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Zusammenfassung von The Elephant in the Brain

Name: The Elephant in the Brain
Rating: 3.9 (76 reviews)
Author: Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson

Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson

Hidden Motive in Everyday Life

3.9 (76 Bewertungen)

16 Min.

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Routines & Habits Animals

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The Elephant in the Brain
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What’s in it for me? Learn your place in the animal kingdom.

One of Aristotle’s most famous pronouncements was that human beings are political animals. This means that humans are different from other animals because we have developed a socio-political system of law and order for the purpose of our own advancement.

But Aristotle did not have access to today’s science. We now know that the evolutionary path taken by humankind means that the residual aspects of our biological history are still present within us. What’s more, these elements still determine some very common behavioral traits.

What’s fascinating is that we often like to pretend – like Aristotle – that we can’t have anything in common with lesser animals. But this is not true. Though we’d much rather pretend they weren’t there, sometimes these traits sneak out, forcing us to acknowledge them. These are the elephants in the brain!

In these blinks you’ll learn:

just how predictable you look when you’re angling for a promotion;
why there’ll always be a market for flashy and fancy cars; and
what the little bowerbird can teach you about finding a mate.

Animals’ motivations for behavior are deep, complex and often selfish, but they aren’t always aware of it.

If you’ve ever watched chimpanzees at the zoo, you’ll probably know the scene well – chimps picking bits of dirt from one another. But this act isn’t just about keeping clean; there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface. An exchange – guided by deep and mostly selfish reasons – is taking place called social grooming.

For starters, Chimp A is more than happy to groom Chimp B, as it means Chimp B is likely to groom Chimp A in return. There are places even a chimp can’t reach!

After many years studying primates, the primatologist Robin Dunbar observed a deeper significance to this act of grooming. The secondary purpose is political – a means of forming relationships and mutual alliances built on trust – the long-term benefits of which can’t be appreciated enough.

Dunbar’s insights were based on the fact that primates continued to groom one another even after their fur was clean. This proved that grooming wasn’t just a hygienic procedure. Something altogether trickier and more political was at play.

But of course, primates aren’t humans – they’re not conscious in the same way that we are. And while they’re not aware of social strategies, they enact them nonetheless. It’s instinctual. Humans, on the other hand, have a sense of what’s going on in other people’s minds and judge each other based upon this perception.

Consequently, we sometimes hide our motives from others, and – critically – conceal them even from ourselves. After all, if we aren’t consciously aware of what it is that’s driving us, then it’s unlikely others will either.

By comparison, other primates are unable to determine the motives of others in the same way, so there’s no need for them to be deceptive.

While chimps are all well and good, let’s look at humans a little more closely.

We humans often like to keep ugly motives hidden from ourselves.

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.

We’re an intelligent species because competition made it that way.

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.

Social norms restrict unnecessary competition, but they need a community to enforce them.

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.

We don’t tend to notice body language, and that often leaves us blissfully unaware.

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.

We buy products to show off individual status – and our idealized personality traits – to others.

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.

Although art isn’t necessary for survival, it can supply a competitive edge in sexual selection.

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.

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Worum geht es in The Elephant in the Brain?

The Elephant in the Brain (2018) explores the selfish motives that drive much of human behavior but which we’d much rather remain unaware of.

Bestes Zitat aus The Elephant in the Brain

Human behavior is rarely what it seems (…)

—Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson

Wer The Elephant in the Brain lesen sollte

Students of psychology and anthropology
People interested in evolutionary theory
Anyone curious about the dynamics of human behavior

Über den Autor

Kevin Simler is a designer, engineer and author. He has written primarily on human behavior and philosophy. The majority of his output can be found on his blog, MeltingAsphalt.com. Simler is based in San Francisco, California.

Robin Hanson is a research associate at Oxford University and associate professor at George Mason University, Virginia. Hanson earned his PhD in social science at the California Institute of Technology and has worked with artificial intelligence for both NASA and Lockheed Martin – the renowned aerospace and defense company. Hanson also authored The Age of Em (2016), which considers the impact of robotic advancements on the future of Earth.

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