Group Size, Communication, and Challenges for the Education of Global Citizens

Not long ago, multiculturalism was considered something rather dubious. A leading German politician even coined the expression multicriminalism. Today some of the white sheep of the past who still believe in the values of days gone by, such as the Gospel or the German Mark, have become a minority.

According to evolutionary psychology, what we are today is the result of adaptations to the effects our ancestors experienced for tens of thousands of generations and what we are going to be in future depends on the decisions we make today. The reason for our taking the evolutionary perspective is, “through a better understanding of our evolutionary past we may set up our system of values on a sound, enduring basis” (Csikszentmihályi, 1990, p. 13). In order to educate global citizens to live the moral values of democracy we are well advised to examine the adaptive value of moral for our “ill-behaved” Pleistocene past. Let us face it: We might not have set out as learned men and women of a high moral standing! Moral has become necessary through our life in larger groups.

This paper examines the chances and constraints of our social evolution towards multiculturalism and globalization. After an analysis of the survival advantages and challenges of living in ever-larger groups, attention will be drawn to some of the biological-cognitive limits of social cooperation among humans. The presentation will attempt to show solutions as to how these limits may be overcome.