{"id":1078,"date":"2022-04-04T21:09:52","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T21:09:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/?p=13606"},"modified":"2022-04-25T23:50:10","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T23:50:10","slug":"13606","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/2022\/04\/04\/13606\/","title":{"rendered":"How to avoid our natural tendency to divide the world between \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This week, I\u2019d like to talk about two articles on the work of Robert Sapolsky, a primatologist and neurobiologist who published the superb book Behave:<\/a> The<\/a> Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst<\/a> <\/span><\/strong>in 2017. In that book, Sapolsky stylishly and eloquently examined the many factors that have influenced our behaviours from the time of our primate ancestors through to the modern societies of today. He focused especially on our identity behaviours\u2014the ones that make us divide the world into \u201cus\u201d and \u201cthem\u201d and that so many politicians now exploit to try to capture our votes.<\/p>\n

The first of these articles is an interview with Sapolsky published in 2018, with the title \u201cThe Biology of the Modern Political Divide\u201d<\/a><\/span><\/strong> and the sub-title \u201cRobert Sapolsky reveals the biological basis for our most unfortunate traits\u2014and insists change is possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

In this interview, Sapolsky ranges from shocking, depressing observations such as this:<\/p>\n

If you get to the point where citing \u2018thems\u2019 causes your followers to activate neurons in the insular <\/span>cortex<\/span><\/strong><\/a>\u2014the<\/span><\/strong> part of the brain that responds to viscerally disgusting things\u2014you\u2019ve finished most of your to-do list for your genocide.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

To objective statements such as:<\/p>\n

Primates are hard-wired for us\/them dichotomies. Our brains detect them in less than 100 milliseconds.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And more nuanced, hopeful reflections such as:<\/p>\n

[I] don\u2019t really believe in free will, but [I think that] we nevertheless have an obligation to try to understand our behavior and make things better.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The second article, written by Sapolsky himself and published in 2017, also explores the issue of \u201cus versus them\u201d but is more systematic and instructive. Entitled \u201cWhy Your Brain Hates Other People and How to Make It Think Differently<\/a><\/span>\u201d<\/a> <\/strong>, it offers plenty of surprising findings, summaries of fascinating experiments and the shock statements for which Sapolsky has such a knack. Here are just a few examples to whet your appetite.<\/p>\n

Considerable evidence suggests that dividing the world into Us and Them is deeply hard-wired in our brains, with an ancient evolutionary legacy. [\u2026] The automatic, unconscious nature of Us\/Them-ing attests to its depth.<\/p>\n

Our visceral, emotional views of Thems are shaped by subterranean forces we\u2019d never suspect. And then our cognitions sprint to catch up with our affective selves, generating the minute factoid or plausible fabrication that explains why we hate Them.<\/p>\n

We all have multiple dichotomies in our heads, and ones that seem inevitable and crucial can, under the right circumstances, evaporate in an instant.<\/p>\n

Replace essentialism with individuation<\/em>: In one study, white subjects were asked about their acceptance of racial inequalities. Half were first primed toward essentialist thinking, being told, \u201cScientists pinpoint the genetic underpinnings of race.\u201d Half heard an anti-essentialist prime\u2014\u201cScientists reveal that race has no genetic basis.\u201d The latter made subjects less accepting of inequalities.<\/p>\n

Distrust essentialism. Remember that supposed rationality is often just rationalization, playing catch-up with subterranean forces we never suspect. Focus on shared goals. Practice perspective taking. Individuate, individuate, individuate.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This week, I\u2019d like to talk about two articles on the work of Robert Sapolsky, a primatologist and neurobiologist who published the superb book Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst in 2017. In that book, Sapolsky stylishly and eloquently examined the many factors that have influenced our behaviours from the time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[406,407,408],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1081,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/1081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.blog-thebrain.org\/beginner\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}