Projection

Unless we are a social psychopath, we tend to believe other people are like us. In fact, folks believe it too much. Kind people think others are kind. Those who cheat and steal are certain everyone else does the same. We even assign similar actions to animals.

But our brains are magnificently complex, so we can also clearly separate imagined groups of others into those “like us” and those “not like us.” I may be kind and peaceable, but those in the far valley certainly are not. 

Then our neurons kick into frenzied fractal high gear and we get into a game of trying to imagine what others will do, then what we would do if we were them, then what we should be doing with people like them and on and on. Never noticing contradictions and if the fever gets high enough even ignoring logic and experience entirely.

However, our simplest guidelines remain that most people are just like us, but what they do about it may vary. If I cheat on taxes I assume everyone else will too if they can get away with it. We end up projecting the worst of our personalities onto “others”, and only assigning the controlled better desires cautiously to those in our own tribe. 

And that is, of course, a vicious spiral as tribes separate, often over stupid illusions.

And almost all of it is fantasy