The Paris Attacks, the Hunger Games and Mankind’s Weird Group Dynamics

  It was the evening of the 13^th of November of 2015. Paris, the city of lights. 

130 citizens are murdered after three consecutive suicide bombings just outside the Stade de France, while suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafes, restaurants and the Bataclan theatre conclude the atrocity of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant spreading the terror in the West.

   Fast forward into the future, and on the other side of the pond, the United States of America, Canada and Mexico do not exist anymore. Instead, there’s Panem, a totalitarian regime. 

It’s the hegemony of the city of Capitol -situated somewhere in the Rocky Mountains- that extends over twelve districts, the leftovers of a series of devastating wars. A notable gap in living standards between the Capitol and its districts is what juts out. And as if this were not enough, the Capitol hosts each year a life-or-death reality show, called the Hunger Games, where two youths from every district are chosen randomly to compete with each other until only one comes out alive.

   But what one cannot ignore is the extreme poverty the book’s protagonist Katniss Evergreen so engagingly describes. People in her district are constantly tittering on the verge of starvation. Especially characteristic is an incident that she portrays and which took place somewhere during her childhood where she was sloshing around during a rainy and cold night, in the lookout for food for her and her family and almost passed out, if it were not for Peeta Mellark. The latter noticed her and left two loaves of bread to burn on purpose and threw them to her. He took a beating for this by his mother, the owner of the bakery.

   If you look closer, you’ll see that there is common ground between the Islamic Caliphate in Syria and Panem of the Hunger Games. And this is inequality and Groupthink combined, an explosive mixture indeed.

   Inequality has a series of effects on society. Countries with wider socioeconomic inequalities are doing worse in several social problems:

   Moreover, social inequality is the cause for a significant raise in stress hormones:

   The individual will thus be desperate to eradicate this kind of a stressor. We human beings don’t value life so much if it’s ridden with continuous angst and feelings of inferiority. 

   It won’t take too long until people connect with their equals. You can also call them peers or those who are on the same boat with them. 

Then, a strange thing happens. Group dynamics interfere, and here’s the list of what happens within the group:      

    

1. Illusion of invulnerability –Creates excessive optimism that encourages taking extreme risks.

2. Collective rationalization – Members discount warnings and do not reconsider their assumptions.

3. Belief in inherent morality – Members believe in the rightness of their cause and therefore ignore the ethical or moral consequences of their decisions.

4. Stereotyped views of out-groups – Negative views of “enemy” make effective responses to conflict seem unnecessary.

5. Direct pressure on dissenters – Members are under pressure not to express arguments against any of the group’s views.

6. Self-censorship – Doubts and deviations from the perceived group consensus are not expressed.

7. Illusion of unanimity – The majority view and judgments are assumed to be unanimous.

8. Self-appointed ‘mindguards’ – Members protect the group and the leader from information that is problematic or contradictory to the group’s cohesiveness, view, and/or decisions.  

   It is not too uncommon that violence breaks out. Each group, whether that is an Islamic terrorist group, or the people of Capitol in the Hunger Games, are no more in a position to understand the other, the enemy.

   Undoubtedly, it is in the nature of humans to form groups. This is true whether it’s about the real world or our fiction. It is critical however, how we manage those groups and the oftentimes inevitable conflicts that will arise. The solution is astute interventionism. Do not permit inequality to widen within the boundaries of a country and invest in education that will have the Aristotelian logic at its core.

Violence, stereotyping, and racism can be solved. There’s a story you can read about it: The Experiment, a short story by Chris Dellian (coming soon).