Small differences call for loud distinctions

In chapter 5 of Jared Diamond's book The Third Chimpanzee (p. 99-109), the author describes the way we humans tend to pick mates who are similar to ourselves, based on a search image established during our formative years. Diamond is, as always, convincing. What, then, about the maxim "opposites attract"? After a little thought, it struck me that this is another example of a syndrome I think of as "the finer the hairs to be split, the sharper the knife". In other words, where a transgression is slight or a difference is minor, the more aggressive people are in asserting it. A good example are the psychological differences between men and women. Compared to man and tom cat, or man and nematode, the psychological and emotional differences between man and woman are pretty trivial. But it is very important to humans to delineate and defend this difference, so it is played up and exaggerated. I suspect the same could be found to be true of efforts to make black and whites seem radically different in apartheid South Africa, or patricians and plebs in classical Greek society.

References

Diamond, J. (1992). The Third Chimpanzee. (1st ed.) New York: HarperCollins.
Labels: depression, evolution, Jared Diamond, psychology