Social Ratchets — How Cultures Tend to Become More Extreme Over Time

Native American initiation ritual often involved extremely painful practices. Image: Dall-e3, author generated

We are all familiar with ratchets — those devices that allow an opposed mechanism to move in one direction but not the other. They are used in cable ties, for example, to ensure that the tie can easily be tightened, but resists loosening. In human groups, an analogous social mechanism can come into play, causing group behaviour to move ever further in one direction but not the reverse, with the consequence that the group’s behaviour gradually becomes more extreme over time.

This is how it works:

• A culture, subculture or group develops a strong shared value, such as “caution”, “stoicism”, “courage”, “piety” or “fairness”.
• Norms, policies, laws and other behavioural rules, whether explicit or unspoken, develop around this value. Adherence to these behavioural codes, as well as to the underlying value, come to define group identity.
• A person within the group moves the standard of behaviour further in the direction of the group value. They may do this by suggesting changes to explicit rules, or simply by demonstrating a new level of zeal, proving themselves “more Catholic than the pope,” as the saying goes. This is inherently rewarding in the context of the group since it will be met with approval, admiration and status.