4. The concept of ’individual responsibility’ is a necessary fiction. Although societies must hold individuals accountable for their own actions, people’s behavior is largely determined by forces not of their own making.
5. People work more productively in teams than individually. Teamwork requires cooperation, which motivates people much more than individual competition does.
6. In any realm of life-whether academic, social, business, or political—the only way to succeed is to take a practical, rather than an idealistic, point of vies. Pragmatic behavior guarantees survival, whereas idealistic views tend to be superceded by simpler, more immediate options.
7. It is primarily through our identification with social groups that we define ourselves.
8. Only through mistakes can there be discovery or progress.
9. Most people recognize the benefits of individuality, but the fact is that personal economic success requires conformity.
10. People who are the most deeply committed to an idea or policy are the most critical of it.
11. No amount of information can eliminate prejudice because prejudice is rooted in emotion, not reason.