However, as most anthropologists will attest, humans are wired to live in curated collectives, as opposed to mass societies. So people formed new tribes within a larger society in order to find a “place” where they belonged. The French sociologist Michel Maffesoli referred to these new tribes as “neotribes.” The behavioral patterns within these neo

The artifacts that we wear, the behaviors we adopt, and the coded language that we use are outward representations of our worldview.

Meaning, McCracken wrote, originates from the beliefs and ideologies that we use to frame our everyday experiences and make sense of the world. From this culturally constituted world, meaning is embedded in products by way of four unique fashioning systems—advertising, news outlets, highly esteemed individuals, and fringe societies—and reworked int

Therefore, our cultural affiliation is anchored by how we self-identify—the categorical labels we use to tell people who we are and to associate with other people based on who they are.

The way it has worked for ISIS is the same way it works for brands, the military, and political affiliations.

Durkheim argued that members who subscribe to a particular culture tend to act in concert to promote social solidarity among its members. He referred to this phenomenon as “collective effervescence.” This concept is superpowerful because it suggests that what we believe, what we do, how we make meaning of the world, and how we communicate are all b

It is an extension of who we are.

Community members use their lexicon, much like artifacts and behaviors, to signify their cultural subscriptions and exercise the beliefs and ideologies associated with it.

As Bill Bernback, cofounder of the advertising agency DDB, put it, “You don’t persuade people through intellect. You do it through their passions.”