A link between outgroup threats and ingroup cohesion has been considered since the time of Darwin to be an adaptation for group-based competition.
During the years since, studies of all sorts -- from chimpanzees to cichlid fish to mongooses -- have found evidence supporting this view, but a crucial question has remained unanswered: what about species without strong inter-group competition?
The authors hypothesize that our common ancestor -- living 5-6 million years ago -- may have had some group-based conflict, but that as the intensity decreased in bonobos' evolutionary history, so too did the strength of the effect. "Humans are capable of both: we can commit horrific acts to those we see as outside our group, but we're also capable of collaborating and working together across borders," says senior author Shinya Yamamoto.
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