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Communal sharing/identity fusion does not require reflection on episodic memory of shared experience or trauma – and usually generates kindness

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 December 2018

Lotte Thomsen  and
Alan P. Fiske
Lotte Thomsen
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Oslo, Norway. [email protected]://www.sv.uio.no/psi/personer/vit/lottetho/ Department of Political Science, Aarhus University, Denmark
Alan P. Fiske
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095. [email protected]://www.anthro.ucla.edu/faculty/alan-page-fiske
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Abstract

Identity fusion is remarkably similar to the extensively validated construct of communal sharing, proposed in 1991. Both posit that notions of oneness/unity/equivalence with others underpin altruism. However, we argue that oneness/equivalence instantiates an evolved, innate relational form, marked and constituted by cultural practices making participants’ bodies substantially the same. It is intuitive from earliest development, often encompasses persons whom one has never met, and results mostly in caring.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 41 , 2018 , e219
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018 

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