The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday LifeOxford University Press, 01/12/2017 - 288 من الصفحات Human beings are primates, and primates are political animals. Our brains, therefore, are designed not just to hunt and gather, but also to help us get ahead socially, often via deception and self-deception. But while we may be self-interested schemers, we benefit by pretending otherwise. The less we know about our own ugly motives, the better - and thus we don't like to talk or even think about the extent of our selfishness. This is "the elephant in the brain." Such an introspective taboo makes it hard for us to think clearly about our nature and the explanations for our behavior. The aim of this book, then, is to confront our hidden motives directly - to track down the darker, unexamined corners of our psyches and blast them with floodlights. Then, once everything is clearly visible, we can work to better understand ourselves: Why do we laugh? Why are artists sexy? Why do we brag about travel? Why do we prefer to speak rather than listen? Our unconscious motives drive more than just our private behavior; they also infect our venerated social institutions such as Art, School, Charity, Medicine, Politics, and Religion. In fact, these institutions are in many ways designed to accommodate our hidden motives, to serve covert agendas alongside their "official" ones. The existence of big hidden motives can upend the usual political debates, leading one to question the legitimacy of these social institutions, and of standard policies designed to favor or discourage them. You won't see yourself - or the world - the same after confronting the elephant in the brain. |
من داخل الكتاب
النتائج 1-5 من 37
الصفحة 4
... incentives ? And yet , most of the time , we seem almost willfully unaware of them . It's not that we're literally incapable of perceiving these motives within our psyches . We all know they're there . And yet they make us uncomfort ...
... incentives ? And yet , most of the time , we seem almost willfully unaware of them . It's not that we're literally incapable of perceiving these motives within our psyches . We all know they're there . And yet they make us uncomfort ...
الصفحة 12
... incentives of social life distort our minds , inducing awkward contortions of self- deception . Matthew 7 : 3 asks , " Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own ? " In our metaphor , we might just as ...
... incentives of social life distort our minds , inducing awkward contortions of self- deception . Matthew 7 : 3 asks , " Why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own ? " In our metaphor , we might just as ...
الصفحة 23
... incentive for each party to deceive the other , which may be facilitated by a bit of self - deception . Just as camouflage is useful when facing an adversary with eyes , self - deception can be useful when facing an adversary with mind ...
... incentive for each party to deceive the other , which may be facilitated by a bit of self - deception . Just as camouflage is useful when facing an adversary with eyes , self - deception can be useful when facing an adversary with mind ...
الصفحة 31
... incentives for males and females con- verge . Humans aren't perfectly pair - bonded and monogamous , of course , but it's a fair approximation . In fact , as Ridley says , " It is hard to overem- phasize how unusual humans are in this ...
... incentives for males and females con- verge . Humans aren't perfectly pair - bonded and monogamous , of course , but it's a fair approximation . In fact , as Ridley says , " It is hard to overem- phasize how unusual humans are in this ...
الصفحة 36
لقد وصلت إلى حد العرض المسموح لهذا الكتاب.
لقد وصلت إلى حد العرض المسموح لهذا الكتاب.
طبعات أخرى - عرض جميع المقتطفات
عبارات ومصطلحات مألوفة
actually advertise altruism ancestors animal apparatchik Arabian babbler asked babblers behavior beliefs benefit better body language bowerbird brains Bryan Caplan Chapter charity cheating coalitions competition consider conspicuous conspicuous consumption consumers costs course CRIMESTOP Do-Right donate effect elephant especially evolutionary psychology example explain fact feel forager friends function Geoffrey Miller give going grooming Haidt Hajj hidden motives human Ibid important incentives individual laugh laughter less listeners look loyalty male mates medicine Miller minds norms ourselves patients peers percent person play political Press Secretary prestige primates prosocial puzzles reasons religion religious Robert Trivers Robin Hanson self-deception selfish signal simply social social grooming someone spend split-brain status Steve Jobs there's things tion Trivers typically voters voting we’re what's words Zhao Gao