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 19
... explain other data points that don't make sense according to the strictly hygienic function. For example, it explains why higher- ranked individuals receive more grooming than lower- ranked individuals.10 When low- ranking primates ...
... explain other data points that don't make sense according to the strictly hygienic function. For example, it explains why higher- ranked individuals receive more grooming than lower- ranked individuals.10 When low- ranking primates ...
الصفحة 20
... explaining why primates groom each other. If hygiene were completely irrelevant, primates would simply give each ... explain why primates spend so much time doing it. Gelada baboons, for example, might be able to keep their fur clean ...
... explaining why primates groom each other. If hygiene were completely irrelevant, primates would simply give each ... explain why primates spend so much time doing it. Gelada baboons, for example, might be able to keep their fur clean ...
الصفحة 23
... scientists would often appeal to “the good of the species” in order to explain seemingly altruistic animal behaviors, like the babblers volunteering for guard duty.19 That's certainly the kind of thing ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 23.
... scientists would often appeal to “the good of the species” in order to explain seemingly altruistic animal behaviors, like the babblers volunteering for guard duty.19 That's certainly the kind of thing ANIMAL BEHAVIOR 23.
الصفحة 24
... explanation— either for their behavior or for our own. To find out why we often misconstrue animal motives, including our own, we have to look more carefully at how our brains were designed and what problems they're intended to solve ...
... explanation— either for their behavior or for our own. To find out why we often misconstrue animal motives, including our own, we have to look more carefully at how our brains were designed and what problems they're intended to solve ...
الصفحة 27
... explaining our behavior. It's important to understand what we're actually afraid of here. Many kinds of competition are actually easy for us to acknowledge, even celebrate. We love playful competition, for example, as in games and ...
... explaining our behavior. It's important to understand what we're actually afraid of here. Many kinds of competition are actually easy for us to acknowledge, even celebrate. We love playful competition, for example, as in games and ...
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