Climato-Economic Origins of Variation in Ingroup Favoritism

Reflecting coping with threats to survival, national cultures differ in baseline levels of ingroup favoritism. These national baselines are mapped and explained in terms of inhabitants’ cultural adaptations to climate-based demands and wealth-based resources. A 73-nation study of compatriotism—the social branch of patriotism—a 116-nation study of nepotism, and a 57-nation study of familism support the demands-resources explanation. Compatriotism, nepotism, and familism are strongest in lower-income countries with demanding cold or hot climates, moderate in countries with temperate climates irrespective of income per head, and weakest in higher-income countries with demanding cold or hot climates. Thus, cultural echos of climatic survival hold up across three distinct group conditions of genetic survival. Integration of the three measures provides a cross-disciplinary applicable index of baselines of cultural ingroup favoritism in 178 countries around the globe.