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Reference Summaries:

The Social Suite

23 Sep 2024 · 1 min read

Nicholas A. Christakis, in his book Blueprint, defines eight human features that form the core of all societies. As he says, these features arise from within individuals but they characterize groups, and so they form a relatively small set of universal features that supports the self-assembly of humans into societies.

  1. Recognition of individual identity in ourselves and others

  2. Love for partners and children

  3. Friendship: long-term, nonreproductive unions with other humans

  4. Social networks

  5. Cooperation

  6. Preference for one’s own group (that is, “in-group bias”)

  7. Mild hierarchy (that is, relative egalitarianism)

  8. Social learning and teaching

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