#038 - Robin Hanson - The Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

Modern Wisdom

Chris Williamson

Society & Culture, Health & Fitness

4.6 • 5.9K Ratings

🗓️ 12 November 2018

⏱️ 76 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Robin Hanson is associate professor of economics at George Mason University, author, and research associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. Our decisions may feel like our own choice, but how much do our primitive brains play a part in determining the hidden motives of our everyday actions? Quite a lot according to Professor Hanson. This is a fantastic introduction to evolutionary psychology as we uncover the hidden motives behind gossip, laughter, charity, cheating, social norms, body language and an awful lot more. Resources: Elephant In The Brain The Book: http://amzn.eu/d/eOMBylr Robin's Blog: http://www.overcomingbias.com/ Robin on Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinhanson Check out everything I recommend from books to products and help support the podcast at no extra cost to you by shopping through this link - https://www.amazon.co.uk/shop/modernwisdom - Get in touch. Join the discussion with me and other like minded listeners in the episode comments on the MW YouTube Channel or message me... Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chriswillx Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/chriswillx YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/ModernWisdomPodcast Email: https://www.chriswillx.com/contact Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello friends. We are talking today about hidden motives in everyday life. Robin
0:07.0	Hansen is the author of The Elephant in the Brain. This book is an evolutionary
0:13.5	look at why we do the things we do. What are the reasons that our brain is
0:19.8	encouraging us to perform particular actions and how are we deceived by the
0:25.7	monkey inside of our own mind? If you've never dabbled in the world of
0:28.8	evolutionary psychology before, this is a fantastic introduction to it and I've
0:34.1	found it super interesting. We break down why competition is such an important
0:39.5	driving factor for humans. How collectively established rules and norms came
0:44.5	about in hunter-gatherer societies and why they're important. We also talk about
0:49.3	the dark side of those rules and norms about lying and cheating and how
0:53.2	evolutionarily it's a very effective way to move forward. We look at laughter
0:57.5	from an evolutionary perspective, conversations, body language, gossip and why
1:02.6	there is a justification for gossip actually being useful in hunter-gatherer
1:06.5	societies and in the modern day. How consumer behaviour is influenced by hidden
1:11.4	motives, health care, altruism and being charitable and an awful lot more. What
1:17.4	super interesting and I think very liberating about this discussion is the fact
1:21.6	that it reminds us just how at the mercy of our primitive brains we really are.
1:26.0	Now, an environment has progressed an awful lot over the last 5,000 years, but our
1:31.8	brains haven't changed all that much and it's nice and important to be
1:37.1	reminded of the fact that we're basically just hairless apes that have managed
1:40.9	to harness a little bit of electricity. So let's find the elephant in our brains.
1:56.0	Robin Hansen, welcome to Modern Wisdom. How are you today? I'm very happy to be here.
	...

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