I can remember many times I've been discussing or arguing over something with friends, and I've put a certain emotion down to the idea that in the end were still just primitive animals, with layers of programming or learning clouding our thoughts. We have these wobbly things we call arms, and these wobbly things called legs, and we dawdle around making a mess, doing all this crap we don't need to. The idea that we have learnt to cover up our primitive basic instincts with layers of rules and meaning. That all laws and ideas of right and wrong are BS, and the reason so many people divorce, so many men cheat, so many people fight and kill each other is because we have instincts developed over millions of years, and have a thin layer of meaning maybe only 1000 years old which we have placed on top. A number of people I've suggested this to have been opposing to the idea, suggesting that we have evolved far beyond that.
One idea I've run through many times and feel like I have come to understand is as follows. I'm not sure if it's correct at all, but to me it seems logically correct. The reason women are clingy, and want to hold on to a man and be secure, while men are jumpy and want to have 20 wives (mistresses). Also the reason after a mutual break-up a woman is usually a lot worse off for a lot longer than the man. He usually seems to move on pretty quickly, right? If you think about the majority of animals, and their survival instincts, does this not suggest we are the same? It is well known, but often forgotten that the reason we are here, the reason we are alive, is to pass on our genes and knowledge, and keep our species alive. Nothing more. In most animals, the best way to do this is a combination of two things. Firstly, to spread the seed as far as possible in order to create healthy children with a mix of genes. Secondly, to protect our young at all costs, and teach them everything we know. So rather than both parents doing both, most species have one parent specialising in each, in order to best continue survival of their species. The male roams far and wide, looking for women. While the female brings up the young, and protects them with their life, teaching them everything they know along the way until they are old enough to go out on their own. That in essence is the way species have evolved. I always picture lions when I recite this idea. A male lion roaming the landscape looking for females. While the mother rears and protects her young at all costs. Would this instinctual male/female behavior, in the form of various hormones, not explain a lot of relationship mishaps in our society today? It has always made me think were not that far from animals. We still have the same raw instincts inside us, but have learnt to go beyond these instincts with multiple external influences and ideas, adding new meaning to things. But in the end, as a whole, it seems these feelings are still there in the general population.
So the question is, what is the link between animal instincts, and our modern brain? Do we have certain instinctual pathways, which we actually change and replace through learning over time? Or do those instinctual pathways remain, and we develop other thought patterns over the top, occasionally slipping up and going back to our primitive ways.
My thoughts are they remain somehow, and in certain scenarios can be awakened. I think the modern thought processes overlap but don't replace them. I think our instincts are still there, but we have a whole lot of extra information over the top of them making you act differently. The reason I think this is when people drink, they lose their inhibitions, or their 'modern brain', and revert back to their primitive instincts. Men get aggressive, they lust after women, they fight each other over women. People enjoy music a lot more. A lot of the modern facade is removed and we fall back to our primitive thought processes. This tells me they are still there somehow, and the animal in us is really there, being held down by everything we have taught ourselves.
These are my thoughts before doing any research into the topic. It's just an opinion before I start digging to see how it actually works. From here on, the rest is based on other peoples research and essays that try to explain the link between animal instincts and our modern brain.
The real science
Humans have instincts, just like animals, that are hard-wired into our brains from the day we are born. They help us survive without thinking or requiring any learned input or decision making on our behalf. We have a bunch of instincts which don't seem necessary anymore. Scientists are still trying to find purposes for some of our instincts. Here is a list of a few interesting instincts humans have, and their purpose.
There are different kinds of instincts. There are 'primitive reflexes' which are exhibited in babies, but eventually cease as we learn they are no longer useful. One good example is the Palmar Grasp Reflex. When a baby's palm is stroked by something, its natural reflex is to grasp the object. This is a natural cling reflex that helps babies hold onto their mother while travelling for example. Picture baby monkeys being carried around in trees, or a baby holding your finger. Up until four months old, a baby will automatically turn its head toward anything that strokes its cheek. This was evolved to assist in breastfeeding.
A few primitive reflexes we have
Goosebumps appear when it is either cold, or you experience a strong emotional reaction like fear or pleasure or arousal. They can also appear as a response to anger or fear to make you look bigger, in order to intimidate an enemy.
Emotional contagion- An instinct all people show, where emotions can be passed between individuals. For example, if a child sees a parent crying, they will also get sad and start crying. This is a well studied fact and is the basis of many religions. A variety of emotions can be transferred, and is most effective when multiple people are involved. For example walking into a room full of happy people will make you happy too. Think of the laughing chain effect- if you see a bunch of people laughing and have no idea what they are laughing about, you cant help but start laughing yourself, even though you have no idea whats funny. Alternatively, a room full of mopey people will make you instantly mopey too.
Yawning- why the hell do we yawn, and why is it infectious? This is one scientists havent figured out yet, as each hypotheses has elements which make sense, and those that don't. The most promising theory is that yawning is a persons way of controlling brain temperature. It has been suggested that a yawn can increase or decrease brain pressure through some mechanical process at the back of the mouth. This is supported by the fact that people often yawn when changing altitude levels and their ears become blocked. Another theory is that yawning is a primitive group instinct that aims to stretch the muscles of the mouth, making you more alert. This supports the idea of yawning being contagious. Imagine a group of dogs hunting- one yawn spreads through the pack keeping them all alert. Also many animals hunt with their jaws as a main weapon, so this theory also supports that creatures hunting in packs stretched their mouth muscles to ready themselves to attack.
It has also been suggested that yawning is a territorial reflex. When you yawn you tend to stretch your arms out too. This makes you appear bigger, and opening your mouth bares your teeth. Studies show that when humans witness an animal yawning, their reaction is to look at the teeth of the creature. So it could well be a territorial instinct. Imagine a pack of dogs hunting. They yawn, baring their teeth and making them look big and mean. Now imagine this being contagious, and spreading through the pack. Ten dogs baring their teeth at you. A pretty intimidating visual if you ask me. Or maybe they are all flowing with Testosterone at this point and are showing out to each other? An interesting primitive instinct either way.
Diving Reflex- An interesting reflex shown in all aquatic mammals including humans. When water below 21 degrees touches your face, your heart rate drops 10-25%, and the blood gets pulled away from your extremities towards your core. This is an instinct that cant be helped, and helps the oxygen you have in your lungs last longer keeping you alive longer. It is likely a reflex for when we are accidentally submerged in cold water. It even happens if you are unconscious, giving you a bit of extra time before you drown. The diving reflex has led some scientists to study our ancestry and create an Aquatic Ape hypothesis, suggesting our common ancestors took some time evolving to be aquatic creatures before veering away from it to what we are now. This theory explains a few features we have which dont seem useful for other purposes, and would be necessary for an aquatic being. For example, our loss of hair, our hooded noses, the location of our hair, voluntary breath control, the waxy coating on newborns, and this diving reflex. Maybe we were once destined to be mermaid-like creatures.
Human instincts
Many of our ancestral instincts were considered adaptive back then, and would have affected us positively leading us to safety, and helping us avoid future crises. However, some of these in our modern-day world are considered as hinderances, actually threatening our survival.
Some negative human instincts we have carried on from the past are revenge, tribal loyalty, greed, and our urge to procreate.
Tribal loyalty and revenge made sense with our ancestors, protecting them in certain situations. But these are now considered 'immoral' emotional reactions and are no longer necessary. In ancient times, if a caveman bullied your clan, you would go and put yourself at risk to seek revenge and hurt/kill him. This would result in him likely not bothering your clan again. It was a useful idea when we grew up in very small clans, to ensure safety and survival. But now it is useless. We simply hold onto it in the form of religions or political party, which as we can see does not help anyone, but rather hinders our larger modern society in the form of wars or gangs.
Greed is another hard-wired emotion which we cannot avoid. Imagine our ancestral cave people- the greedy one who collected more food for himself and didn't share it with others during the winter was more likely to come out in the end healthier, and thus more likely to be selected for courtship and reproduce. As a result, greed and selfishness is hard-wired in our brains. We are all greedy and selfish at heart, even though we have been taught as children to avoid and overwrite this. Makes you really think about our materialistic society, and how unnecessary it all is. I'm pretty sure we are all going to survive the winters regardless of whether we share or not.
A very interesting article I read about animal instincts pulling apart the modern world is summarised nicely in the following paragraph. Irrelevant bits have been removed.
The driving force behind all living entities is Darwinian natural selection, or reproductive success. Unfortunately, natural selection is blind to the long-term future -- natural selection rewards just one thing: offspring. One of our most powerful instincts is the urge to procreate, which manifests itself in different ways in males than in females. Males simply want lots of sex whereas females are programmed with nesting behaviors that involve a safe home place for their family (of course, sexual selection is much more complex than that one sentence brief synopsis). Primitive humans did not even know how babies were formed, but nevertheless they made them. By favoring parts that fit and nerve endings that tingled in just the right places, natural selection, that ultimate puppet master, made certain we’d reproduce. Hence we are programmed to have instincts to breed. And breed, we do, in fact, we are much too good at it for our own good, all 7 billion of us. If we don't stop reproducing soon, human civilization is doomed. |
A few articles I found went on to link the breeding instinct to the worlds resources and overpopulation. A lot of people suggest we are heavily overpopulated, and have combined our two big driving instincts of greed and procreation to eventually tear the world apart. Suggestions are made that we are in denial about our overpopulation crisis. That as our population increases, we reduce the per capita share of resources people have (disregarding individual access to these resources). What is our instinctual response to such an idea? A combination of denial and greed. Those who have access to resources collect them, and hush the idea that resources are scarce. As long as we have a nice hoard, the world is fine. Have we learnt to institutionalise greed? Do we promote runaway greed and call it success? Greed is the underlying driving force of the modern world. We give it names like entrepreneurship. We have set up structures to facilitate runaway greed. Think capitalism, politics, corporations, banks, insurance companies. Something as simple as fixed interest from a bank. If someone who has $5000 in a bank is compared to someone who has $5,000,000 in the bank, is earning 5% interest a fair thing? The poor person gets $250 while the rich one gets $250,000. We heavily reward greed. The better you are at being greedy and hoarding resources, the more you are rewarded.
So essentially we have designed an economic system that rewards greed, but spins it in a way so that we can deny having any part in it, since we have also been programmed to think that greed is a bad thing. Aren't we smart creatures :) Also funny to think that one of the basic animal survival instincts are what we have built our world around. It's when you notice this that the way you perceive the world starts to change.
So in response to my original question, about what the link is between animal instincts and our modern brain; I seem to have been veered a different way. It sounds like what we call 'animal instincts' are still prevalent in our minds and the way we act. Maybe we don't program ourselves to overcome these instincts as much as we think we do. Maybe they aren't such 'primitive' thought patterns. Maybe we just give them a new name, and pretend they're something different.
Although I didn't dig too deep and only really looked at a few examples, the concept is pretty interesting. That many of our primitive instincts are no longer useful for our survival; that most of them are actually negative thoughts that hinder our humanity; and that some of these negative and now useless instincts actually still manifest themselves in our everyday lives very strongly, potentially under a positive light.
I have never felt so greedy in my life :) Are we really just a bunch of animals that started out hoarding resources for that cold winter's day, so we could survive longer and have a better chance of looking nice and healthy to the opposite sex at the end of winter? Did these two basic driving instincts of greed and procreation get out of hand and lead us to where we are now? Can war and religion really be described by basic tribal loyalty and the revenge instinct? It sure sounds like the basic animal instincts that once helped us to survive, no longer apply, and that all the turmoil in the modern world is a result.
Makes you think.
Few references to interesting reads:
Actualfreedom.com article on instincts
University of Texas course on Human Instincts
SMH Article- Do animal instincts challenge morality of human nature
-Attila
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