Team Confidence (GrpProsp)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How far you feel the group, as it now stands, can pull off the venture it has agreed to take on and not yet finished: a game, project, season or campaign. It is confidence in the group's capability for that venture, its members' skill included: not luck, not your own prospects (OwnProsp), not whether each will do their part (OutResp), not a general sense that the group is strong.

10: You feel sure the group, as it stands, can pull off what it has set itself; the venture looks well within its reach.

1: You feel sure the group, as it stands, cannot pull off what it has set itself; the venture looks beyond it.

Pre-language: A felt sense, before any words, that this band can bring off what it is setting out to do: the chimpanzee weighing the hunting party and feeling the colobus within reach when enough able hunters are present, and out of reach when they are not. Intimates read it from her bearing as the venture starts: settled and forward-leaning, in step with the others, or hesitant and watchful, eyes on the others rather than the task.

Effect on Engagement: That is likely to succeed in goals that you believe are worth pursing, or you would not have joined the group in the first place, and that has agreed goals, or otherwise random changes to the group's direction will move outside the model's ability to predict.

Payoff (OwnProsp)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How likely you feel it is that staying in this group will get you what you yourself are after from it: the place, play, pay, skill, advancement or mate you joined for. It is a forecast of what the group will deliver to you, not your own ability, not the group's own venture (GrpProsp), not whether help you give comes back (Reciprocity), and not a tally of what it has given so far, which only feeds it.

10: You are sure that staying will bring you what you came for; the group's dealings with you keep opening the way to it.

1: You are sure that staying will bring you nothing you came for; whatever you do here, the way to it stays shut.

Pre-language: The felt yield of staying with this band for her: whether being here keeps bringing her food, a mate, a place or a skill, or keeps bringing her nothing. Its animal form is the forager's reading that a patch is still worth working, and the primate's reading that staying in this troop will or will not yield what staying costs. Intimates read it from whether she settles in and works at her own aims here, or drifts to the edge, looks outward and leaves.

Effect on Engagement: Where you feel that you are likely to achieve your personal goals, whether or not they are part of the group goals (GrpProsp) or indeed, conflict with them. Presumably if personal and group goals are in conflict, you would prefer to have low levels of GrpProsp however such a condition is out of scope for the model as it indicates deception and potentially sabotage, which is a cognitive rather than an unconscious drive (as the Pillars are contended to be).

Rank (Status)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

Your felt rung in the group's settled order of precedence: how far you go first, take the first turn and the first share as a matter of course, and how far you go after others and take what is left. All recognise the order, so it is not fought out each time. The precedence attaches to your place, however you came by it: an office, seniority, the backing of kin or allies, an old contest no one reopens, or credit for what you bring that has settled, over time, into a place others take for granted. It is distinct from the live deference you draw for what you bring now (Prestige), and it is not held in place by present fear (Levelling).

10: You go first as a matter of course: the first turn, the first share and the best seat are yours without a word said, and no one in the group stands above you.

1: You go last as a matter of course: you wait your turn and take your share and seat after everyone else, without a word said, and no one in the group stands below you.

Pre-language: Her felt rung in an order all recognise: the others let her pass, eat and settle first and greet her with the calm signals of submission, or she passes, eats and settles after them and greets them so, and neither side has to fight it out each time. Intimates read it from who passes first when paths cross, who eats first, who takes the best spot, and who greets whom. Read with care: beliefs about the bodily signs of rank outrun the measured signs.

Effect on Engagement: Where you feel that you possess formal power within a group, enabling you to utilise the group to achieve your own vision, which aligns the group with your identity. This is why new leaders often revoke measures taken by the preceding.

Rule-Keeping (NormExp)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How strongly it strikes you as wrong when another member breaks from the group's settled ways, in act or by openly pressing to change them. It is felt indignation at a breach, not dislike of the person. Intimates read it from whether you pull the member up: an objection, mockery, a cold shoulder or shutting them out. Your own conformity and your openness to ideas are not part of it.

10: The smallest departure jars you at once as plainly wrong, and intimates see you pull the member up on the spot: a sharp word, a mocking laugh or a turned back.

1: A member doing or urging something different leaves you unmoved; nothing in you says it is wrong, and intimates see you let it pass.

Pre-language: The bristle at one of the band doing a thing the wrong way. Its sign is the move to pull them up: a protest cry, a shove, a cold shoulder or exclusion. Two and three year olds already protest a puppet's wrong move (Rakoczy et al. 2008); Ju/'hoansi pull up breaches by criticism and mockery (Wiessner 2005); chimpanzees retaliate for their own losses but do not police third-party breaches (Riedl et al. 2012). Intimates read it from how she meets another's departure: with indignation and a rebuke, or with a shrug. Forager bands show the same bristle turned on upstarts and stingy members; in this model that egalitarian form is carried by DivsExp->Levelling. The face here is the guarding of a ranked group's settled ways.

Effect on Engagement: Where you feel that you can manage (minimise unwelcome or surprising) change, by using your power to reduce any propensity for others to suggest change. While high NormExp undermines Psychological Safety for others, it makes you personally feel safer.

Dependability (OutResp)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How far you feel the other members can be counted on to do their part in the shared work: each carries through what they take on and keeps their word about it, so you leave work in their hands without checking. It is reliability, not skill (GrpProsp): a willing but clumsy member rates high. It reads their part, not the return on your help (Reciprocity), whether anyone takes more of the take than their due and makes it stick (Levelling), or their trust in you.

10: You leave any part of the work with any member and never check up on it; what they take on gets done and what they promise about it holds.

1: You check up on, chase and redo others' work, expecting them to shirk, cut corners or go back on their word.

Pre-language: Whether she can turn her back on them at a shared task. One who counts on her fellows leaves the watch, the carry or the young in their hands and goes about her own business without looking back; one who does not keeps glancing over, hovers at their work or takes it over herself. Intimates read it from how often she looks back, checks and takes over. The mechanism, trust calibrated to a partner's record, is the one chimpanzees show when they adjust trust to partners who have come through before (Engelmann et al. 2015); what sets this Pillar apart from Reciprocity is what the record is of: the partner's share of a joint task, not a favour returned to her. It is her reading of them; whether they turn their backs on her is a different thing and not read here.

Effect on Engagement: With competent and trustworthy people because you like being associated with 'winners', you admire and wish to model yourself off them, and they can help you to improve.

Fair Footing (Levelling)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How far you feel no one in the group sets themselves over you: makes you do, drop or endure things by force or fear, or takes more than the group's own reckoning gives them (of shares, credit or say) and makes it stick. You go along of your own accord, unafraid and not shortchanged. It is not rank (Status), acceptance (Belonging), deference for what you bring (Prestige), the return on help (Reciprocity), whether others do their part of the work (OutResp) or the cost of showing yourself (DivsExp). A respected leader, a settled order you accept, or the group together pulling up a breach of its ways leaves it high; a member you must appease, or one who grabs and gets away with it, lowers it.

10: No member or clique can make you do or drop anything by force or threat, and no one takes more than their due and keeps it. You move, take your share and go about your business in the strongest member's presence as freely as in anyone's.

1: One or a few members make you comply through force or fear, or take more than their due and keep it. You watch them warily, fall quiet when they come near, and let them have what they want to head off their anger, or because objecting gets you nowhere.

Pre-language: Freedom from a bully she must appease. The free animal moves, feeds and takes her share in the strongest member's presence without flinching or a glance at that member's mood; the coerced one tracks that member's moods, freezes on approach and does whatever heads off an attack. Intimates read it from whether she watches one particular member warily and shrinks or placates when that member comes near, while staying easy with everyone else.

Safety (DivsExp)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How safe you feel to show yourself in this group: to let a slip, a mood, a need or a disagreement show, expecting no attack, mockery or rebuff for it. It is your reading of what showing yourself will cost you, not whether you speak up, whether your word carries weight (Prestige), whether you are wanted (Belonging) or whether anyone pushes you about by force or fear (Levelling).

10: You let slips, moods, needs and disagreements show as they come, expecting no one to pounce on them, laugh at them or turn away.

1: You scan faces before you move, keep your reactions masked and hold back even a plain need or disagreement, braced for a put-down.

Pre-language: Relaxed against braced among her own: the loose body and open play of an animal that expects no bite from its fellows, against the scanning, self-scratching stillness of one that does (displacement activity rises with social stress: Maestripieri et al. 1992). Intimates read it from how loose or tight she is when eyes turn to her, and from whether she hides a hurt or a want.

Effect on Engagement: Where you feel that your ideas will be welcomed and well-received. While related to IncResp (HCP), Expression is closer to a norm of Psychological Safety than being given specific respect for one's competence. Such a norm creates a warm, less hostile environment, which is distinct from cohesion: a close, friendly group can still make challenge feel risky.

Give-and-Take (Reciprocity)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

Your felt reading of whether help in this group comes back: what you give is returned, what you ask for is met. It holds until evidence moves it. It concerns the return on help, not whether others carry their part of shared work (OutResp), whether anyone takes more of a common take than their due (Levelling) or where you stand (Status). The egalitarian face reads the return as coming from the group; the hierarchical face, from the partner helped.

10: Help goes where it is needed and comes back as a matter of course; you count on the return without a second thought, because it has never failed.

1: What you give is not returned and what you need goes unmet; you expect nothing back from anyone here.

Pre-language: The felt return on sharing: grooming that is returned by those groomed (Schino and Aureli 2008) and forager food handed over on demand that comes back from the band's next kill (Peterson 1993). Intimates read it as a sign in her behaviour: whether she hands over on request and asks as of right, expecting the return, or hesitates, hoards and goes without rather than ask.

Return from the group. Help goes to whoever needs it, and the return comes from the group, not from the one helped. It is conditional on membership and standing, not on a tally: a known sharer is given to, a known hoarder is passed over, and whoever has a surplus is pressed to share on demand. Your reading is whether the group pays back what you put into it. 10: Whoever has gives to whoever needs; what you have put in comes back from any member, and you are pressed to share as one of us. 1: Giving goes into a hole: nothing comes back from anyone, those with a surplus hide it, and need goes unmet.

Return from the partner. Help flows between particular partners who return it to each other. It is conditional on a return from the same partner: in kind between equals, or across rank, as favour and protection passed down for loyalty and service passed up. Your reading is whether your partners pay you back, not where you stand (Status) or whether they do their part of the shared work (OutResp). 10: Every partner you help pays you back and those you ask deliver; your patron covers you and your people back you, each in turn. 1: Partners take and do not return; no one above covers you and no one below backs you; you expect no return from anyone you deal with.

Belonging (Belonging)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How far you feel the others want you among them: whether they make room for you and draw you in, or leave you at the edge. It is their acceptance of you, read from how they treat you, not whether they defer to you for skill or contribution (Prestige) or where you stand in the order (Status). The culture's face sets what the acceptance rests on.

10: Others make room for you on sight and draw you into whatever is going on; you never doubt that you are wanted here.

1: Gatherings form without you and you are left at the edge; you doubt that anyone wants you here.

Pre-language: Being let into the huddle or kept out of it, time after time. The others shift to make a place, share, groom and turn towards her, or close ranks, turn away and leave her at the fringe, and keep doing so. Intimates read it from whether she moves freely into the middle of the group or hovers at its edge, watching for a gap.

Wanted as one of their own in good standing. The others want you among them as one of their own in good standing: you pull with the group and are no burden on it. The acceptance does not rise or fall with your output or with any place in an order, but it is not unconditional: a member who shirks, cheats or feeds on the others is edged out. You read liking from the group as a whole. 10: Others make room for you and draw you in as a matter of course, and have done so through good seasons and bad; nothing short of your turning against the group would change it. 1: Gatherings form without you and you are left at the edge: they treat you as a burden or an outsider, not as one of their own.

Included while you keep your place. The others keep you among them so long as you keep to what your place in the order calls for, high or low, and do not step out of line. The acceptance is real but conditional on keeping the place, not on the place itself (Status). You read it from how they treat you while you keep it and from the standing threat of being dropped. 10: You have kept your place and the others keep you among them: at every gathering a place is made for you, whether high or low, as a matter of course. 1: You have stepped out of line and been dropped, or were never given a place at all: gatherings form without you and you are kept at the edge.

Esteem (Prestige)

Tightened by the literature 3 Nov 2026 (docs/model-edits/tighten/); provisional

How far you feel the others defer to you freely for what you bring the group: skill, knowledge or contribution it values. They watch how you do it, copy you, bring you problems, take your advice, hand you decisions and jobs that matter and take your word on them. The deference is given, not owed to any place in a rank order (Status). Being handed a decision or a job because of what you bring is part of it; whether the others think you will carry your share of the work is not. It fades once what you bring does, unless it has settled into your place (Status).

10: Whenever your kind of skill or contribution counts, the others turn to you, watch and copy how you do it, bring you their problems and take your advice.

1: No one asks you, watches you or copies you; when your kind of skill or contribution is needed they turn to someone else.

Pre-language: Being the one others watch, copy and seek out: eyes on her hands, bodies drawn near while she works, problems brought to her, her way of doing things taken up, the giver sought as a partner; as children and apes attend to and copy skilled or much-attended models, and as the most giving members of a group are sought out and honoured. Intimates read it from who gets watched, copied and sought, and who is passed over when a task of her kind comes up.

Effect on Engagement: Where you feel that others have a high opinion of your competence and trustworthiness: you feel valued and understood; you feel that others regard you to be a legitimate and useful member of the group; your identity as belonging to this group is consistent with others' appraisal of you.

Making Fetch Happen: Belonging to DivsExp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When the others draw me in as one of their own, and after a knock one of them comes and sits with me, my bracing eases; I expect a slip, a mood or a disagreement of mine to be taken as coming from one of their own, and my felt safety to show myself rises.

Decrement: When gatherings form without me and no one comes to me after a knock, I expect a slip or a disagreement of mine to be met as an outsider's would be, with a rebuff, and I mask myself and brace: my felt safety to show myself falls.

Consolation by a valued partner lowers stress behaviour in chimpanzees after aggression (Fraser, Stahl and Aureli 2008), and it comes mostly from partners with valuable relationships, which is the felt core of being drawn in. A member who is wanted expects her exposure to be borne as one of their own; one left at the edge expects it to be held against her. Felt safety in teams is a shared reading that interpersonal risk is acceptable (Edmondson 1999).

Pre-language (increment): When others seek her out and play with her, she lets her moods and fumbles show without watching faces.

Pre-language (decrement): When others leave her at the edge, she watches faces, masks her reactions and braces for a snap.

Friends at my back: Belonging to Levelling (Reinforce, E)

Generated for the draft model; provisional, awaiting Ben Rechecked 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars: kept.

Increment: When I feel the others want me among them, I sense they would close round me if anyone tried to push me about, and my sense that no one can lord it over me rises.

Decrement: When gatherings form without me and no one seeks me out, I feel I would stand alone if someone pushed me about, and my sense that no one can lord it over me falls.

Felt protection from domination rests on expected coalitional support, and being bonded into the group is the felt basis of that expectation; an isolated member is exposed. Elaboration: when the low reading comes from being shut out, her reaction may show hostility, aimed readily at whoever crosses her next, even someone who had no part in it, and withheld only from those who treat her warmly (Twenge, Baumeister, Tice and Stucke 2001); if the exclusion is public and reads as a slight to her good name, the Reputation expansion carries that flare.

Pre-language (increment): When others seek her out and groom her, she faces a swaggering member without shrinking, expecting her companions to come to her side, and her sense of no bully rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When others leave her on her own, she shrinks when a forceful member nears, with no one to run to, and her sense of no bully sinks.

One of us, so it comes back: Belonging to Reciprocity (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When the others draw me in as one of their own, I feel sure that what I put in will come back from the group and that what I need will be met.

Decrement: When they leave me at the edge and treat me as a burden, I feel that what I give goes into a hole and that my needs would be passed over.

In the return-from-the-group face, the group gives to those it counts as its own and passes over those it does not. People expect generalised returns from their own group and not from outsiders (bounded generalised reciprocity: Yamagishi and Kiyonari 2000), so being wanted as one of them is the felt sign that her own need will be met, and being edged out is the sign that it will be passed over.

Pre-language (increment): When others seek her out and draw her in, she reaches for a share of what they have without hesitation, expecting it to be handed over, and her sense that giving comes back grows.

Pre-language (decrement): When others leave her at the edge, she hangs back from the food and holds what she has close, expecting nothing to come her way, and her sense that giving comes back sinks.

Open or masked: DivsExp to Belonging (Discretionary, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (second round); provisional

Whether feeling safe to show myself draws the others closer depends on what I would be showing them. Circumstance one: I pull my share of the work, so what shows is moods, owned slips and disagreements aired for the group's sake. HIGH: I let them show, the others read me as one of their own and draw me in, so my Belonging rises. LOW: braced and masked, I come across as aloof even while I pull my share, and they leave me at the edge of the talk, so my Belonging falls. Circumstance two: what I have to show is mostly a run of needs and complaints the others would have to carry, and they have begun to tire of carrying them. HIGH: I go on letting them show, I read more and more as a burden and they edge away, so my Belonging falls. LOW: braced and masked, I keep those needs to myself; with nothing new to carry, they stop edging away and let me back into the talk, so my Belonging rises. Someone already wanted among them is borne with longer. Masked expression lowers a partner's rapport and wish to affiliate (Butler et al. 2003), and disclosure draws liking (Collins and Miller 1994), for circumstance one.

Pre-language (explanation): When she does her share alongside the others, showing her moods and fumbles freely draws them to her, while going still and masked leaves her on the edge. When the others have begun to turn from her constant wants and complaints, showing more of them makes them turn further away, while keeping them hidden lets them come back to her and make room for her again.

Mistakes in the open: DivsExp to GrpProsp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When I feel safe to let a slip or a disagreement show, I sense that troubles with the venture come out where the group can deal with them, and I feel surer it can pull the venture off.

Decrement: When I brace and mask myself, I sense that slips and doubts are being hidden around me as well as by me, and I feel less sure the group can pull the venture off.

Psychological safety lets errors and disagreements surface early, which is how teams learn and correct course (Edmondson 1999). A member's own felt safety is her best read of whether that is happening, so it carries into her confidence in the group's capability.

Pre-language (increment): When she is loose among them and her fumbles on the shared venture draw help rather than jeers, she sees fumbles mended as they happen and goes at the venture with confidence.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is braced and hides her fumbles, she sees others hide theirs too, and the venture feels shakier to her.

Free to scoff, free of bullies: DivsExp to Levelling (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When I feel safe to let a disagreement show, I bristle or scoff at anyone who starts to push me about or help themselves to more than their due, and I feel no one here could make me do, drop or give up anything, or keep more than their due, without an argument from me: my sense of Levelling rises.

Decrement: When I brace and mask myself, I let a pushy member's demands and grabs pass without a murmur and do what he wants, and I feel I am being made to comply: my sense of Levelling falls.

The everyday tools of levelling are ridicule, criticism and open objection (Boehm). A member who feels safe to show herself uses them on reflex against anyone who pushes her or grabs, and since others tend to join such sanctions, force and grabbing get less grip on her; one who is braced swallows her objection, gives way and feels the force.

Pre-language (increment): When she is loose among the others, she bristles, mocks or protests when a swaggering member pushes at her, and goes about her business beside him without a glance at his mood.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is braced, she goes still and gives way when a swaggering member pushes at her, and watches his mood.

No cover-ups: DivsExp to OutResp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When I feel safe to let my own slips show, I take it that no one here needs to dress up a report, so when a member says a part is done I take it as done and leave it in their hands: my confidence that they will do their part rises.

Decrement: When I brace and mask my own slips, I take it that the others dress up their reports as I would, so 'done' no longer means done and I check what they say they have finished: my confidence that they will do their part falls.

Where showing a slip draws a put-down, members cover their shortfalls, and whether problems are raised depends on felt safety (Edmondson 1999), so a report that work is done cannot be taken at face value. Caution: units with more openness report more errors (Edmondson 1996), so in a safe group she also hears of more slips. The card still holds, because OutResp moves here with whether reports can be trusted; the count of slips she hears of is a separate matter. A run of owned and fixed slips reads as reliability, and a run of unfixed ones belongs on an OutResp evidence card. The step from her own safety to her reading of others' reports is a proposal; keep it modest.

Pre-language (increment): When she is loose among them and shows her own fumbles, she leaves a shared task in another's hands and turns away without looking back.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is braced and hides her own fumbles, she keeps glancing back at a shared task left with another, and goes over it herself.

Need shown, need met: DivsExp to Reciprocity (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When I feel safe to let a need show, I let it show, and seeing it met I feel surer that what I put into this group comes back.

Decrement: When I brace and keep my needs masked, I only hint at them; the hints go unnoticed and nothing comes, and I read the silence as a refusal: my sense that help in this group comes back falls.

Felt safety lets a member show her needs, and the help that answers them confirms the return. A braced member only hints at hers. People overrate how plainly others can read their inner states (illusion of transparency: Gilovich, Savitsky and Medvec 1998), so she takes her hint as a request, sees nothing come, and reads the silence as a refusal. People also underestimate how readily others help when asked directly (Flynn and Lake 2008), so a member who shows a need is met more often than she expects, while one who masks it never learns her estimate was too low. Both findings come from studies of strangers and pairs; carrying them into a standing group is an extension, so keep both steps modest, and keep the decrement small where she has not hinted at a need at all.

Pre-language (increment): When she is loose among them, she whimpers or reaches when hungry or hurt, is given to, and her sense that giving comes back grows.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is braced, she hides her hunger or hurt, is given nothing, and her sense that giving comes back sinks.

Reading the welcome through my own warmth: Engagement to Belonging (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When this group feels part of who I am, the small signs (a nod, a seat kept, a glance my way) read to me as welcome for one of their own who pulls with them, and my sense that they want me among them rises.

Decrement: When I am pulling out of this group, the same small signs read as mere politeness and the gaps read as edging me out, as if I were a burden or an outsider, and my sense that they want me among them falls.

Most belonging cues in a small group are ambiguous, and people read them in line with how they themselves stand. The sociometer gauges felt relational value from such cues (Leary and Baumeister 2000), and ambiguous cues are read in the direction the reader expects or wants (Kunda 1990; Downey and Feldman 1996 for expected rejection). A person for whom the group is part of who she is gives the others the benefit of the doubt. A person on her way out reads coolness into the same scene, and finds in it a felt reason for going. Primates that move to the edge of a troop are approached and groomed less, so drawing back is confirmed by what she then sees, but the card covers only the re-reading. The face in this deck applies: being wanted as one of their own in good standing, someone who pulls with the group. Her own investment colours how she reads that standing, but the card moves only her reading of the others' treatment, not the treatment itself.

Pre-language (increment): Bound up in the band, she takes the others' approaches and the room made beside her as welcome. Her feeling of being wanted among them rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Drifting away from the band, she reads the others' glances as indifferent and sees groups forming without her. Her feeling of being wanted among them falls.

Bringing herself in, or bracing: Engagement to DivsExp (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When this group is part of who I am, I bring my whole self into it, and the faces around me read as open rather than judging: I feel safer letting slips, moods, needs and disagreements show.

Decrement: When I have withdrawn into myself and am on my way out of this group, the same faces read as watchful and ready to mock: I mask my reactions, braced for a put-down, and feel less safe to let them show.

Kahn (1990) defines engagement and disengagement as two movements of the self: expressing it in the role, or withdrawing and defending it. A self that is defending braces, and a braced body reads neutral faces as threat; a self that is expressing is loose and reads the same faces as open. The well-established path runs the other way (felt safety is a condition of engagement), and this feedback path is less directly tested; I rest it on Kahn's account plus mood-congruent social perception (Forgas 1995). I considered Inverse (an invested member has more to lose, so feels more exposed) but rejected it as the default, because Kahn treats self-expression and engagement as one movement; that exposure effect belongs on a scene card about how a shown disagreement is received.

Pre-language (increment): Bound up in the band, she moves loosely and plays unguarded, and eyes turning to her no longer feel like a threat: her felt safety among them rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Withdrawn from the band, she tightens, scans faces and goes still, and eyes turning to her feel like a coming blow: her felt safety among them falls.

Thrown in, the venture looks winnable: Engagement to GrpProsp (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When I am thrown into this group heart and effort, I feel buoyed, and what we manage feels like a sign of what we can do: I feel more sure that we, as we stand, can pull off the venture we have taken on.

Decrement: When I have withdrawn from this group and am half out of the door, I feel flat, and the same showing looks like the limit of what we can do: I feel less sure that we, as we stand, can pull off the venture we have taken on.

Her own investment carries a feeling (enthusiasm or flatness), and that feeling seeps unbidden into her reading of the group's capability for the venture still ahead. The Affect Infusion Model describes the route: mood colours judgements she builds from scratch, whether by quick heuristics or by working them through, and colours least those she simply recalls or makes with a set aim in view (Forgas 1995). Salanova, Llorens and Schaufeli (2011) report a gain spiral over time in which engagement and enthusiasm feed back into efficacy beliefs, so the loop runs from engagement to felt prospects as well as the reverse. Most of that evidence concerns a member's belief in her own capability; its spread to the group's capability is less directly tested. Effort justification (Aronson and Mills 1959) is sometimes offered as extra support, but field studies of real initiations have given weak or contrary results, so it is not relied on here. Because GrpProsp also feeds Engagement, the two form a positive loop; the brake must come from GrpProsp evidence cards (setbacks, missed goals), and the increment here should be modest.

Pre-language (increment): Bound up in the band's shared push, she moves with spring, and the venture ahead looks within the band's reach: her sense of the band's prospects rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Withdrawn and hanging back, she sees the band fumble, and the venture ahead looks beyond it: her sense of the band's prospects falls.

Inside the coalition: Engagement to Levelling (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When this group is part of who I am, it feels like ours to defend, and I feel ready to stand with the rest against anyone who throws their weight about; a forceful member no longer looks able to make me do or drop anything, or to take more than their due and keep it: my sense that no one here can set themselves over me rises.

Decrement: When I have drawn back and am on my way out of this group, it no longer feels worth a stand, and I would sooner keep my head down than face anyone down; a forceful member looms larger and I give way to their mood: my sense that no one here can set themselves over me falls.

In forager bands, the absence of a bully rests on a levelling coalition of the rest, ready to check a would-be dominant (Boehm 1993). Feeling free of coercion therefore depends partly on her own readiness to join that check. Commitment to a group raises the will to speak up and resist when things go wrong, while low commitment turns members towards exit or silent neglect (Hirschman 1970; Rusbult and colleagues 1988). When Engagement is high the group feels like hers to defend, so a forceful member feels unable to make her comply. When it is low nothing here seems worth a stand, and the same forcefulness feels like a threat she must appease. Caution: a member with somewhere else to go depends less on the group, and dependence is what gives others power over her (Emerson 1962), so set the decrement small or nil where her exit is ready and cheap. Whether the others would back her is a separate matter, carried by Friends at my back (Belonging). Levelling here is her own felt exposure to force or fear, and leaves aside whether she likes or rates the forceful member.

Pre-language (increment): Drawn into the band, she stands among the others when a forceful member swaggers, feels them at her side and goes on with her business. Her sense that no one can push her about rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Pulled to the band's edge, she watches the forceful member warily, goes still when it comes near and gives way, feeling no one at her back. Her sense that no one can push her about falls.

Trusting those I am in it with: Engagement to OutResp (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When I am thrown into this group, I keep leaving work in the others' hands and seeing it done, and the way they carry their part looks dependable: I feel more confident that they will do what they take on.

Decrement: When I have withdrawn from this group, I stop leaving work with them and seeing it through, and the one task let drop is what stays with me: I feel less confident that they will do what they take on.

Two felt routes. Mood congruence: investment brings warmth, and warmth colours quick judgements of whether others will keep their word (Forgas 1995). Sampling: an engaged member keeps relying on others, so a single let-down is soon corrected by tasks carried through; a disengaged member stops relying on them, so the last let-down stands as the verdict (Denrell 2005). The card moves reliability only, not her reading of their skill (GrpProsp, Prestige). One caution: the sucker effect (Kerr 1983) shows that a member who is putting in a lot reacts sharply when a partner coasts. That reaction is real and acts as a brake, but it is driven by seeing the coasting, so it belongs on an OutResp evidence card, not here.

Pre-language (increment): Bound up in the band, she leaves tasks in others' hands and sees them done, and each task carried through sticks: her trust that those around her will do their part rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Withdrawn from the band, she stops leaving tasks with others, and the last task dropped is what she carries away: her trust that they will do their part falls.

One of us, so paid back: Engagement to Reciprocity (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When this group is part of who I am, I pour my time and effort into it, and what comes my way reads as the group paying back what I have put in: my sense that help here comes back to me rises.

Decrement: When I am pulling out of this group, I know I have been holding back my time and effort, and when I am in need I expect the group to pass me over as I have passed it by: my sense that help here comes back to me falls.

In egalitarian sharing the return comes from the group, and it still tracks what each has put in: households that give more receive more (Gurven 2004), even where demand sharing gives every member some claim on a surplus (Peterson 1993). Engagement is the felt size of her stake and effort in the group. When it is high she feels herself a contributor the group owes, and reads ambiguous cues of others' giving as return for what she has put in. When it is low she knows she has held back and expects to be passed over. Whether the others want her among them is a separate route (One of us, so it comes back). The card moves her reading of the group's return; it keeps no tally of particular debts.

Pre-language (increment): Bound up in the band, she shares freely and feels the band's food and help come round to her in turn. Her sense that what she gives comes back rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Loosened from the band, she keeps to herself and, when hungry, hangs back expecting nothing to be passed her way. Her sense that what she gives comes back falls.

Circle the Wagons: GrpProsp to Belonging (Discretionary, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (second round); provisional

Whether the venture's prospects draw the others round her depends on where the trouble is seen to come from. Circumstance one (the default), the trouble is seen as inside the group or no source is named. HIGH: the venture going well, the others are easy with each other and with her, make room and draw her in, so her Belonging rises (runs as Reinforce). LOW: the venture failing, heads turn to who is dragging, small cliques form, and she is left at the edge of the talk, so her Belonging falls. Circumstance two, the trouble is seen as coming from outside (a rival group, an outside body, a setback from outside such as lost funding or a forced change of ground), and the group still sees a fight worth making. LOW: the others close ranks against it and draw her in as one of us, so her Belonging rises (runs as Inverse). HIGH: the outside threat looks easily met, the huddle loosens and her place returns to its ordinary level, so her Belonging eases. External threat binds a group only when it falls on all of them and a joint effort seems able to meet it (Stein 1976); where the venture looks hopeless, run circumstance one. Newcomers gain least from the outside-threat branch and lose most in the inside branch.

Pre-language (explanation): Where the band huddles when things go badly and she is still half an outsider, a faltering venture has them gathering close and pulling her in among them, while a venture going well lets them drift back to leaving her on the edge. Where the band turns on whoever seems to drag, a faltering venture may leave her at the edge, while a venture going well sees them make room for her again.

Stakes tighten or loosen: GrpProsp to DivsExp (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When I feel sure the group can pull off the venture, no one is hunting for whose slip will cost us, so a slip passes without remark and I let my tiredness, moods and doubts show, expecting no one to pounce: my sense that I can show myself here without cost rises.

Decrement: When I feel the venture is beyond us, I feel heads turning to find who is dragging us down, so I mask my tiredness and keep my doubts and disagreements hidden, braced for blame: my sense that I can show myself here without cost falls.

A change in the venture's prospects changes how much seems to hang on each member's showing. With the rowing crew's season looking won there is slack, no one hunts for a culprit, and a doubt about the stroke passes as a refinement. With the season looking lost, heads turn to find who is slacking and she masks her tiredness, braced for blame. Under threat, groups narrow, centralise and tighten control (Staw, Sandelands and Dutton 1981). Where a group meets trouble by looking at what to change rather than at who is at fault, felt safety holds up (Edmondson 1999), so set the decrement small or nil there. Caution on the high side: in a tight-knit group whose confidence has hardened into a sense that it cannot fail, a doubt about the plan itself can draw pressure to keep quiet (groupthink: Janis 1972; support mixed, Esser 1998), so set the increment small for disagreement in such a group. The card runs as Reinforce; no reverse effect is strong enough to make it Discretionary.

Pre-language (explanation): Where the band's way is to try other ways when things go badly, a faltering venture draws them together and she shows her moods and fumbles freely, while a venture going well has them guarding what works and she keeps her fumbles hidden, bracing a little. Where the band's way is to turn on one another, a faltering venture makes her go still, watch faces and mask her reactions, while a venture going well leaves no one turning on anyone and she moves unguarded again.

Failing hunts breed bosses: GrpProsp to Levelling (Reinforce, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When I feel sure the group can pull off the venture, I see no call for anyone to take charge by force or settle things over our heads, and if the strongest starts to drive the pace the rest of us shrug it off; I go about my business beside them without a glance at their mood: my sense that no one here can set themselves over me rises.

Decrement: When I feel the venture is beyond us, I feel the strongest start to drive the rest of us by threat and temper and to settle things without hearing us, and I find myself doing what they want to head off their anger: my sense that no one here can set themselves over me falls.

Under threat of failure, groups centralise control and accept forceful direction (threat rigidity: Staw, Sandelands and Dutton 1981), and would-be dominants meet less resistance. When people feel a loss of control under uncertainty they turn towards dominant rather than prestigious leaders (Kakkar and Sivanathan 2017, large cross-national samples from 69 countries; their uncertainty was economic and personal, so its extension to a failing group venture is a proposal). A failing venture may therefore lend a would-be dominant the support that would otherwise check him. On the high side, members confident of success see no need for anyone to take charge, so a would-be dominant who tries to drive the pace is shrugged off. Direction that rests on force, or that settles things without a hearing, lowers a member's Levelling; a respected leader simply taking the lead would not. The increment should be modest.

Pre-language (increment): When the band's venture is going well, no one shoves or snaps, and if the strongest starts to, the others ignore him; she goes about her business beside him without a glance at his mood, and her sense that no one can push her about rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When the venture is faltering, the strongest start shoving and snapping, and she goes still near them and does what they want to head off their anger, and her sense that no one can push her about falls.

Scapegoating: GrpProsp to OutResp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When the group's venture looks well within its reach, I credit the others with carrying their parts, and I feel I can leave work in their hands without checking: my confidence that they will do their part rises.

Decrement: When the venture looks beyond the group, my frustration looks for whose lapse is dragging it down, and I come to expect that member to let the work slip: my confidence that the others will do their part falls.

A venture that looks within reach casts a warm light on the others' carrying-through. One that looks beyond the group sets her looking for a culprit, and the blame lands on some member's lapse, whatever the true cause. After group failure, members tend to assign other members more responsibility than they take themselves (Schlenker and Miller 1977; Forsyth and Schlenker 1977), and observers credit a team for success but lay its failure on individual members (Naquin and Tynan 2003). Those studies concern failure already suffered; the step to a felt forecast of failure is a proposal, so keep the decrement modest. Where the group lays the failure on an outside cause instead (group-serving attribution: Taylor and Doria 1981), no member is blamed, and the decrement should be small.

Pre-language (increment): When the venture is going well, she watches those carrying it with approval and leaves them to their tasks without hovering.

Pre-language (decrement): When it is going badly, her frustration turns on whoever faltered: she glares at them, hovers over what they do and snatches tasks back from them.

Cutting the tall poppy: Levelling to Belonging (Discretionary, E)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

The circumstance is whether she herself has just stood out (a big win, a conspicuous lead, praise from outside) or is an ordinary member. Circumstance one, she has stood out. HIGH: the band's own checks keep anyone from pushing her about, and those same checks turn on her as ridicule and coolness for getting above herself (worked example: after her design wins the club an award, the others rib her about it and the usual after-meeting circle forms without her), so her Belonging falls; the ribbing is mockery, not force or fear, so her own Levelling stays high. LOW: a forceful member already makes her comply and moves to put her down for standing out; the others, who chafe under the same member, close round her and draw her in, so her Belonging rises. Circumstance two, she is an ordinary member. HIGH: no one can push her to the edge (worked example: a forceful newcomer tries to freeze her out and the others pointedly draw her back in), so her Belonging rises. LOW: cowed by a forceful member, she goes quiet and keeps out of the way at gatherings, the others keep their distance from the one he leans on, and the circle forms without her, so her Belonging falls.

Pre-language (explanation): After she brings in a large kill and carries herself high, where no one can push anyone about the others run down her meat, mock and turn their backs a little, and she feels less welcome until she lowers herself; where a strong one already pushes her about and turns on her for it, the others close round her and she feels more welcome. When she has done nothing to stand out and no one can drive her off, the others close round her when a strong one tries, and she feels more welcome; when a strong one already has her cowed, she keeps out of the way, the others stay clear of her, and she feels less welcome.

No blow to brace for: Levelling to DivsExp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When no one here can make me do anything by force or threat, I stop watching for a blow and let my slips, moods and disagreements show as they come: my felt safety to show myself rises.

Decrement: When a member can make me comply through fear, I check his face before I move and keep my reactions masked, expecting any slip or disagreement to draw his anger: my felt safety to show myself falls.

In social primates, being under someone who can coerce you is the classic trigger for vigilance and anxious self-masking. The threat attaches to anything that shows, so when it is absent the body loosens and the member shows herself. Caution: the card runs through force or fear. Where her Levelling is low only because someone takes more than their due and gets away with it, with no threat behind it, she has no blow to brace for, so set the decrement small.

Pre-language (increment): When no one looms over her, she plays and moves loosely, unguarded when eyes turn to her, and her ease at being seen rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When one member looms over her, she scans him, scratches herself and goes still as he nears, hiding any fumble, and her ease at being seen sinks.

Cowed hands: Levelling to GrpProsp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When no one here can make me do anything by force or fear, or take more than their due, I see my effort and the others' go into the venture itself rather than into watching one member's mood: my sense that the group can pull it off rises.

Decrement: When a member makes me comply through fear, or takes more than their due and keeps it, I see my effort and the others' and our know-how go into heading him off and guarding our shares rather than into the venture: my sense that the group, as it stands, can pull off the venture sinks.

Coercion pulls attention and effort away from the task and towards appeasing the coercer. Members, herself included, do what heads off his anger rather than what the venture needs, and they keep know-how to themselves. Where one member grabs more than the group's reckoning gives, the others turn effort to watching him and guarding their shares. Inequity draws attention and protest away from the joint task: capuchins shown a partner paid better often stop exchanging (Brosnan and de Waal 2003; a pair study with mixed replications, so a weak extension to standing groups). Abusive supervision climate lowers collective efficacy and group performance (Priesemuth, Schminke, Ambrose and Folger 2014); the card extends this from a supervisor to any member who coerces. The card holds for coercion that serves the coercer's own power or comfort. Pressure from members to make everyone pull their weight is not coercion in this sense and can raise effort on the venture in the short run. The card reads only the capability left to the venture. Whether each member still does their part is OutResp's ground (E:Levelling->OutResp), and problems kept quiet for fear of a put-down travel through DivsExp (E:Levelling->DivsExp, then E:DivsExp->GrpProsp).

Pre-language (increment): When no one looms over the band, she sees them all intent on the chase or the forage, each putting in freely, and her feeling that it will come off rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When one member looms and snaps, she sees the band glancing at him rather than at the quarry, hanging back and breaking off, and her feeling that it will come off sinks.

Bullies poison trust: Levelling to OutResp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When no one here can make me do anything by force or fear, I see the others do their parts in the open rather than for show, and I stop expecting them to shirk or go back on their word, so I leave work in their hands without checking: my confidence that they will do their part rises.

Decrement: When a member here makes me comply through fear, I see the others work to please him rather than to finish their parts, cover themselves and let tasks drop once his eye moves on, and I start checking up on their work: my confidence that they will do their part falls.

Coercion distorts how others behave: they appease, hide, protect themselves and work to the coercer's eye, and all of this reads as unreliable. Compliance won by threat holds only while the one who wields the threat can watch (Kelman 1958; French and Raven 1959), so she sees parts done for his eye and dropped when it moves on. Under abusive leaders, subordinates also hold back discretionary effort and turn to quiet deviance (Zellars, Tepper and Duffy 2002; Mitchell and Ambrose 2007). Without coercion, the others' carrying-through shows plainly and confidence that they will do their part grows.

Pre-language (increment): When no one bullies, she watches the others keep at their tasks and leaves them to it without hovering: her sense that they will do their part rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When a bully dominates, she sees the others cringe, scramble for favour and abandon tasks as he passes, and she hovers over what they do: her sense that they will do their part falls.

No grabber, open hands: Levelling to Reciprocity (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When no one here can take what they like from me by force or threat, and no one takes more than their due and keeps it, nothing I share is seized on the way or turned into leverage over me, so it goes where it is needed and the others share back openly: my reading that help comes back rises.

Decrement: When a member can make me hand over what I have through fear, or helps himself to more than his due and gets away with it, help I give him is taken as his due and never returned, the others hide what they have, and I expect little back from anyone: my reading that help comes back falls.

Return from the group survives only where no one can seize what is shared or turn a gift into leverage. Immediate-return foragers keep it that way through assertive egalitarianism, mocking, shunning or leaving anyone who hoards or bosses (Woodburn 1982; Boehm 1993), and sharing there runs on demand (Peterson 1993). The literature has little on the reverse case, so it rests on common sense: under a coercer, giving becomes tribute, the others keep what they have out of his reach, and the return from the group dries up.

Pre-language (increment): When no one in the band looms or snatches, she gives from her pile and finds others giving from theirs when she is short, and her sense that what she gives comes back rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When one member snatches and threatens, what she holds out is taken and nothing comes back, the others hunch over their food, and her sense that giving brings any return sinks.

Don’t Dis Me Bro: OutResp to Belonging (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When I leave work in others' hands without checking, they take it as a mark of trust and draw me in: my sense that they want me among them rises.

Decrement: When I check up on, chase and redo others' work, they bristle at the slight and keep me at a distance: my sense that they want me among them falls.

Being trusted to carry one's part is a mark of respect, and being checked up on is read as distrust (Falk and Kosfeld 2006). Four repetitions of that study found the hidden cost of control real but usually small, seldom outweighing the gain from control (Ziegelmeyer, Schmelz and Ploner 2012), so the others' cooling towards one who checks is modest. By common sense the others answer the slight in kind, warming to one who trusts them and cooling to one who checks them, and she reads her acceptance from that answer. Set the decrement small, and smaller still where checking is the group's custom rather than her own choice.

Pre-language (increment): When she leaves others to their tasks without hovering, they warm to her and seek her company.

Pre-language (decrement): When she hovers over their work and snatches it back to redo it, they bristle, cool towards her and keep away.

Nobody hunting for cover: OutResp to DivsExp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When the others carry through what they take on and keep their word, no one needs a slip to hide behind, so I expect mine to be passed over and let my slips, moods and disagreements show: my felt safety to show myself rises.

Decrement: When the others shirk, cut corners and go back on their word, I expect them to seize on any slip of mine to cover their own, so I mask myself and hold back: my felt safety to show myself falls.

Where members fail to carry their parts, blame is in play and lands on whatever slip is visible, because shirkers deflect attention onto others' mistakes. Where everyone carries their part, no one is hunting for a culprit, and showing oneself costs little.

Pre-language (increment): When those around her do their share, she is loose and unguarded under their eyes when she fumbles.

Pre-language (decrement): When those around her slack off, she braces when she fumbles, expecting their glares and snarls to turn on her.

Quality Street: OutResp to GrpProsp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When I feel the others will carry through what they take on, the venture feels within the group's reach: my confidence that the group can pull it off rises.

Decrement: When I expect the others to shirk, cut corners or go back on their word, the venture starts to look beyond the group, however able its members: my confidence that the group can pull it off falls.

A joint venture depends on each part being carried through as well as on skill, so felt reliability feeds the sense of what the group, as it stands, can do.

Pre-language (increment): When those around her keep at their tasks and finish what they start, she settles into the shared venture confident it will come off.

Pre-language (decrement): When those around her drift off and leave tasks half done, she grows uneasy about the shared venture, expecting it to fail.

Their word, their return: OutResp to Reciprocity (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When the others carry through what they take on and keep their word, I feel that what is owed here gets honoured, and I count on what I give coming back: my reading that help comes back rises.

Decrement: When the others shirk and go back on their word, I feel that what I give will vanish like their promises, and I expect nothing back: my reading that help comes back falls.

Felt trustworthiness generalises across domains. Members who honour their part of the shared work read as members who will honour the return on help, and shirkers read as free riders on giving too.

Pre-language (increment): When those around her do their share, she expects to be fed in turn when she is short, and her sense that giving comes back rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When those around her slack off and leave her to finish, she expects nothing from them when she is short, and her sense that giving comes back sinks.

Help binds us: Reciprocity to Belonging (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When what I give comes back from the others and what I need is met, I count them as people I cannot do without; after a clash I go back to them soon and make it up, they take me back, and the circle closes round me again: my Belonging rises.

Decrement: When what I give goes unreturned and my needs go unmet, I have little to lose with them; after a clash I stay away and let it stand, the coolness spreads to those around us, and gatherings form without me: my Belonging falls.

Two routes. Help that comes back produces positive feeling attached to the group (Lawler's affect theory of exchange). More strongly evidenced, primates reconcile most with partners whose relationship is valuable to them, and reconciliation restores tolerance and lowers renewed aggression; raising partner value experimentally raises reconciliation (Aureli, Cords and van Schaik; Cords and Thurnheer). Reciprocity is her felt reading of that value in the group face.

Pre-language (increment): When what she shares comes back and she is fed and groomed in need, she is drawn closer to the others and they to her: her feeling of being welcome among them rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When she gives and nothing comes back, and she is passed over in need, she drifts to the edge of their company: her feeling of being welcome among them falls.

Here to Help: Reciprocity to DivsExp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When what I put in comes back from the group, a clash with one of them does not leave me braced: we make it up soon, the fidgeting and watchfulness after it fade, and I go back to letting slips, moods and disagreements show: my felt safety to show myself rises.

Decrement: When what I give goes into a hole, I have no ties here worth mending, so a clash is left unmended; I stay watchful of the one I clashed with, fidget and mask my moods and disagreements, braced for a put-down: my felt safety to show myself falls.

After aggression, primate victims show raised self-scratching and self-grooming and a higher risk of renewed attack; friendly reunions reduce both (Aureli and van Schaik). Reunions happen most where the relationship is valuable (Aureli, Cords and van Schaik). A member who feels help comes back has valuable relationships to repair, so conflict leaves her less braced.

Pre-language (increment): When the band meets her need and gives back what she shared, she feels safe among them, and lets her slips, moods and wants show without bracing for a slap-down.

Pre-language (decrement): When her need goes unmet and nothing she shared comes back, she feels unprotected, masks her moods and hides even a plain want, braced to be snapped at or turned from.

Mucking in Together: Reciprocity to GrpProsp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When what I put in comes back and whoever needs help gets it, I feel the group covers its own weak spots, and my confidence that it can pull off the venture we have set ourselves rises.

Decrement: When what I give goes into a hole and need goes unmet while others could see it, I feel those who struggle will be left to fall short, and my confidence that the group can pull off the venture falls.

Where help flows to whoever needs it, members' gaps are covered by others, so the group's capability exceeds that of its weakest hands. Backup behaviour is a core teamwork process (Marks, Mathieu and Zaccaro 2001; Porter et al. 2003), and helping among members predicts work-group performance (Podsakoff, Ahearne and MacKenzie 1997). Where need goes unmet in plain view, she expects the weak spots to stay open.

Pre-language (increment): When the band shares food and help with whoever falls short, she feels them strong together, and goes to the shared hunt sure of the kill.

Pre-language (decrement): When those who have hide it and the weak are left to struggle, she feels the band falling short, and goes to the shared hunt expecting it to fail.

Helpers stand together: Reciprocity to Levelling (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When what I give comes back from the group as a matter of course, I count on help coming back too if anyone tries to set themselves over me, and I go about my business beside the strongest as freely as beside anyone: my sense that no one here can set themselves over me rises.

Decrement: When nothing I give comes back from the group, I cannot count on anyone's help if the strongest turns on me, and I start to watch him warily and give way: my sense that no one here can set themselves over me falls.

Help repaid includes help in a quarrel. Among primates, support in conflicts is traded like other favours (de Waal 1982, Chimpanzee Politics; Seyfarth and Cheney 1984 on grooming exchanged for support in vervets), and coalitions of ordinary members are what keep a would-be dominant in check (Boehm 1999, Hierarchy in the Forest). Where her help comes back, she counts on backing against anyone who would set himself over her, and the fear goes out of a strong member's presence; where it does not, she stands alone. The card rests on the return she can count on, not on being wanted (E:Belonging->Levelling) or on her own commitment (E:Engagement->Levelling).

Pre-language (increment): When the others share back with her and console her freely, she feels them as allies and feeds and moves near the strongest without a glance at their mood: her sense that no one can make her yield rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When nothing passes back to her from the others, she feels unbacked, goes still when a strong one approaches and gives up her place to them: her sense that no one can make her yield falls.

Good for Their Word: Reciprocity to OutResp (Reinforce, E)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When what I put in comes back from the group as a matter of course, I feel these are people who make good on what they owe, and I leave their part of the shared work in their hands without checking: my sense that they can be counted on rises.

Decrement: When what I give goes into a hole and my needs go unmet, I feel these people look after themselves first, and I start checking up on their part of the shared work, expecting them to shirk it: my sense that they can be counted on falls.

Trust built in one exchange carries over to others with the same people. Members who repay what is given are felt to be good for their word, and members who let help go unreturned are expected to cut corners on the common task as well.

Pre-language (increment): When the band gives back what she has shared, she leaves the shared task in their hands and stops looking over at it.

Pre-language (decrement): When nothing comes back from those she shared with, she eyes them at the shared task, watching for them to slack, and does their bit over herself.

Clinging or letting go: Belonging to NormExp (Discretionary, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Felt inclusion sets her stake in the settled order, and the direction depends on what her place rests on. Circumstance one, her place is still on trial (a newer choir member whose place rests on being seen to keep the ways). HIGH: kept securely among them, she has nothing to prove and lets small departures pass, so her NormExp falls. LOW: feeling herself edged out, she is jarred by every departure from the settled ways and pulls others up on it sharply, so her NormExp rises (here the card runs as Inverse). Circumstance two, the ways have long been her own (a long-standing club member). HIGH: kept among them, she feels a breach of the club's ways as a breach of her own and pulls the breacher up, so her NormExp rises. LOW: pushed aside for good, she is no longer stung when others break ways that have stopped being hers, and lets it pass, so her NormExp falls (here the card runs as Reinforce).

Pre-language (explanation): While her place is still new, slipping toward the edge sets her bristling at any new way and she snaps at whoever tries it, while being held close lets her settle and let it pass. Once the ways are long her own, being held close leaves her bristling at anyone who breaks them, while being left right out means others' new ways no longer stir her and she lets them pass.

Kept close, near the food: Belonging to OwnProsp (Reinforce, H)

Generated for the draft model; provisional, awaiting Ben Rechecked 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars: kept.

Increment: When I am kept among them in my place, I feel within reach of the food, mates and chances the group holds, and my hope of getting what I am after rises.

Decrement: When I am kept at the edge, I feel far from what the group holds while those kept close get it, and my hope of getting what I am after falls.

In a ranked group, being tolerated close by is access: to feeding sites, partners and allies; peripheral members get less, so felt inclusion carries her hopes with it.

Pre-language (increment): When she is let near and kept in the troop's company, she feeds and seeks partners with energy, and her hope of getting what she is after rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is pushed to the edge, she hangs back from food and partners, and her hope of getting what she is after sinks.

Out of Sight, Not Copied: Belonging to Prestige (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When I am kept among them in my place, I feel what I bring is in their sight, and as they watch how I do it and bring me their problems, my sense that they turn to me for it rises.

Decrement: When I am kept at the edge, I feel what I bring is out of their sight, and I see them turn to someone nearer when my kind of skill is needed: my sense that they turn to me for it falls.

Deference for skill needs the skill to be in view. Social learners watch and copy those they are close to (Coussi-Korbel and Fragaszy 1995), so in a ranked group a member kept in the company is looked to, while one kept at the edge is copied less, whatever her skill.

Pre-language (increment): When she is kept in the troop's company, the young sit near and watch her crack nuts, and her feeling of being looked to rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is kept at the edge, the young crowd round others at the nut stones, and her feeling of being looked to sinks.

Kept in, deals open: Belonging to Reciprocity (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When I am kept among them, the partners I help know I am there to call a favour in and that the others would see if they shorted me, and my sense that the partners I help will pay me back rises.

Decrement: When I am kept at the edge, I am not there to call a favour in and no one would mind if a partner shorted me; my sense that anyone I help will pay me back falls, and I expect them to take and not return.

Exchange with a particular partner holds while defaulting would cost the partner. Inclusion keeps her on hand to call the favour in and among others who would see a partner short her, and a partner's standing with those others rides on how they treat her (reputation and indirect reciprocity: Nowak and Sigmund 2005). Exclusion takes both away, so a partner can short the one at the edge, who is neither there to hold them to it nor watched over by anyone who would. The felt horizon of her own staying belongs to H:Engagement->Reciprocity; this card reads only the others' inclusion of her.

Pre-language (increment): When she is kept close in the troop, those she grooms groom her back and those she backs back her, and she settles into the give-and-take expecting return.

Pre-language (decrement): When she is pushed to the edge, those she grooms move off without returning it, and she stops expecting anything back from them.

Kept close while I keep my place: Engagement to Belonging (Reinforce, H)

Engagement card, generated for the draft model; provisional, awaiting Ben Rechecked 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars: kept.

Increment: When I have just put more of myself into the group, keeping to my place feels natural rather than a cost, and the place they give me at each gathering reads as mine; my sense that they keep me among them rises.

Decrement: When I have just drawn back from the group, my place in the order chafes and I hang at the margin, and I read that margin as where they have put me; my sense that they keep me among them falls.

In ranked groups, inclusion is tolerance earned by keeping one's place: a subordinate is allowed near and groomed so long as she yields where she should. A member who has invested more accepts the terms easily, and reads her slot as a real place. A member who has withdrawn finds the terms galling, drifts outward, and then experiences the periphery as having been pushed out. Primates that drift to the periphery receive less tolerance and grooming. As with the egalitarian Belonging card, ambiguous cues are read in line with her own investment (sociometer theory).

Pre-language (increment): Settled in the troop, she yields readily and is let in close, and she takes the closeness as her place. Her feeling of being kept among them rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Restless in the troop, she yields grudgingly and lingers at its edge, and she feels herself pushed out. Her feeling of being kept among them falls.

Invested, I guard our ways: Engagement to NormExp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When I have just put more of myself into the group, another member's break from our settled ways strikes me as an affront to what is ours, and I pull them up on the spot; my sense that such a breach is plainly wrong rises.

Decrement: When I have just pulled back from the group, another member's departure from our settled ways barely touches me, and I let it pass; my sense that such a breach is wrong falls.

Fellow members who break the group's norms are judged more harshly than outsiders who do the same (the black sheep effect: Marques, Yzerbyt and Leyens 1988; Marques, Abrams and Serôdio 2001), and more harshly by members who identify strongly with the group (Branscombe, Wann, Noel and Coleman 1993). Members who value their membership also hold more closely to group norms themselves (Jetten, Spears and Manstead 1997; Smith and Louis); her own conformity is not NormExp, so this is context only. As investment rises the settled ways feel more like her own, and a breach by another feels like damage to something of hers. Packer's normative conflict model adds a boundary: strongly identified members may dissent when they judge a norm harmful, but that is a reflective act outside this model. A disengaged member has no stake in the ways, so a breach leaves her unmoved and NormExp falls.

Pre-language (increment): Having just thrown herself in, she bristles when another starts doing things a new way, and threatens or turns her back on them. Her indignation at the breach rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Having just drawn back, she watches another try a new way and feels nothing stir; she lets it pass. Her indignation at the breach falls.

Putting in, in line for my due: Engagement to OwnProsp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When I am putting much of myself into the group, I feel I have earned my due, and the group's dealings with me read as the way to what I came for opening up: my sense that staying will bring me what I am after rises.

Decrement: When I am holding back from the group, I feel I have given them no reason to bring me on, and their dealings with me read as the way to what I came for closing: my sense that staying will bring me what I am after falls.

Members who feel they have given more expect more back from the group (social exchange: Blau 1964; equity theory: Adams 1965). Her own investment colours an ambiguous forecast: having put in, she feels in line for her due and reads the group's treatment of her as opening the way; having held back, she feels she has forfeited her claim. The route by which groups actually repay contribution with standing (Willer 2009) runs through H:Engagement->Status and H:Engagement->Prestige and on to OwnProsp, so this card carries only her felt claim; keep it modest. Where heavy input meets plain evidence of being passed over, equity theory predicts a sense of inequity, and the evidence should prevail. The card moves her forecast of what the group will deliver, and leaves her confidence in her own ability alone.

Pre-language (increment): Her investment has just deepened; she feels herself in line for the troop's favour and looks to it to bring her what she wants. Her hope of getting what she is after rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Her investment has just slackened; she feels herself out of favour and expects the troop to give her nothing. Her hope of getting what she is after falls.

Putting in, looked to: Engagement to Prestige (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When I have just put more of myself into the group, what I brought to that scene seems to show: I feel the others turning to me, watching how I do it and taking my advice, and my sense that they defer to me for what I bring rises.

Decrement: When I have just pulled back from the group, I brought little to that scene, and I feel the others look past me to someone else when it counts; my sense that they defer to me for what I bring falls.

Prestige is deference freely conferred on those whose skill or contribution others value (Henrich and Gil-White 2001), and members who contribute more to the group are seen as more group-motivated and given more influence and deference (Willer 2009; Hardy and Van Vugt 2006). The reading is an inference from ambiguous cues, and her own recent conduct colours it: having just put in more, she sees herself as one who contributes (self-perception) and reads others' questions and glances as turning to her; having just pulled back, she reads their turning elsewhere as her contribution no longer counting. Moderate confidence.

Pre-language (increment): Having just thrown herself into the work, she finds the others watching her, copying her and bringing her their troubles. Her sense of being looked to rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Having just drawn back, she sees the others pass her by and turn to another when the work needs doing. Her sense of being looked to falls.

The long shadow of staying: Engagement to Reciprocity (Reinforce, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When I am putting much of myself into the group and mean to stay, I feel we will be around each other long enough for every favour to come back, and I read what I give my partners as sure to be repaid; my sense that help I give comes back from those I help rises.

Decrement: When I am putting little of myself into the group and am half out of the door, I feel I may not be around when a favour falls due, and I read my partners as having no reason to repay one who is leaving; my sense that help I give comes back from those I help falls.

Conditional exchange holds only while partners expect to meet again: the shadow of the future (Axelrod 1984). In the lab, cooperation rises with the chance of continued play and falls as the end nears, close to what theory predicts (Dal Bó 2005). Primate grooming and support exchanges run over long periods between stable partners (Schino and Aureli). How long she means to stay is part of Engagement: a member who has put much of herself in sees herself staying, one who is gone or going does not. High Engagement lengthens the felt horizon on both sides, so she reads partners, and a patron across rank, as bound to repay one who stays loyal. Low Engagement shortens it, and she reads herself as the one partners will stop repaying. The partner face applies: what moves is her reading of the return, not her readiness to deal.

Pre-language (increment): Settled in the troop, she grooms her partners and feels them groom her back and come to her side in a fight. Her sense that her partners repay her rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Half gone from the troop, she feels her partners slow to groom her back or to come to her aid. Her sense that her partners repay her falls.

Giving more, given way to: Engagement to Status (Reinforce, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (second round); provisional

Increment: When this group is part of who I am, I am there at every turn and share and stand on my place; when someone above me hangs back or is away, I step into the turn they leave and the others let me: my felt rung in the order rises.

Decrement: When I am pulling out of this group, I no longer stand on my place; I hang back and let others take the first turn and the first share, and they go before me as if I were already gone: my felt rung in the order falls.

Precedence here is owed to place, and a place is held by one who stays in it. Members above and below are always drifting, falling away or leaving, and the turns and shares they stop standing on pass to whoever is there to step into them. A member for whom the group is part of who she is is always there, steps into the precedence others leave, and is let keep it, so over many plays she moves up the order as far as kin, allies and office allow. One who is withdrawing stops standing on her place, hangs back, and is passed over as if already gone, which she feels as her rung slipping. Where rank passes by queue or tenure, staying is itself the route up (social queuing: Kokko and Johnstone 1999; male spotted hyenas: East and Hofer 2001), as seniority is in human organisations. Standing won by contribution routes through H:Prestige->Status; this card covers only holding and taking up place by staying.

Pre-language (increment): Always about the troop, she moves up to the food when one above her hangs back or is gone, and the others let her go before them from then on: her felt place in the order rises.

Pre-language (decrement): Drifting from the troop, she hangs back and others go to the food before her: her felt place in the order falls.

Guarding the ways earns a place: NormExp to Belonging (Discretionary, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Whether pulling up a breach draws the others round her depends on whether they share the bristle. Circumstance one, the breach falls short of what the group plainly stands for and the others are already muttering (a member skipping the rota the rest keep). HIGH: she pulls the breacher up, the others close ranks with her, and her Belonging rises. LOW: she lets it pass while they bristle, they read her as soft on the ways and cool towards her, and her Belonging falls. Circumstance two, the others do not share the bristle (a small departure, or one that overshoots the group's ideal rather than falling short of it). HIGH: she pulls up a member the others think harmless or even admirable; they read her as a scold setting herself above them and edge away, so her Belonging falls. LOW: she lets it pass with the rest and stays one of them, so her Belonging holds or rises a little. Members derogate anti-norm fellow members and like pro-norm ones (Abrams et al. 2000), so siding with the group against an anti-norm breach aligns her with it. People also put down the morally motivated who seem to reproach them (Minson and Monin 2012). Third-party punishers are trusted (Jordan et al. 2016), but trust is not inclusion. Circumstance one is the default in ranked groups with settled ways.

Pre-language (increment): When she bristles and threatens a member trying a new way, others side with her and keep her close, and her sense of being kept in the troop rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When she lets a member's new way go unchallenged, others turn from her, and her sense of being kept in the troop sinks.

Rewards of Conformity: NormExp to OwnProsp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When another member's breach jars me and I pull them up, I feel in favour with those in charge, and staying here feels surer to bring me what I came for.

Decrement: When a member's breach leaves me unmoved and I let it pass while others pull them up, I find myself out of step with those in charge, and staying here feels less sure to bring me what I came for.

Proposal, low weight. In a ranked group, those who uphold the settled ways are favoured by those the order serves; this is common sense in any organisation with a hierarchy, but no checked source shows the step from guarding others' breaches to a member's own prospects. Hollander shows conformity earns credit, which is close but concerns her own conformity, not her policing of others. Candidate sources, unchecked: third-party punishers are trusted and chosen as partners (Barclay 2006; Jordan, Hoffman, Bloom and Rand 2016), though the reputation of punishers is mixed across studies (Raihani and Bshary 2015), and people enforce norms partly to be seen as sincere (Willer, Kuwabara and Macy 2009). Pulling up a member above her place can cost her; that route runs through H:NormExp->Status and on to OwnProsp, so this card covers only policing within her place.

Pre-language (increment): When she threatens a member trying a new way, she feels those above tolerate her near the food and resting places, and her own aims feel safer.

Pre-language (decrement): When she lets a member's new way pass, she draws cold looks from those above and is kept from the food and resting places, and her own aims feel shakier.

Loyalty repaid: NormExp to Reciprocity (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When another member's breach jars me and I pull them up, the others see me as one who will not let things slide; they trust me with more and pay back what I give them: my sense that help I give comes back from those I help rises.

Decrement: When a breach leaves me unmoved and I let it pass, the others have no sign that I can be counted on, they trust me with less and are slow to repay: my sense that help I give comes back falls.

Third-party punishers are trusted more, and in fact behave more trustworthily, than non-punishers (Jordan, Hoffman, Bloom and Rand 2016); punishment works as a signal that the punisher can be relied on. That the trust brings back what she gives is an inference: partners choose and keep up exchanges with those they judge reliable, so her help to them is more readily returned. The signal weakens where she can show her worth by helping directly, so the card should be modest.

Pre-language (increment): When she threatens a member trying a new way, the higher-ranked one she sided with backs her in her next squabble and lets her share its food.

Pre-language (decrement): When she lets a member's new way go by, the higher-ranked ones do not come to her side when she is threatened.

Pulling up within or beyond place: NormExp to Status (Discretionary, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (second round); provisional

Whether a member's indignation at a breach moves her precedence depends on whose breaches come before her. Circumstance one, members ranked below her are breaking the settled ways, pressing in at turns and shares. HIGH: pulling up a junior is what her place allows; the others back her, the juniors who had begun crowding in are put back behind her, and she takes again the first turns they had been taking from her, so her Status rises. LOW: letting juniors' breaches pass lets them edge ahead of her at turns and shares, so her Status falls. Circumstance two, a member ranked above her breaks the settled ways and others at her rung pull that senior up. HIGH: she joins in, oversteps her place with them, and is put back and made to wait her turn, so her Status falls. LOW: the senior's breach leaves her unmoved and she lets it pass, which is what her place calls for; those of her rung who objected are put back, and she now goes before them at turns and shares, so her Status rises.

Pre-language (explanation): Whether her bristling at a new way shifts her place depends on who it came from. When lower-ranked members start pushing in at the food, snapping at them sends them back and she eats before them again, while letting them be sees them push ahead of her. When a higher-ranked one does something new and others of her standing snap at it, snapping with them gets her threatened back and made to wait until the others have eaten, while keeping still sees those who snapped pushed back and her going to the food before them.

Reaching within or beyond place: OwnProsp to Belonging (Discretionary, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Hope drives her to approach and pursue, and its absence lets her drift; whether the ranked group keeps her close depends on whether her aims lie within what her rank allows. Circumstance one, aims within her place. HIGH: a junior in a club, hopeful of mastering a skill the seniors are glad to pass on, stays close, eager and deferential, and is kept among them, so her Belonging rises. LOW: seeing nothing here for her, she stops turning up to fill her place at gatherings, and the others leave her at the edge, so her Belonging falls. Circumstance two, aims beyond her place. HIGH: hopeful of a role a senior holds, she starts reaching for it, is cold-shouldered and edged out, so her Belonging falls. LOW: having given up on the senior's role, she stops reaching, keeps to what her place calls for and is kept among them again, so her Belonging rises.

Pre-language (explanation): Hope draws her in close to pursue her aim. If what she reaches for is hers to take at her rank, she is let stay close and her place among them firms, and when hope fails she drifts off and is left at the edge. If she reaches for what a higher-ranked member holds, she is threatened and pushed to the edge, and when she gives it up and keeps to her place she is let back among them.

Valued service, kept place: Prestige to Belonging (Reinforce, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When the others turn to me for what I bring, watch how I do it and take my advice, I feel them keep me near because they need me, the threat of being dropped seems far off, and my sense of being kept among them rises.

Decrement: When no one asks me or copies me and they turn to someone else for what I used to bring, I feel that nothing I bring holds me in and that one step out of line would see me dropped, and my sense of being kept among them falls.

Groups repay valued contributors with deference and with closeness, because followers seek the company of those they learn from (Henrich and Gil-White 2001). Under this deck's face, being kept among them rests on keeping her place, and she reads it partly from the standing threat of being dropped. A member the others turn to feels that threat recede, because the group needs what she brings; one passed over feels nothing she brings holds her in, so her keeping feels more conditional. The card moves her felt security of being kept, not her place.

Pre-language (increment): When others watch her work and copy her, they sit close by her and no one moves to push her out, and her sense of being kept in the troop rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When others stop watching her and go to another to learn, they sit by that one instead and she feels easily pushed out, and her sense of being kept in the troop sinks.

Comfortable in my Own Skin: Prestige to NormExp (Inverse, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When no one turns to me, watches or copies me any more, my footing feels hollow, and another member's break from the settled ways jars me as wrong: I bristle and pull them up, and my sense that such a breach is plainly wrong rises.

Decrement: When the others turn to me, copy how I do things and bring me their problems, my footing feels earned, and another member's break from the settled ways jars me less: I am readier to let it pass, and my sense that such a breach is wrong falls.

The mechanism is threat and rigidity. Feeling that no one defers to her for what she brings is a threat to her worth in the group. Under threat, people narrow their attention and tighten control (Staw, Sandelands and Dutton 1981). Self-uncertainty draws people to clear, rigid norms and sharpens their reaction to deviants (Hogg's uncertainty-identity theory). Threats to self-image raise derogation of others, and self-affirmation removes it (Fein and Spencer 1997); when a person's felt competence is threatened, she turns on others in hostile ways (Fast and Chen 2009, where affirming self-worth removed the effect). The settled ways are ground on which her place is still secure, so another member's breach jars as a further threat and strikes her as wrong: NormExp rises. When others defer to her for what she brings, the threat lifts and a breach jars less: NormExp falls. The evidence shows the threat adding indignation and affirmation taking that addition away, so the fall should be smaller than the rise. The card follows a single source level. Her own conformity and her openness to new ideas are not NormExp and are left to other Pillars' cards. Fast and Chen's finding concerns power-holders whose competence is in doubt, so the effect is strongest where Status is high and Prestige low, and modest otherwise.

Pre-language (increment): When others stop watching and copying her and take their troubles to another, she grows tense and keeps to the troop's familiar routines, threatening or turning from any member who starts a new way; her guarding of the settled ways rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When others watch and copy her and bring their troubles to her, she is loose and unthreatened, and lets a member who starts a new way go on unchallenged; her guarding of the settled ways eases.

Looked To, Let In: Prestige to OwnProsp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When the others turn to me for what I bring and take my advice, I feel the group making way for me, and my hope that staying will bring me what I came for rises.

Decrement: When no one asks me or copies me and they turn to someone else, I feel the way to what I came for closing, and my hope that staying will bring it falls.

Those deferred to for skill are repaid with access, allies, mates and advancement (Henrich and Gil-White 2001), so felt deference carries a forecast of what the group will deliver to her.

Pre-language (increment): When the others watch and copy her, she feels the troop's food and partners within her reach, and her hope of getting what she is after rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When they turn to another to watch and copy, she feels shut out of what the troop holds, and her hope of getting what she is after sinks.

Sought-After Partner: Prestige to Reciprocity (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: When the others turn to me for what I bring, I feel my help is worth a good deal to them, and my sense that the partners I help will pay me back rises.

Decrement: When no one asks me or copies me any more, I feel my help is worth little to them, and my sense that partners will repay what I give falls.

In a market for partners, a member whose skill others value commands a fuller and surer return (Noe and Hammerstein 1994); as deference fades, so does what partners will give back.

Pre-language (increment): When the others watch and copy her, those she grooms groom her back at length, and she feels sure of return.

Pre-language (decrement): When the others turn to another to watch and copy, those she grooms move off without returning it, and she stops expecting return.

Trading partners keep you close: Reciprocity to Belonging (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When my partners pay me back and those I ask deliver, they are worth too much to lose; after a clash with one of them I go to them soon, low and friendly, they let me close again, and I am kept among them in my place: my sense of being kept among them rises.

Decrement: When partners take and do not return and what I ask for goes unmet, a clash with one of them is left unmended; I keep out of their way, no one draws me back, and I am left at the margin: my sense of being kept among them falls.

In ranked groups grooming and favours are traded for tolerance and proximity (Seyfarth; Schino and Aureli), and partner value predicts reconciliation after conflict (Aureli, Cords and van Schaik; Cords and Thurnheer). A partner who repays is a valuable partner; repair with her keeps a member in the troop's company, and an unrepaired rift with a partner who never repaid leaves her at the edge.

Pre-language (increment): When her grooming is returned and partners back her, they tolerate her close by, and her feeling of being kept close grows.

Pre-language (decrement): When partners take her grooming and give none back, they drift from her, and her feeling of being kept close fades.

Power to your Elbow: Reciprocity to OwnProsp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: When what I ask for is met and my help comes back, I feel backed, and what I came for feels within reach here.

Decrement: When what I need goes unmet and my help is not returned, I feel on my own, and what I came for slips further away.

In ranked groups, partners who repay favours also back a member in contests and give her access and tolerance (Seyfarth 1977; Schino 2007, a meta-analysis linking grooming to agonistic support). A member whose partners pay her back therefore forecasts that staying will open the way to what she came for. One whose help is not returned stands alone and expects little from the group.

Pre-language (increment): Helped when she reaches for it, she feels backed and goes for what she wants here as one sure of getting it.

Pre-language (decrement): Left unhelped when she needs it, she feels alone and hangs back, as if what she wants here is out of reach.

Rank draws the circle: Status to Belonging (Reinforce, H)

Fixed 3 Nov 2026 after the final high and low check (fixed); provisional

Increment: When I go first as a matter of course and take the first share and the best seat, the others cluster round me and I feel no threat of being dropped: my sense of being kept among them in my place rises.

Decrement: When I go last and take what is left, I feel how little slack my place gives me and that any step out of line would see me dropped: my sense of being kept among them falls.

In ranked groups, attention and affiliation flow up the order: high-ranked members are groomed, approached and kept central (Seyfarth 1977). Under this deck's face a place is made for members high or low who keep to it, so rank does not decide inclusion outright; what moves is the felt threat of being dropped. A member who goes first feels her keeping is beyond question; one who goes last feels how little slack her place gives her, and that any step out of line would see her dropped. A member settled at the bottom who keeps to her place may still feel fairly secure, so the fall there is modest. Anxiety about exclusion among middle-status members (Phillips and Zuckerman 2001) cannot be carried by a card that follows a single source level and is left to play.

Pre-language (increment): When others yield her the first turn, they groom her and cluster near her, and her feeling of being kept close grows.

Pre-language (decrement): When she goes last to everything, others groom her less and she feels how easily she could be left at the edge, and her feeling of being kept close fades.

Self Interest Quo: Status to NormExp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: Secure at the top of the order, I feel a member's break from the settled ways as a break in the order that puts me first; it jars at once and I pull them up: my sense that such a breach is plainly wrong rises.

Decrement: Low in the order, the settled ways are what keep me last, so a member breaking from them stirs nothing in me and I let it pass: my sense that such a breach is wrong falls.

Proposal, modest weight. Those an order puts first have most to lose by a breach of it, so a breach of the settled ways jars them as a breach of their own place; those it holds at the bottom have less stake. The indignation is felt, not reasoned. Social dominance theory, which the card used to rest on, concerns attitudes to rank between social groups and is a trait measure, so it is set aside. The nearest checked evidence warns against a steep slope: members in the middle of an order, not the top, are least likely to risk their acceptance (Phillips and Zuckerman 2001), and the top is often given latitude (Hollander). That evidence concerns members' own conformity, not their reaction to others, so it bounds this card rather than replacing it. Some low-ranked members also defend the order that holds them down (system justification), so the decrement is small. The card follows a single source level and cannot carry a middle peak; H:Belonging->NormExp (place on trial) carries the insecure middle. Only her reaction to others' breaches moves here.

Pre-language (increment): Secure at the top, she bristles when another member does something in a new way, and threatens them or turns her back on them.

Pre-language (decrement): Low in the order, she watches another member do something in a new way and lets it pass, unbothered.

Built-in Advantage: Status to OwnProsp (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (reword); provisional

Increment: Going first as a matter of course, with the first turn and the first share mine without a word said, I feel the group opening the way to what I came for, and my sense that staying will bring it to me rises.

Decrement: Going last as a matter of course, waiting my turn and taking what is left, I feel what I came for slipping past me to those ahead, and my sense that staying will bring it to me falls.

Precedence is a standing claim on what the group hands out: the first turn, the first share and the best seat fall to the high-ranked before anyone else. In primate groups rank sets priority of access to food, resting places and mates (the priority-of-access model, Altmann 1962), though the link to mating success weakens as rivals grow in number (Cowlishaw and Dunbar 1991). A high-ranked animal's returns from staying are therefore steadier than a low-ranked one's. She reads her own prospects from where the flow of shares reaches her, not from a reckoning of the group's rules. Where the order is a queue by seniority, a low place is the start of the line and staying is how one moves up (social queuing: Kokko and Johnstone 1999); play the decrement weak for a junior who expects to rise.

Pre-language (increment): High in the order, she takes first pick and others give way, and she goes after what she wants confident of getting it.

Pre-language (decrement): Low in the order, she waits on others' leavings, and expects to miss out on what she wants.

Repaid in order of rank: Status to Reciprocity (Reinforce, H)

Revised 3 Nov 2026 against the tightened Pillars (replace); provisional

Increment: Going first as a matter of course, I find that what I give comes back promptly and in full: those below answer my favours with service before anyone else's, and my sense that help here comes back rises.

Decrement: Going last as a matter of course, I find that what I give comes back late and short, after everyone above me has been served, and my sense that help here comes back falls.

In ranked primate groups grooming runs up the order: low-ranked animals groom high-ranked ones more than they are groomed in return, and what comes back to them is mostly tolerance and occasional support (Seyfarth 1977). Precedence orders repayment as it orders shares, so the same exchange reads as well repaid from the top and poorly repaid from the bottom. The card moves her felt reading of returns from partners, not her readiness to help, and not whether others do their part of the shared work (OutResp).

Pre-language (increment): High in the order, she is groomed back at once and at length by those she grooms, and her sense that what she gives returns grows.

Pre-language (decrement): Low in the order, she grooms those above her and waits long for little in return, and her sense that what she gives returns fades.

Faltering venture tightens ranks: GrpProsp to NormExp (Inverse, X)

Increment: When I feel sure the group as it stands cannot pull off what it has set itself, a member doing things differently or pressing to change our ways jars me as wrong and I am quick to pull them up: my indignation at breaches rises.

Decrement: When the venture looks well within our reach, a member trying something different or urging a change leaves me unmoved and I let it pass: my indignation at breaches eases.

A felt threat to the group's venture narrows attention onto the established way of doing things and makes departures from it feel dangerous, so indignation at breaches rises; when success looks secure there is slack, and departures are tolerated. The most direct small-group evidence: in freely interacting groups, an opinion deviate was rejected more when the dissent came close to the group's decision deadline, when members' need for closure was high (Kruglanski and Webster 1991). Under threat, control constricts (Staw, Sandelands and Dutton 1981). The card covers the acute, felt jar of a faltering venture. A slow failure the group has openly acknowledged can work the other way, opening members to calls for change (problemistic search: Cyert and March), and Gelfand's tightness evidence comes mainly from societies over long spans. The effect should therefore be modest.

Pre-language (increment): When the band's venture is going badly and the prize looks out of reach, she clings to the usual way of doing it and bristles at a fellow who does it differently, with a protest or a shove. Her norm guarding rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When the prize looks well within the band's reach, she lets a fellow try an odd way of doing it without a second look. Her bristle at breaches subsides.

Shirkers sharpen the bristle: OutResp to NormExp (Inverse, X)

Increment: When I keep having to check up on, chase and redo what others took on, the next member who departs from the way we do the shared work jars me at once as plainly wrong, as if it were one more corner cut, and I pull them up with a sharp word or a turned back: my indignation at breaches rises.

Decrement: When I can leave any part of the work with any member, a member doing the shared work their own way strikes me as harmless, coming from people who deliver, and I let it pass: my indignation at breaches eases.

Anger at free riders drives costly punishment of them (Fehr and Gächter). The evidence concerns breaches of the cooperative task rather than any departure from the group's ways, so the card is limited to the way the shared work is done: where shirking is rife, a different way of doing the work is read as another dodge. A record of delivery earns latitude (Hollander's idiosyncrasy credit). Hollander's credit belongs to each member's own record, so carrying it over to the group's reliability as a whole is an approximation.

Pre-language (increment): When the others keep leaving their end of the carry or the watch to her, she bristles sooner at any of them doing a thing the wrong way and moves to pull them up: a protest cry, a shove, a cold shoulder. Her norm guarding rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When the others reliably hold their end of the shared task, she meets a fellow's odd way of doing things with a shrug and goes about her business. Her bristle at breaches subsides.

Hoarders stir the levellers: Reciprocity to NormExp (Inverse, X)

provisional

Increment: When what I give the group seems to go into a hole and what I need goes unmet, a member stepping outside our settled ways of sharing and helping strikes me as wrong at once, and I am quick to mock or cold-shoulder them: my indignation at breaches rises.

Decrement: When whoever has gives to whoever needs and what I put in comes back from any member, a member's departure from our usual ways of sharing and helping leaves me unmoved and I let it pass: my indignation at breaches eases.

In egalitarian bands the sharing norm is guarded by pressure on the stingy: demands, criticism and mockery of hoarders. When the group's return on giving fails, that guarding temper rises, and when sharing flows freely it rests. The evidence concerns the sharing norm, so the card covers only the ways of sharing and helping; breaches in how the shared work is done belong to X:OutResp->NormExp. The felt jar may run ahead of the voiced rebuke where her Status is low or Levelling is low.

Pre-language (increment): When her food goes out and nothing comes back while others hide their surplus, she bristles at fellows doing things the wrong way and moves to demand, protest or turn her back; her norm guarding rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When food passes freely and comes back to her from whoever next has, a fellow's odd way of doing things draws no bristle; her norm guarding falls.

Low in the order, guarded: Status to DivsExp (Reinforce, X)

provisional

Increment: When I hold a high place in this group's order, I let an objection or a slip show without softening it first, and I expect no one to pounce on it or turn away: I feel safe to show myself here.

Decrement: When I sit low in the order, I soften every objection before it leaves me, swallow my first reaction and burn when I am caught out: I feel that showing myself here would cost me.

Low rank keeps the threat system primed: appeasing, submissive and shame displays come unbidden, and each retreat is felt as a sign that showing oneself is dangerous; high rank releases them. Reduced power goes with attention to threat and inhibited behaviour (Keltner, Gruenfeld and Anderson 2003), and profession-based status goes with greater psychological safety (Nembhard and Edmondson 2006). Rank and safety stay distinct readings, since a member can be well placed in a group that punishes slips, or lowly in one that does not. This card carries the route through settled place; X:Prestige->DivsExp carries the weaker route through live deference for what she brings. From the comparative psychologist's synthesis build (Standing->Safety), its most-used card.

Pre-language (increment): When she stands high in the band, she bares a protest openly and goes on, and no one turns on her for it. Her ease in showing herself rises.

Pre-language (decrement): When she stands low, she wraps any protest in appeasing grins and crouches, checks her first flare, and flushes and averts when caught out. Her ease in showing herself falls.

Heard from where I sit: Status to Prestige (Reinforce, H)

provisional

Increment: When I go first as a matter of course, what I put forward is listened to before it has shown its worth: the others take up my suggestion, bring me the next problem and credit me with the result, and I feel them turn to me for what I bring: my sense that they defer to me for it rises.

Decrement: When I go last as a matter of course, what I put forward is passed over or credited to someone higher, however good it is, and I watch the next problem go to someone else: my sense that they turn to me for what I bring falls.

Status sets performance expectations, and expectations steer who is listened to and how contributions are judged, in a self-fulfilling way (expectation states theory). Eminent people get more credit for comparable work (Merton). Status hierarchies reinforce themselves through expectations that favour those already ahead (Magee and Galinsky). The card moves her felt deference through the others' response to what she puts forward. With H:Prestige->Status it forms a reinforcing pair. The brake is Prestige evidence, a visible failure of what she brings. Proposal: the halo should be strongest when the worth of a contribution is hard to judge, since a plain result can be seen whoever offers it.

Settling into a place: Prestige to Status (Reinforce, H)

provisional

Increment: When the others keep turning to me for what I bring, hand me decisions and leave jobs that matter in my hands, they come to wait for me and give me the first word as a matter of course, and I feel it has become my place: my felt rung in the order rises.

Decrement: When what I bring stops counting and my word is doubted in front of the others, nothing that matters is handed to me, they stop waiting for me and someone else takes the first word, and I give way: my felt rung in the order falls.

Freely conferred deference is a route to rank (Henrich and Gil-White; Cheng et al.). Contributors are repaid with standing and influence (Willer), and perceived competence buys influence (Anderson and Kilduff). Once established, status holds itself through expectations (Magee and Galinsky). The step from live deference to a place taken for granted is slow. Proposal: move Status by a fraction of Prestige's move, and only once Prestige has held for several scenes; make the decrement weaker than the increment, because a settled place outlasts the skill that earned it, as seniority and incumbency show every day. This card absorbs the older model's most-used card: being trusted with something that matters is Prestige evidence, and its settling is this card.

Backed into my place: Belonging to Status (Reinforce, H)

provisional

Increment: When I am kept among them and my allies stay close, a challenge to my turn or my share brings them to my side, the challenger gives way, and I take the turns that were in doubt: my felt rung in the order rises.

Decrement: When I am kept at the edge and my turn or my share is questioned in front of the others, no one speaks for me, I give way, and others step ahead of me at turns and shares: my felt rung in the order falls.

In macaques, kin and allied support is central to acquiring rank (Chapais), and grooming is traded for agonistic support (Schino), with grooming directed up the hierarchy for rank-related benefits (Seyfarth; Schino and Aureli). A place in the order is held partly by who would back it. The human step is a proposal, common sense in any committee: a member whose turn is questioned and whom no one backs gives way, and one who is backed keeps her turn. This carries the second half of the older model's most-used card. It is distinct from Prestige: backing is for who she is to them, not for what she brings.

Friends get the rope: Belonging to OutResp (Reinforce, E)

provisional

Increment: When the others draw me in as one of their own, I hand them parts of the shared work without a second thought, and the times they carried work through come to mind before the lapses: my confidence that they will do their part rises.

Decrement: When I am left at the edge, I keep the work in my own hands, check what little I hand over, and the last let-down comes back to me as the verdict on them: my confidence that they will do their part falls.

Chimpanzees extend trust to friends more than to non-friends in a non-verbal trust game, though friends are no more trustworthy once trusted (Engelmann and Herrmann). The felt shift at the cue is in how readily she trusts; the gain for OutResp builds across plays from sampling: a member who trusts more sees more work carried through, while one who withholds trust sees little and keeps her last let-down as the verdict, since withheld trust gets no feedback that could correct it (Fetchenhauer and Dunning 2010; Denrell 2005). Control read as distrust lowers the other's effort (Falk and Kosfeld), so over many plays withheld trust is partly self-fulfilling. Elaboration: when the low reading comes from being shut out, her reaction may show hostility, aimed readily at whoever crosses her next, even someone who had no part in it, and withheld only from those who treat her warmly (Twenge, Baumeister, Tice and Stucke 2001); if the exclusion is public and reads as a slight to her good name, the Reputation expansion carries that flare.

Generous, so sought: Reciprocity to Prestige (Reinforce, H)

provisional

Increment: When the partners I help pay me back as a matter of course, I give help freely and where the others can see it; they come to know me as one who gives, seek me out and take my advice, and I feel them turn to me: my sense that they defer to me for what I bring rises.

Decrement: When the partners I help do not pay me back, I stop giving beyond what I must; the others see little given by me, they stop seeking me out, and I feel passed over: my sense that they turn to me for what I bring falls.

In public settings, the most generous members gain the most status and are the most preferred partners (Hardy and Van Vugt), and contributors are given influence and deference (Willer). A felt return makes open-handed giving cheap, and open-handed giving is what draws freely conferred deference. Each play moves her felt reading a step; the reputation as a giver builds over many plays. The card carries the older build's Acceptance->Standing, with the giving now driven by felt return. It forms a positive loop with H:Prestige->Reciprocity; the brake is a partner who stops repaying.

Low rung, easy target: Status to Levelling (Reinforce, X)

provisional

Increment: When I hold a high place in the order, no one tries to push me about or take my due, and I go about my business beside the strongest without a glance at their mood: my sense that no one here can force me or take more than their due and keep it rises.

Decrement: When I sit low in the order, the one who likes to push finds me the easy target, taking more of my turns and my share than the order gives him and leaning on me; I start to watch him and do what heads off his temper: my sense that no one here can force me or take more than their due and keep it falls.

Rank shapes how much aggression and stress an animal receives, but the direction and size depend on the society: dominance style, stability, social support and means of escape (Sapolsky 2005). Formalised, reconciled orders damp overt aggression (de Waal 1986). So in a settled order she accepts, a low place moves Levelling little, as the Levelling definition says; the card bites when someone uses her low place to push or take. Set it small in settled orders and larger in despotic ones.

Ideas aired, ideas taken up: DivsExp to Prestige (Reinforce, X)

provisional

Increment: When I feel safe to let a half-formed idea show, I put forward how we might do the work better in front of the others; they take it up and turn to me on it: my sense that they turn to me for what I bring rises.

Decrement: When I brace and keep my ideas masked, what I could bring stays in my head; the others never see it and turn to whoever spoke up instead: my sense that they turn to me for what I bring falls.

Felt psychological safety is the main spur to speaking up in work teams (Edmondson 1999; Detert and Burris 2007). Speaking up raises the status colleagues confer, partly because those who speak are seen as more agentic and competent (Weiss and Morrison 2019). Promotive voice, ideas for doing things better, raised peer-rated status and later leader emergence, while prohibitive voice, raising concerns, did not; men gained more than women (McClean et al. 2018). Members who act confidently are judged competent and gain influence even when their answers are no better (Anderson and Kilduff 2009). The card covers ideas offered to improve the shared work; voicing alarm or criticism is not covered and may cost her. Set it smaller for women members. Deck X: DivsExp is egalitarian, Prestige hierarchical. It forms a Reinforce loop with X:Prestige->DivsExp; the brake is a visible failure of what she puts forward (Prestige evidence).

No passengers: OutResp to Levelling (Reinforce, E)

provisional

Increment: When every member carries through what they take on, the credit and reward each draws is earned by a part they have done, so no one gets more than our reckoning gives by coasting: my sense that no one here takes more than their due and keeps it rises.

Decrement: When some members coast yet still draw the full share of credit and reward that our reckoning gives only to those who do their part, and no one makes them give it up, I see them taking more than their due and keeping it: my sense that no one here takes more than their due and keeps it falls.

In public goods games free riders draw an equal share of the pool while keeping their own stake, so they end ahead of those who contributed, and contributors' anger at them drives costly punishment (Fehr and Gächter 2002). The anger is NormExp's ground (X:OutResp->NormExp); the card takes from the study only that members read a coaster as ending ahead of what his part earns. Members also cut their own effort rather than carry a capable partner who free rides (the sucker effect: Kerr 1983), which does not move here. A coaster who draws the full share where the group's reckoning ties shares to doing one's part takes more than that reckoning gives, which is what Levelling's second limb reads; the reading falls only when no one stops him and the grab sticks. The card holds only under such a reckoning. The game's own rule splits the pool equally, so players' tie of shares to contribution is inferred from the contributors' anger, not given by the game. Where the group's reckoning gives equal shares whatever each puts in, as Ache bands share game whoever made the kill (Kaplan and Hill 1985), the coaster gets what the reckoning gives and Levelling is untouched; where reward tracks each member's own output, shirking costs only the shirker. High reliability removes coasting as one route to an unearned share; it says nothing of grabbing or coercion by other means. Modest; forms a Reinforce loop with E:Levelling->OutResp.

Credit to spend: Prestige to DivsExp (Reinforce, X)

provisional

Increment: When the others turn to me for what I bring and take my advice, I feel a slip of mine would be put down to a bad day rather than held against me, and I let my doubts and disagreements show: my felt safety to show myself rises.

Decrement: When no one turns to me any more, I feel every slip would be counted against me with nothing to set against it, so I keep my doubts and disagreements masked: my felt safety to show myself falls.

Higher status goes with greater felt psychological safety (Nembhard and Edmondson 2006); standing releases approach and expression, while low standing primes attention to threat and inhibition (Keltner, Gruenfeld and Anderson 2003). Hollander's idiosyncrasy credit says members who have earned standing are allowed more latitude, but direct tests are few and weak, so the card rests on the safety and power evidence. X:Status->DivsExp carries the route through settled place; this card carries live deference and should be the weaker of the two.

Good season, open hands: GrpProsp to Reciprocity (Reinforce, E)

provisional

Increment: When the venture looks well within our reach, I am buoyed, I help whoever asks without counting, and the others do the same around me: my reading that help here comes back rises.

Decrement: When the venture looks beyond us, everyone hunches over their own part, help asked for is slow to come and mine goes unreturned: my reading that help here comes back falls.

Good mood raises helping (Carlson, Charlin and Miller 1988). Mood spreads through a group by contagion, and positive contagion brings more cooperation and less conflict, negative contagion the reverse (Barsade 2002). Confidence in the venture carries that mood, so help flows more freely in a group that expects to win. Under threat, attention narrows (Staw et al. 1981), and each member guards her own part. The step from the group's mood to her felt return is a proposal: common sense, since a winning side is a generous one. Where doubt about the venture rallies the group around a common threat (E:GrpProsp->Belonging), help may keep flowing; play the decrement weak or not at all then. Modest; forms a loop with E:Reciprocity->GrpProsp.