Groups, Lies, and Assholes

A while ago I was browsing the web for a book on Lie-Groups. I got several hits in the psychology department on lies, group psychology and self-deception, which was the inspiration for this post. Before I go on, a sentence for the pedagogic value of this blog: a Lie Group is maths thingy which underlies our current understanding of the Standard Model. It's named after Marius Sophus Lie, who was Norwegian, so the pronunciation is actually Lee-Group, and it's got nothing to do with lying.

Okay, that was about it with the scientific content of this post.

Now here comes my personal group theory, addressing the question what makes a group work well, such that members get along, act in common interest, are supportive to each other, are able to solve occurring problems within the group, as well as conflicts between the group and others. Most importantly, what is necessary for a group to succeed in working towards its goals?

Here is what Hollywood taught me: No matter what the size of the group, it needs at least sufficient members to fulfil four different tasks.

1. A Soul
   Most importantly the soul of a group reflects the group identity. He or she typically is the source of encouragement and motivation, the first to stand up after a defeat, the dreamer and the visionary. Though not necessarily a leader, he or she is the person who keeps the group alive by reassuring coherence. There's no working towards a goal without knowing the goal. In movies, the soul is typically the narrator or the hero of the story.



2. A Brain
   Nothing works without somebody who knows how to make a vision reality. The brain's task is to work out the plan and take care of the details. He or she is usually an efficiently working no-fuzz person, and enables the group to practically get where vision aims at. In movies, the brain is often a scientist with a large nerd-factor, which provides a source for gags and jokes.



3. A Heart
   The heart listens to concerns, offers comfort and is good with understanding the group member's individual problems. He or she is responsible for the human touch, usually very sensitive to internally occurring trouble, good with negotiation and has a skill for counseling. In movies the heart is often in conflict with #4...



4. An Asshole
   Or call it an outsider. The asshole's task is to criticize and to question the existence and goals of the group, to try differently, to stumble and fall. He or she typically offends group members with opinions that go against the group identity, but also prevents them from taking their self chosen task too seriously. In movies the asshole is usually responsible for the sarcasm and cynicism.

These functions need not necessarily be fulfilled by four different people. In some cases one person might fulfil several tasks, or one task might be shared among different people. 1 and 2 often need to cooperate when it comes to leadership and organizing group activities.

A nice example are The Fantastic Four

The brain - Mr. Fantastic
The heart - The Thing
The soul - The Invisible Women
The asshole - The Human Torch

And there's Sex and the City

The soul - Carrie
The heart -Charlotte
The brain - Miranda
The asshole - Samantha

Can somebody fill me in whether it works for the A-team (can't recall the details) or the Desperate Housewives (I never saw it)? There are other examples that came into my mind, but few of you will know them (e.g. TKKG).

A common alteration of the theme is to internalize the asshole through self-doubts of the main character, which reduces the core group to three. This works better in books than in movies. Examples for this are Harry Potter (soul + asshole), Hermione (brain) and Ron (heart). Or there is the Lord of the Rings with Frodo (soul + asshole), Gandalf (brain) and Sam (heart).

Another frequently used modification is to export the brain to a mysterious outsider, or to the wisdom of a larger group, like e.g. Star Wars exports the brain to 'The Force', which leaves us with the soul -Luke, the heart - Leia, and the Asshole - Han Solo.



Of course you can have larger groups, but these four core functions are usually present among them, and most other characters are, except for their entertainment value, exchangeable.

What I found most interesting when I thought about it is the relevance of the outsider to the group's functionality. Most often, a plot wouldn't move anywhere without such a person.

Therefore the bottomline is: Never underestimate the asshole-factor.