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 5
... actually broader than that . Selfishness is just the heart , if you will , and an elephant has many other parts , all interconnected . So throughout the book , we'll be using " the elephant " to refer not just to human selfishness , but ...
... actually broader than that . Selfishness is just the heart , if you will , and an elephant has many other parts , all interconnected . So throughout the book , we'll be using " the elephant " to refer not just to human selfishness , but ...
الصفحة 11
... actually great news . However flawed our institutions may be , we're already living with them - and life , for most of us , is pretty good . So if we can accurately diagnose what's holding back our institutions , we may finally succeed ...
... actually great news . However flawed our institutions may be , we're already living with them - and life , for most of us , is pretty good . So if we can accurately diagnose what's holding back our institutions , we may finally succeed ...
الصفحة 21
... actually helping their weaker groupmates. The problem with this hypothesis is that babblers compete primarily with the birds imme- diately above or below them in the hierarchy. The alpha male, for example, almost never tries to replace ...
... actually helping their weaker groupmates. The problem with this hypothesis is that babblers compete primarily with the birds imme- diately above or below them in the hierarchy. The alpha male, for example, almost never tries to replace ...
الصفحة 22
... actually, at a deeper level, competitive self- interest. HUMAN BEHAVIORS We can't always take animal behavior at face value— that's the main les- son to draw from the preceding examples. The surface- level logic of a behavior often ...
... actually, at a deeper level, competitive self- interest. HUMAN BEHAVIORS We can't always take animal behavior at face value— that's the main les- son to draw from the preceding examples. The surface- level logic of a behavior often ...
الصفحة 27
... actually afraid of here . Many kinds of competition are actually easy for us to acknowledge , even cele- brate . We love playful competition , for example , as in games and sports . " There are no losers in wrestling , " it's sometimes ...
... actually afraid of here . Many kinds of competition are actually easy for us to acknowledge , even cele- brate . We love playful competition , for example , as in games and sports . " There are no losers in wrestling , " it's sometimes ...
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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