Society, Belief And Equality (Part 3): The Niche

Influence is a very powerful thing. It is that which we are accustomed to seeing, that forms the basic rudiment of our personalities. Personality is therefore a function of the immediate environment; whether we be sanguine, choleric, phlegmatic or melancholic, the smallest building block that shapes and remoulds our outlook on society stays primarily dependent on influence; influence itself being dependent on whatever societal niche we fall into.
We are all part of at least one niche: At work, at home, on the internet, at school, on the playground, at the cinema, at the market place.....the list goes on and on, and our ability to recognize the characteristic behaviour among members of a particular niche keeps us from animosity.

I believe it is highly unlikely to change or alter the way a person thinks. People will behave in a way they are most comfortable in, so pushing them out of their comfort zone is really far-fetched.
Because our social and cultural niches have so much in recent times become so intertwined; people who share the same culture will also share the same social values most of the time, and those who do not, probably grew up living under a culture different from one they would fit into naturally. But even in this situation, such people will still seek out those who share in their ancestry.
Evolution has made us inextricably social and cultural. We are, each of us, born into a particular society with its specific structure and a particular culture with its specific languages and beliefs. For humans, then, society and culture constitute niches at least as much as the ecological environment.

The social niche of a population is the sum of all the social selection pressures to which the population is exposed and the cultural niche of a population is the sum of all the cultural selection pressures to which the population is exposed (Odling-Smee et al.). These are two very different ideals. We focus on the interaction of society (role-structures) and culture (ideas) and the potential for their distinct dynamics to reshape our outlook on the world.

STEREOTYPING: This is one very common sign that tells the ideals of a societal niche, it is man-made; we usually employ this in an attempt to distinguish ourselves from those we feel we do not share a cultural and/or social niche with.
INTIMACY: Sexually and psychologically, our likeness and fondness for people will usually be based on how much we share an attribute with them; socially and/or culturally.
CHARACTER: People will most likely behave in the same way if they share an ideal about life. Although character can be influenced at different stages in ones' life, the basic trait of an individual is never totally lost during their transitional developmental stages.
OPINION: Opinion is not really a guaranteed factor in identifying niches since it is not a belief system. It however is subject to our sub-conscious, meaning it still is an inverse function of dependence on the niche we belong to.

The totality of human existence is by far dependent on society and its various niches, the greatest of which is the world-niche. Every other sub-category is humanely induced - sometimes unknowingly, and sometimes deliberately. Whatever the case, there is no belief system that trumps another in its entirety. Somehow it stays interwoven, thus keeping us mold into one massive ball of complexities.