Do we share any non-physical commonality with ants?

Answer 1

There is an incredible amount of behavioral research on ants, mainly by E.O. Wilson. Wilson pioneered the field of "sociobiology." He was interested in how individual organisms interacted to create patterns of regular, adaptive behavior.

Apparently, ants do all kinds of stuff that we do. One kind of ant actually "farms" fat little worms that secrete stuff that the ants eat.

If you want to know more about ants, you should read THE ANTS, by Wilson and Holldobler.

Wilson has many critics who believe he has overstated the similarities between ants and humans.

Answer 2

There is a literature stream in social psychology that centers around the meaning of "transactive" memory (social cognition). The idea that our environment has a level of complexity so that no one person can understand it given their view is limited as one's would be if only looking through a soda straw. As a result, our understanding is at a group level. Our group can comprehend concepts that we as individuals can't.
This fits with other research into communitarian verses individualist cultures, where communitarian people tend to accomodate goals and interests of others into their own, unintentionally. If you are American, as I, you might tend to avoid adopting, or even resent influence from outside yourself for setting goals or developing your personality. Most of us here are like that, as individuality is a positive quality. Anyhow, how that relates is that communitarians are able to specialize fucntions within their groups (usually families) so that as a group, they succeed by leveraging the qualities of the members, who more willingly accept what we might see as an inferior position within.
This is the teamwork dreamed of by organizational managers who would love this selfless commitment for the "team".
Like ants? Communitarian cultures have been metaphorically described as "hives", which is a direct parrallel to ant structure. The idea is that the members when seperated do not function as well as an individualist, who has been socialized to be independant and free of influence, where the communitarian worked as a piece of a process.

Sorry about the length. I do research in organizational theory on this topic, so I carry on.

Answer 3

I would say it is more like Sheep than ants.

The majority of Earths population that is.