Summary of Robin Hanson's The Elephant in the Brain

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 Humans are not the only species that have complex social lives. Many other animals do as well, and it can be difficult to understand their motives. However, humans do not necessarily hide their motives like other animals do.
#2 Social grooming is the act of one primate grooming another. It’s been proven to be more about politics than hygiene, as primates spend more time grooming each other than they do grooming themselves.
#3 The political function of grooming explains why higher-ranking individuals receive more grooming than lower-ranking individuals. It also explains why primates groom each other, even though they don’t need to be conscious of their political motivations.
#4 The Arabian babbler is a small bird that lives in the arid brush of the Sinai Desert and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The males arrange themselves into rigid dominance hierarchies. The alpha male consistently wins in small squabbles with the beta male, who in turn consistently wins against the gamma male.

Sujets

• Cognition
• Psychology
• Sociologie, société et politique
• Cognitive Psychology

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 11 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822530232
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Robin Hanson's The Elephant in the Brain
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

Humans are not the only species that have complex social lives. Many other animals do as well, and it can be difficult to understand their motives. However, humans do not necessarily hide their motives like other animals do.

#2

Social grooming is the act of one primate grooming another. It’s been proven to be more about politics than hygiene, as primates spend more time grooming each other than they do grooming themselves.

#3

The political function of grooming explains why higher-ranking individuals receive more grooming than lower-ranking individuals. It also explains why primates groom each other, even though they don’t need to be conscious of their political motivations.

#4

The Arabian babbler is a small bird that lives in the arid brush of the Sinai Desert and parts of the Arabian Peninsula. The males arrange themselves into rigid dominance hierarchies. The alpha male consistently wins in small squabbles with the beta male, who in turn consistently wins against the gamma male.

#5

The goal of these behaviors is to be helpful, but they actually serve a deeper purpose: to increase the prestige status of the babbler who is performing them. This earns the babbler at least two different perks, one of which is mating opportunities.

#6

When we study the behavior of other species, we must put ourselves in their shoes and see the world through their eyes, but this method can lead us astray. We must look more closely at how our brains were designed and what problems they’re intended to solve.

#7

We are biased in the way we approach the evidence. We want to find explanations for our behavior that make us look the best, which explains why we tend to focus on ecological challenges rather than social challenges.

#8

We all have biases and psychological sore spots that make us prefer explanations that make us look good. When it comes to our rivals, we’re perfectly happy to entertain unflattering theories about their behavior as long as the mud we fling at them doesn’t spatter too much back at us.

#9

The tallest living tree is the coastal redwood, which towers a lofty 379 feet above the forest floor. It grows upward to get more sunlight, which is a scarce but critical resource in a forest.

#10

The social brain hypothesis is the idea that our ancestors got smart primarily to compete against each other in a variety of social and political scenarios. We must accentuate the more competitive aspects of our species’ history.

#11

The main form of sexual competition is the competition for mates. Within a given community, there are only a fixed number of mates to go around, and each of the two sexes faces competition primarily from other members of their sex.

#12

Social status is traditionally defined as one’s rank or position within a group, but it can also be defined as the price you have to pay for friendship and association.

#13

Humans are not the only species that are political. Coalitions are what make politics so political. Without the ability to form teams and work together toward shared goals, a species’ political life will be stunted at the level of individual competition.

#14

Coalition politics is something we spend a lot of time doing. When we join a church or a team because we feel welcome there, or leave a job that isn’t rewarding enough, we’re following our political instincts.

#15

The games of sex, politics, and social status are all competitive, and not everyone can win. They are all intoxicating games where you must stand out over your rivals.

#16

We rely heavily on honest signals in the competitive arenas we’ve been discussing – that is, when we try to evaluate others as potential mates, friends, and allies.

#17

When signals are used in competitive games, like sex, status, and politics, an arms race often results. In order to outdo the other competitors, each participant tries to send the strongest possible signal. This can result in some spectacular achievements.

#18

The problem with competitive struggles is that they’re extremely wasteful. If a population of redwoods were somehow restraining themselves, it would take only a few mutations for one of the trees to break ranks and grab all the sunlight for itself.

#19

We all have been in a situation where we are waiting in line, and someone cuts in front of us. This is an example of how we, as humans, have developed norms to help us cooperate with each other.

#20

The essence of a norm is not in what we say about it, but in which behaviors get punished and what form the punishment takes. The threat of some kind of punishment must always be present, or a norm is little more than hot air.

#21

Foragers are the first group of humans to have developed norms. They live a nomadic life in bands of 20 to 50 individuals, and they rely on each other for survival. There are few modern foragers, and they are extremely dependent on each other.

#22

Foragers are typically patrilocal, meaning that men stay in their native band for their entire lives. They don’t have much in the way of property, and they typically have loose associations with the small handful of neighboring bands.

#23

The first norm that humans developed was the egalitarian political order. It was hard for our ancestors to develop this norm, as it required ensuring that everyone, even the most powerful members of the community, abide by the norms.

#24

Humans are social animals who use language to decide on rules that the whole group must follow. We use the threat of collective punishment to enforce these rules against even the strongest individuals.

#25

Gossip is a feature of every society ever studied, and it can be mean-spirited and hurtful, but it also serves an important function of curtailing bad behavior. It is difficult to enforce norms, however, because anyone who tries to mete out punishment risks retaliation.

#26

The meta-norm is a norm of punishing anyone who doesn’t punish others. It highlights how groups need to create an incentive for good citizens to punish cheaters. In many communities, this is done by positively rewarding people who help to punish cheaters.

#27

There are many norms that regulate individual behavior, and these are typically crimes of intent. If you just happen to be friendly with someone else’s spouse, no big deal. But if you’re friendly with romantic or sexual intentions, that’s inappropriate.

#28

We all enjoy tooting our own horns from time to time, and in some contexts, bragging may even be celebrated. But in most contexts, we start to bristle when people get too full of themselves.

#29

When a high-status person chooses someone as a mate, friend, or teammate, it’s often seen as an endorsement of that associate, which raises that person’s status. However, it’s also acceptable to just be yourself and not try to win people over.

#30

The norm against subgroup politics is typically violated. There are large areas of modern life where people are actively political, such as Washington, D. C. But the taboo against politics is strong in small-group settings.

#31

The most comprehensive norm is the one against selfish motives. We systematically avoid answering questions by appealing to selfish motives, instead emphasizing our higher, purer motives.

#32

Humans are competitive and selfish, and competition was an important driving force in the evolution of our big brains. We learned to limit wasteful intra-species competition by the use of norms.

#33

We all cheat. We do it to get benefits without incurring the typical costs. We cheat to avoid being seen, and to avoid the emotion of shame and the behaviors that attend to it.