The Nurture Assumption: Why Children Turn Out the Way They Do

Harris considers two perspectives on human nature: one which emphasizes the human capacity for tribalism and violence, and another which insists people are cooperative and altruistic. William Golding, author of The Lord of the Flies, believed people err towards violence like his book’s schoolboy characters. While Harris agrees a group of stranded boys would become competitive, and even violent, she believes this violence would occur between opposing groups, rather than one group picking on weaker individuals. She cites a real-life scenario in which several Melanesian boys were stranded on an island for months and lived cooperatively. She argues this was possible because the boys were close before their experience, and so operated as a cohesive unit. Harris then cites a 1954 University of Oklahoma study in which researchers established a fake Boy Scout camp in Robbers Cave State Park and divided schoolboys into two groups, the Eagles and the Rattlers. Soon after meeting, the two groups exhibited competitive behavior, calling each other names and fighting. The groups tended to be cooperative within their groups, and competitive between them. Harris argues humans are wired to perceive similarities and differences, and use this information to categorize objects, animals, and people.