countertendency

noun

coun·​ter·​ten·​den·​cy ˌkau̇n-tər-ˈten-dən(t)-sē 

variants or counter-tendency

plural countertendencies or counter-tendencies

: a tendency that opposes or offsets another tendency

So what we have in human history is probably a long time, millions of years, in which we were like the current hunter gatherers. Fairly egalitarian. Meaning we had a tendency to build hierarchies, but we also had a countertendency, which is to keep things sort of level.

—Frans de Waal

Word History

First Known Use

1849, in the meaning defined above