# Professor Jonathan Haidt offers his perspective on how the balance between tribalism and openness might play out in the political arena

1 Faculty News January 22, 2020 ![The New York Times Logo](/sites/default/files/styles/246w/public/assets/images/uat_027320.jpg?itok=W8xBr66g)>

Excerpt from [The New York Times](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/opinion/trump-voters.html) -- "[Jonathan Haidt](https://www.stern.nyu.edu/faculty/bio/jonathan-haidt), a professor at NYU’s Stern School of Business, offered a similarly nuanced examination of how the balance between tribalism and openness might play out. Tribalism, he wrote by email, 'is not a mindless and eternal “us versus them” mentality. It is a set of psychological adaptations that make people respond to threats and intergroup competition with an urge to band together, enforce loyalty to the team, and guard boundaries or territory.'"

[Read More](https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/22/opinion/trump-voters.html)