If a family from the traditional society of hunter-gatherers were transported to the modern urban world, they would think they had landed in paradise.
Self-driving cars, houses with air conditioning and plush mattresses and supermarkets with fresh fruit, ready meals and chocolate ice cream for dessert.
Professor of ASU President Douglas Kenrick (left) and program manager of the Department of Psychology Dave Lundberg-Kenrick.
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Hunter-collectors would probably be shocked to learn that people living in the midst of all these luxuries are often miserably depressed, anxious and lonely.
Professor President of Arizona State University Douglas Kenrick and co-author David Lundberg-Kenrick recently published a new book through the American Psychological Association, “Solving modern problems with the brain from the Stone Age,” which it focuses on how much of the problems we face in our daily lives stem from the fact that our brains have evolved to cope with problems faced by our ancestors, but which are no longer the main factors in our lives.
Together, the authors wanted to discover why people are so unhappy despite such incredible technological and social advances since the time of our ancestors.
“The book wonders what are the problems that human beings have always had to solve?” And what are the same problems we are facing now? ”Kenrick said.
“They should have survived, as if they were eating and prevented from falling from the trees. They had to protect themselves from the bad guys. They needed to make friends - human beings don’t do well on their own. They had to gain respect and gain friends. And then a special problem for human beings that other mammals don’t face is that they have to stick to those mates and take care of extremely helpless offspring. “
In the book, the authors use research from contemporary evolutionary psychology to suggest some ways to achieve these fundamental human goals in more efficient and fulfilling ways and to avoid what they call “robo-parasites” - technological advances that rely on our earlier adaptive motivations. . .
The two authors approach the connection between psychology and human behavior in different ways. Lundberg-Kenrick has experience in film production and leads the Psich For Life production team with a focus on using new technologies to help people solve everyday problems. Lundberg-Kenrick is too ASU podcast co-host “zombified. “
Senior Kenrick’s research over the past four decades has been on evolutionary social psychology, or the study of human behavior through the lens of evolutionary psychology. Some of their work modified Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, which focused on meeting biological and social needs on the way to the ultimate goal of “self-actualization.”
In 2010, Kenrick published a new model of what motivates people, together with two former ASU students, Vladas Griskevicius and Mark Schaller, as well as Steven Neuberg, the current president and professor of psychology at the Foundation. This research team suggested that caring for a relative, or parenthood, is the ultimate goal of humanity, not just a selfish need for self-actualization.
In this new model, they use the renewed pyramid of human needs as a framework for comparing modern humans with our ancestors in terms of addressing seven basic goals:
- Surviving.
- We protect ourselves from external threats.
- Socializing.
- Achieving status.
- Finding a partner.
- Keep those guys.
- Caring for our families.
““We wondered how we could use the lens of the seven main goals of our ancestors to help solve problems in the modern world,” Lundberg-Kenrik said.
“Ironically, the same powerful, developed motivations that helped our ancestors achieve those goals are often miscalibrated to the present world. What’s worse, these powerful motivational systems often open us up to be parasitized by modern technology.
Kenrik and Lundberg-Kenrik examined evidence of how people in small societies solved similar problems of survival and family relationships. They then asked how their problems differed from the problems we face today, and finally, they reviewed the evidence to suggest several solutions to these recurring problems.
Naturalistic delusion
As evolutionary psychology has entered the mainstream of dialogue, people sometimes make the mistake of thinking that everything is naturally a good thing, as in natural food and walking in the woods.
“Naturalistic delusion is the idea that what is natural is equally good. Our ancestors evolved to have selfish genes. “But that doesn’t mean the real thing is to just go out and do everything we can to get as much as possible for ourselves,” Kenrick said.
Instead, research in positive psychology suggests that a more successful life-fulfillment strategy is simply to “be kind to others.”
In this book, Kenrik and Lundberg-Kenrik aim to show people how to fulfill their needs by helping those around them to succeed as well.
“If you think about how you can help other people fulfill those seven basic motives, it can help your business, it can improve your relationships, and it can help you improve your life,” Lundberg-Kenrick said.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v= CoOCmd6iOaEA video on solving modern problems with the Stone Age brain