From: http://www.bizjournals.com/

It has recently been theorized that humans grew to dominance on this planet for reasons we didn’t learn in elementary school.

We used to believe that having opposable thumbs gave us a leg up, but as handy as that fifth digit is, there are other animals capable of grasping and using tools.

Then we thought our advantage was speech and language, but again, there are some species that communicate at least on par with us (and, if you follow Facebook and Twitter, some animals have us beat).

Neuroscientists have now discovered the one thing humans are better at than any other animal on the planet; the ability to think as a group. Our minds are wired to literally read each other’s thoughts, detect each other’s intentions, and adjust our behavior to fit in with the group.

This type of group thinking is crucial when you are one of the weakest animals on the planet. It also comes in handy if you are one of 20 pre-teens and you want to send your parents into a melt-down at the amusement park.

The down side

Sadly, as with all things in the grand scheme, everything has its price and every advantage has a down side.

In order to create group-think, humans have developed mental triggering mechanisms that dictate our behavior. As much as we would like to believe that when we make decisions we weigh pros and cons and arrive at conclusions based on facts, it is these mental flip-switches that guide almost every decision we make.

And one of the strongest triggers we have is the urge to be the same as everyone around us. Simply put, we do things because people who look like us, sound like us, and dress like us do those same things. In fact, the same action performed by different people will be seen as evil (if committed by someone dissimilar to us) or good (if committed by one of our own).