Скачать или смотреть The Elephant in the Brain - Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

Take-Aways
• Human behavior is almost never what it seems. • Like the so-called elephant in the room that no one talks about, the “elephant in the brain” is human selfishness. • Humans are most effective at deceiving others about their true intentions after they first deceive themselves about their true intentions. • You can realize social advantages from knowing how to cheat and knowing how to detect cheaters. • The brain is adept at self-deception through its “press secretary” – the module that manipulates reality in order to favor self-interest. • Nonverbal signals are sufficiently ambiguous to both reveal and disguise hidden motives. • Social institutions claim to act in society’s best interests, but they have hidden agendas that serve selfish motives. • Education “certifies” citizens as good employees. • Counterintuitively, the less you know about your own hidden motives, the better you can convince others of your good will. • Pursuing “enlightened self-interest” ensures that people will cooperate in order to improve society.
Recommendation
Kevin Simler, a blogger and software engineer, and Robin Hanson, an economics professor at George Mason University, present this entertaining study of how people act on and express their hidden motives.
Like the so-called elephant in the room that no one talks about even though it is obvious, the “elephant in the brain” is human selfishness. The brain evolved not only to allow people to deceive one another, but to allow people to deceive even themselves. Counterintuitively, the less you know about your own hidden motives, the better you can convince others of your good will. With humor and lively prose, the authors probe the uncomfortable truths that motivate altruistic activities, such as voting and giving to charity.
Avoiding outright cynicism, they suggest that selfish motives bring a benefit: cooperation on behalf of social welfare. Their insights will serve readers interested in the behavioral sciences or evolution and those seeking self-understanding.
Summary
Why People Conceal Their Motives
Humans aren’t much different from their primate relatives. People always compete for a place in the dominance hierarchy. They pursue their self-interests in almost all social interactions. Although candidly admitting your selfish motives isn’t socially acceptable, human behavior is almost never what it seems. And, people constantly judge each other’s actions and motives. Like the so-called elephant in the room that no one talks about, the “elephant in the brain” is human selfishness. People disguise their motives to appear less self-interested than they truly are. They also hide these motives from themselves. The human brain evolved to deceive itself for a strategic reason: The better you hide your motives from yourself, the more successfully you can hide them from everyone else. But, with better awareness and insight, you can confront what really motivates you more honestly.
Competition and Evolution
Humans may have developed big brains because they must cooperate to survive. The less salubrious reason is to navigate “social challenges”: alliances, intergroup conflict, cheating, lying and competition for mates.
Human brains developed quickly in a short period of time. The amount of energy it took people to produce such big brains seems wasted, considering that no other species could match them. Humans participated in an intra-species “evolutionary arms race”; that is, they competed only among themselves for survival. The capacity to deceive and to detect deception became imperative for their survival. People needed to have lies against which to discern truth.