Understanding the Power of Unity and the Obstacles to It

History and our own evolutionary history demonstrate that collective behaviour is far more significant than individuality.

As being independent has grown more commonplace, we no longer place the same value on working together as we once did. Our living circumstances must play a major role in this.

For instance, a study carried out in China found that people involved in wheat agriculture—which primarily relies on rainfall—are more individualistic and had a "Western mentality".

On the other hand, people who work in the rice industry, which is supported by intricate irrigation systems and values solidarity, have a more collectivist society.

Human nature, however, is more suited to cooperation, solidarity, and unification. The actual deciding element, though, is the environment we live in.

We are creatures whose lives, actions, and decisions are primarily determined by the way we look at one another. At times, we even act in this way without realising how much we are inspired or bonded by one another. In what way?

In a social experiment, 400 homes are randomly assigned to receive one of four signs containing energy-saving messages.

"Save energy and don't throw away your money," "Save energy and protect the environment," "Do your part in saving energy for the good of future generations," and "Join your neighbours in saving energy" are the slogans on these placards.

The final message is the one that receives the weakest response when the hosts are questioned about how inspirational these messages are. Ultimately, though, the analysis reveals that the least inspiring statement manages to generate the greatest savings.

The social message encouraging neighbours to engage saves an average of 5 to 9 kilowatt hours each day, while other messages are equally ineffectual. It is inevitable that our savings are impacted by those of others.

Despite our perception that we don't give a damn about what other people do, cooperative behaviour is in our nature.

We tend to act in unison, but occasionally we can take ourselves too seriously. Even worse, the idea of leadership and hierarchy might have a detrimental effect on our capacity for teamwork.

Researchers advise considering others' shares first in order to dispel this myth.

Similar research is conducted in the corporate world. As a result, 140% is the total when all members of a working group consisting of three to six individuals are required to contribute as a percentage.

However, this margin of error decreases to 123% when participants gave priority to stating the percentage contribution of others.

Even though everyone estimates their own share highly, if they give others credit where credit is due first, they can lower the estimate for their own portion.

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