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Ronfar's avatar

"Spontaneous arbitrary group formation" could be a result of within-group competition for status. Attacking a group member with low status signals that you have more status than the member that was attacked. (The high status kids in school aren't the ones that pick on the outcasts. They don't need to. It's the medium status ones, who are afraid of becoming outcasts themselves, that do the worst bullying.) Therefore, to raise your own status in a group with ill-defined status, find someone to attack, attack them, and get others to support you in the attack.

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Overcoming Bias Commenter's avatar

But precisely because we never lacked for enemies, it would have been all the more important not to weaken the group by creating internal division.

The group weakening effect of picking on an arbitrary group member is clear and direct. Why would picking on a group member evolve as an indirect way of creating cohesion when the immediate direct effect is to reduce cohesion? Maybe there is some weird feedback mechanism a la runaway selection, but those kinds of arguments are not easy to make out.

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