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Blink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma
Hidden Motive in Everyday Life
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.
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.
Human behavior is rarely what it seems (…)
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Start your free trialBlink 3 of 8 - The 5 AM Club
by Robin Sharma