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. |
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الصفحة 7
... individuals but also as a soci- ety. Our brains are experts at flirting, negotiating social status, and playing politics, while “we”— the self- conscious parts of the brain— manage to keep our thoughts pure and chaste . " We ...
... individuals but also as a soci- ety. Our brains are experts at flirting, negotiating social status, and playing politics, while “we”— the self- conscious parts of the brain— manage to keep our thoughts pure and chaste . " We ...
الصفحة 9
... individual behaviors . But few have taken the logical next step of using those insights to study our institutions . The point is , we act on hidden motives together , in public , just as often as we do by ourselves , in private . And ...
... individual behaviors . But few have taken the logical next step of using those insights to study our institutions . The point is , we act on hidden motives together , in public , just as often as we do by ourselves , in private . And ...
الصفحة 17
... grooming to stay clean . Individual primates can ( and do ) groom themselves , but they can only effectively groom about half their bodies . They can't easily groom their own backs , faces , and heads . So to 1 Animal Behavior.
... grooming to stay clean . Individual primates can ( and do ) groom themselves , but they can only effectively groom about half their bodies . They can't easily groom their own backs , faces , and heads . So to 1 Animal Behavior.
الصفحة 19
... individuals receive more grooming than lower - ranked individuals . 10 When low - ranking primates choose to groom one of their superiors , they're less likely to be groomed in return - so they must be angling for some other kind of ...
... individuals receive more grooming than lower - ranked individuals . 10 When low - ranking primates choose to groom one of their superiors , they're less likely to be groomed in return - so they must be angling for some other kind of ...
الصفحة 22
... individual babbler who competes to do more than his fair share of helping others? The answer, as Zahavi and his team have carefully documented, is that altruistic babblers develop a kind of “credit” among their groupmates— what Zahavi ...
... individual babbler who competes to do more than his fair share of helping others? The answer, as Zahavi and his team have carefully documented, is that altruistic babblers develop a kind of “credit” among their groupmates— what Zahavi ...
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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