When Tribe Trumps Truth: How Identity Clouds Judgment
In a healthy democracy, disagreement is expected. People weigh evidence differently, value different outcomes, and argue their case. But something more troubling has taken hold in recent years: the growing tendency for identity to override evidence—to choose what feels loyal over what is true.
Social scientists have a name for this phenomenon. It’s often called identity-protective cognition or motivated reasoning—the tendency to process information in ways that protect one’s sense of belonging to a group. When beliefs become tied to identity, facts stop functioning as tools for understanding and start functioning as threats.
This isn’t a flaw unique to one political party, ideology, or faith tradition. It’s a human pattern. But in an era of fragmented media and algorithm-driven reinforcement, its consequences have become harder to ignore.
How Tribal Thinking Works
Research in social psychology shows that people are not neutral processors of information. We are more likely to accept claims that affirm our group identity and to reject or rationalize away those that challenge it—even when the evidence is strong.
Studies by researchers such as Dan Kahan at Yale have demonstrated that higher levels of education do not necessarily make people better at evaluating evidence objectively. In some cases, they make people better at defending the beliefs of their group. Intelligence becomes a tool for justification rather than correction.
This helps explain a puzzling reality: why large numbers of people sometimes support policies or leaders whose actions directly conflict with their stated values or material interests.
When Interests and Identity Collide
Consider economic policy. Over the past decade, multiple analyses by economists and government agencies have shown that broad tariffs increase consumer prices and disproportionately affect farmers, manufacturers, and working-class households. Retaliatory tariffs have repeatedly hit agricultural exports, requiring large federal subsidies to offset losses.
And yet, many voters whose livelihoods depend on affordable inputs or stable export markets have supported tariff-heavy policies because those policies were framed as symbols of national strength or group loyalty. The economic data was available. The consequences were measurable. But identity often mattered more than impact.
A similar tension appears in religious communities. Surveys consistently show that many Christians cite values such as humility, compassion for the poor, honesty, and care for the vulnerable as central to their faith. Yet political support has at times coalesced around leaders whose conduct and rhetoric openly contradict those principles.
This isn’t best explained by hypocrisy alone. It’s better understood as tribal alignment—the belief that defending “our side” is synonymous with defending what is good, even when evidence suggests otherwise.
Why Misinformation Thrives in Tribal Environments
Misinformation doesn’t spread simply because people lack access to facts. It spreads because certain claims feel right within a group’s narrative.
When identity is at stake:
Contradictory evidence is dismissed as biased or corrupt
Trusted sources are replaced with loyal ones
Correction feels like betrayal
In these conditions, truth becomes negotiable—not because people don’t care about it, but because accepting it would require social or psychological cost.
The result is a breakdown of shared reality. People no longer disagree about solutions; they disagree about basic facts. And when that happens, democratic decision-making becomes nearly impossible.
Why This Matters for Democracy
A democracy cannot function if citizens cannot agree on what is real. Shared truth is not about unanimity of opinion—it’s about having a common factual foundation on which disagreement can occur.
When tribal identity consistently overrides evidence:
Policy failures repeat without accountability
Harmful narratives go unchallenged
People vote, advocate, and argue from distorted premises
The cost isn’t abstract. It shows up in rising prices, weakened institutions, damaged communities, and people turning against one another based on fear rather than understanding.
A Question Worth Asking
None of us are immune to tribal thinking. The question isn’t whether identity shapes our beliefs—it’s whether we are willing to notice when it does.
If we all want safer communities, economic stability, and a future worth passing on, then we have to ask an uncomfortable question:
When evidence challenges what our group tells us to believe, do we lean toward truth—or toward tribe?
Rebuilding shared truth begins there.
(This piece reflects the collaborative work of The People’s Democracy).