Warren Buffett: Growing Tribalism in Society Is Concerning

During the 2022 Berkshire Hathaway Annual Meeting, Warren Buffett reflects on the growing tribalism in society, comparing it to the partisanship he observed during his youth when Roosevelt was either loved or hated.

He explains how tribal behavior can be fun, using his loyalty to Nebraska football as an example, but warns of its dangers when it clouds objective truth. Buffett reminisces about his upbringing in a family that disliked Roosevelt and how tribalism shaped opinions.

While acknowledging partisanship has always existed, he believes the current intensity of tribalism is concerning and not a positive development for society.

Here’s an excerpt from the meeting:

Buffett: The one development that I really do think is actually important, but I don’t know any way to do anything about it, is that my general sense — and there’s no way to prove it — is that people are now behaving somewhat more tribal than they have for a long time. People are always going to be partisan, and they’re going to have religious beliefs, they’re going to have all kinds of things. But it gets pretty tribal. And I speak from experience because I’ve been tribal.

We’re confessing today, and, you know, Nebraska football is tribal. When I watch a television set, and I see our guy, Nebraska, step out of bounds by a foot, but somehow the ref misses it and calls it “in,” and then they show six replays, I’ll continue to believe it was “in” even though it’s right in front of my eyes that they stepped out. That’s tribal behavior. And it’s fun to participate in.

But it can get very dangerous when one group of people says, “Two plus two is five,” and the other says, “Two plus two is three.” They’re going to give you those answers if you call them. The interesting thing, to me at least — and partly because of my age — is that I actually think, just from memory, that the last time the country was this tribal was when I was a kid and Roosevelt was in office.

Either you hated Roosevelt or you loved him. Nobody cared about the fact that Alf Landon or Wendell Wilkie was running against him. They just had these strong feelings: they either had Roosevelt’s picture on the wall and named their kids after him, or they hated him and thought he was doing the wrong thing, like running for a third term, and many other things. The country was very tribal in the ’30s, but Roosevelt’s tribe was bigger. In my opinion, they did some wonderful things.

I happened to grow up in a household where we didn’t get served dessert until we said something nasty about Roosevelt. And believe me, if you don’t get dessert, you’re going to say something nasty about Roosevelt. (Laughs) So, you trained them young and did all kinds of things.

I think I’ve seen a period that wasn’t like this, when Eisenhower was running against Stevenson or something like that. People had partisan behavior, and there was always a certain amount of “tribal” behavior. But I don’t think it’s a good development for society when people get too tribal, regardless. (Applause)

You can watch the entire meeting here: