Tribal Brand Loyalty

The forums of some photographic equipment websites would surely make fertile ground for students of psychology. What is it which motivates people to behave in such an odd way? The participants have endless discussions about whether Nikon or Canon is best, whether Olympus are going to disappear without trace from the SLR market (again) and whether the new camera which Leica might be bringing out next year will be better or worse than the one which Pentax may or may not be bringing out the year after that. These people protect their brand with such religious loyalty, you would think it was their families and livelihood (rather than a simple photographic tool which will be obsolete in under two years) which they were defending.

I suppose it's simply the same tribalism exhibited by football hooligans, only these guys have less testosterone so they prefer to sit alone in darkened rooms typing crap on internet forums rather than roaming the streets with cans of lager, shouting and chundering. But if extreme, emotionally charged tribalism can take a camera as its object, what's next? Zealots terrorising the streets, chanting passionately about their favourite breakfast cereal? Fanatics blowing themselves up because somebody insulted their preferred oven cleaner? My fear is that there is something inherently belligerent about us humans, and in the absence of a war or any need to righteously defend our Queen and country, petty squabbles over material goods step into the void.