The NAXALT argument is an attempt to discredit criticism of group X by pointing to particular members of the group, who may be atypical or exceptional, as evidence that “Not All (members of X) Are Like That.”

The key to the NAXALT issue is imitation. All humans imitate, but it is our respect for individualism and individual endeavours which makes white men unique in inventing virtually every modern amenity for the world.

Darwin, ever eloquent, wrote that it was “generally admitted that with woman the powers of intuition, of rapid perception, and perhaps of imitation, are more strongly marked than in man” and that “some, at least, of these faculties are characteristic of the lower races, and therefore of a past and lower state of civilisation” (Descent of Man, 2nd ed., p.858).

Suppose there is a body of workers, all white men. One leaves and is replaced by a non-white or a woman. Immediately a common (usually tacit) bond is broken between the men, since the group will split between those who object to the change and those who do not. The latter can use the opportunity to “White Knight” i.e. express protective instincts toward the newcomer which under normal circumstances would be directed toward subordinate women and children.

Giving ammunition to the faction who favour (or at least acquiesce to) the change, the behaviour of the newcomer will in most instances be indistinguishable from the white men. The newcomer will adopt the norms of their role and convincingly imitate. The situation changes when other newcomers join; as their proportion increases, so will they revert to kind. In the case of women, innate feminine concerns will be reinforced and voiced. In the case of non-whites, the situation will progressively resemble the place from which they originated.

Since they have a naturally collectivist or ethnocentric bent, the isolated individual who is held up as an example of NAXALT can safely be assumed to be an advance scout for others.

These observations have been verified to a very limited extent by differences in automatic in-group bias and studies of independent and interdependent cultures, for example comparing Euro-American and East Asian reactions to group consensus.