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So I decided to title this new blog "Living in a Box". Why? Well I should say first of all that it's nothing to do with the 80's British Band "Living in a Box" (fabulous though they were). It's because, in many ways, we are all living in a box; or at least, lot of different boxes. I'll let Bill Clinton explain (taken from his 2001 "Dimbleby Lecture"):
"Think about how important your differences are to you. Think about how we all organize our lives in little boxes - man, woman, British, American, Muslim, Christian, Jew, Tory, Labour, New Labour, Old Labour, up, down - you know, everything in the world ... think about everything you define yourself by ...how could you navigate life if you didn't know the difference between a child and an adult, an African and an Indian, a scientist and a lawyer?"
These "boxes" describe the groups to which we belong. We use them to describe ourselves, and we use them to describe others. Black, White, Young, Old, Female, Male ... these categories are the essence of how we define our existence, our place in the world; they are the bedrock of human reasoning and intelligence.
But their centrality to human thinking can also be a curse. The use of categories to define "us" and "them" can be found at the heart of the worst atrocities in human history and categorical differences continue to be the defining feature of conflict in the 21st century. This is the challenge for those of us seeking social psychological solutions to the problem of prejudice: Categories are an essential element to how we perceive and understand the world; and, properly harnessed, they can be tremendously useful to us. But how to harness this power while avoiding their sometimes pernicious effects?
This blog will be all about the psychology of groups, social categorization, and how these labels play a key role in defining the highs and lows of everyday life.
