The Elephant in the Brain summary

It’s easy to be dismissive of chimps, when we humans think our motives are noble and pure by comparison – but we’d be kidding ourselves.

Like chimps, humans can be motivated by selfish, ugly, unconscious reasons. We might want, for example, to climb the greasy pole of social standing. Or a new promotion, deception, or sexual conquest might be in our crosshairs.

There’s no denying it – everyone likes to show off a bit and bask in affirmation. We can also find it a little embarrassing. When we tell the story about how humans got big brains through evolution, we like to imagine that it was brought about by our adaptation to challenging environments. We became intelligent because we were faced with predators – such as the saber-toothed tiger – as well as food scarcity, wildfires and a host of other dangers.

What’s more likely – if less flattering – is that we evolved to be such brain-boxes in order to outcompete other humans. The technical term for this is intra-species competition.

Competition is how humans got to be humans. It’s a powerful instinct, but sometimes it’s unnecessary, and it’s better for us to repress it.

The social mechanisms we developed to curb competition are called norms. More precisely, norms are community-specific standards or rules which attempt to determine people's behavior.

When it comes to articulating our thoughts, we often weigh up our words before we speak. The same can’t be said of body language. How often do you really think about the message you’re sending with your body?

Our conscious minds are largely oblivious to other people’s body language – as well as our own – which is a great shame as it’s actually a highly expressive method of communication.

Have you ever wondered why people splash their cash on fancy cars and houses, even if they don’t actually need them?

In the first instance, it’s because the display of showy products signals wealth. This, in turn, gives the owner an edge over the competition for sex and social status. It’s a phenomenon called conspicuous consumption. The term was coined in 1899 by the American socio-economist Thorstein Veblen, in his book The Theory of the Leisure Class.

Humans have been making art for about as long as there have been humans. Indeed, one red ocher engraving in South Africa dates back some 100,000 years.

Art is still omnipresent in our culture. We style our hair, tattoo our bodies and adorn ourselves with fashionable jewelry and clothes. That’s to say nothing of all the paintings, sculptures, poetry and music we produce.