts that “Morality evolved to enable cooperation.” He continues to elaborate, however, that our brains evolved with the desire to collaborate and cooperate with others in our group, i.e. those most like ourselves, but not between groups.
Neuroscience shows this fundamental brain bias is still with us today, in spite of the radical change in circumstances and the need to interact with vast varieties of people. Our social neural networks still draw us toward people like ourselves and create an inherent, mostly unconscious, prejudice against others. We unconsciously think that people who are part of our cultural in-group, such as in the same profession, from the same region, have the same native language, and so on, are more likable than people in other groups.
This deep-seated primordial defensive reaction to people who are different from ourselves takes place in our lower, reptilian brain, which we share with lizards and tadpoles. Fear triggers the primal fight, flight, or freeze response here in the oldest evolutionary part of our brain. When flight or freeze are not options, you can see how this defensive emotion can easily twist into an attitude of aggressive superiority.
If we are in danger of being eaten by a lion, the reptilian brain, which is always scanning for threats, is a great asset because of its hair-trigger response. It reacts before the message gets to our higher prefrontal cortex which deals with logic, empathy, and regulating social behavior.
This higher brain carries out what is referred to as executive functions: making decisions, expressing personality, and planning complex cognitive behavior, but messages take longer to get there, and may never get there if the reptilian brain is aroused. The lower reptilian brain, with the role of making quick decisions and emotional responses (including fear, anxiety, and aggression), “hijacks” our rational thinking.
As cross-cultural trainers, we often encounter people who feel their belief system and customs are superior to any other nation's in the world. Although these people may have a learned prejudice, they may also be acting on the Stone Age brain’s survival response. What’s more, they may have no idea that their attitude is bigoted, and may actually hold conscious beliefs about the importance of diversity. Science is showing us that we are very capable of having one conscious belief while at the same time acting on an opposing unconscious bias.
Despite these instincts, our brains are also wired to connect and counter such behaviors. It takes motivation and conscious work to defuse this Stone Age reaction and engage the rationality of our higher brains instead. But once we start making an effort to work from a more rational part of the brain with a more evolved perspective, there are neural pathways to support this as a habit.
While working against this bias, it never hurts to soften our interactions with a healthy dose of humility, the antidote to the hubris we muster to disguise our fear. The biggest trick is to calm the rattlesnake in us before it gets all coiled up ready to strike by being aware of what is happening. That way, we make decisions based on rational thinking rather than fear inspired emotion.
Our higher brains have evolved to make this possible – and for a good reason. Study after study shows that diversity leads to better business practices, more innovation, and improved risk-taking.
