week 10 - culture and industrial societies Flashcards
how has our environment become alien to us?
we are not in the world that we first evolved in
-dont have the capacity to produce our own food, medicine, shoes, etc.
- alien relative to our EEA
EEA
environment of evolutionary adaptedness
culture in the science way
transmission of information by extra cellular means
-culture can free us from biology
- ex. passing on information can prevent people from dying from natural outcomes of biology
instincts
behaviors that dont require any environmental input to develop
-culture reduces the use of our instincts
-because of culture, the most adaptive choice isnt the most important to the eea
7 ways that we are not adapted to our environment
- food distribution and production can get us anything we want
- birth control reduces cuckoldry risk
- day care reduces need for parental care
- teenagers have to fight the urge to have kids
- firearms reduce the need for strength
- armies can now fight our battles
- money reduces our reliance on others
genetically coded hypothesis
causal relationship between things that hurt us
“if i feel sick, it must be something i ate”
sauce bernaise phenomenon
if you get sick once because of something, you will likely associate illness with that food for a long time
why can we condition some rats into doing certain things?
if it has evolutionary meaning, then it can be easily conditioned
- if we have no adaptive instinct toward it, then we cannot do it
fundamental reproductive equation
sex = pregnancy = babies = maternal child care = loss of economic power = loss of female political power
explain rubber example as to why the fundamental reproductive equation is flawed now
explain the rat experiment that showed that some things can be learned easily
explain the rat experiment and why some things cant be taught easily
what is the paradox of happiness?
being richer somehow does not make us happier
-happiness evens out after really good financial things happen
why do our genes only care about improvement rather than absolute levels of achievement?
evolution is a relative game, and the alleles that become the highest frequency in the population are alleles that produce more offspring
example of how genes care about improvement
alleles that code for longer necks in giraffes do better than the ones that dont
how do emotions affect us?
emotions alter our behavior in ways beneficial to our genes
-going to motivate our behavior to act in a certain way
happiness
brain state created by our genes that is going to nudge our behavior and induce you to change what we are doing
what happens when someone does something nice for you?
reward centers fire and dopamine release intensifies
what happens when people are selfish?
reward centers de - activated, dopamine stops and brain experience resembles pain
why dont emotions last as long as we think they will?
- we adjust quickly to good fortune
- ex. when people win the lottery, their happiness goes down quicker than we would think
what happens when catastrophe strikes?
we bottom out after something bad happens, and then it comes back (ex. man with life altering disability)
2 pieces of advice
- take your goals less seriously
- achieving your dreams wont make you happy forever - take more chances
- pain and humiliation dont hurt for as long as we imagine they will
conclusion of pain ending on a good note
people were more likely to come back to a post colonoscopy evaluation if the procedure ended on a positive note
- we prefer things that end on a positive note
what does happiness occur in?
in response to environment, not absolute levels of achievement
-our emotions are way less permanent than they feel
