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It's not the others that cause cognitive dissonance. The dissonance is caused when your in-group AGREES with the others.

Without an in-group, the others are just datum to digest and process.

Without others, the in-group is just casually asserting the supremacy of its models over reality.

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But can there be groups of humans without resorting to status-seeking? It appears to be worth it ( read: people still do it ).

The point of being in the in-group is being in the in-group, not the defense of some deep principle. If it's a sufficiently murderous in-group, then being in the in-group equates to staying alive.

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