The survival of the friendliest is a wonderful new book by Brian Hare and Vanessa Woods. When I started to get interested in Evolutionary Psychology 30 years ago, there was one thing I found flawed about it: the picture of human nature as fundamentally selfish. I have never thought that picture was totally wrong, but I knew that one-day evolutionary psychologists would come up with better explanations for our altruistic side. As the authors of the book show, this time has come.
It’s also a book our time needs. Paradoxically 30 years ago when scientists painted a darker picture of humanity, the Berlin Wall fell and people were much nicer to each other than they are now, i.e. now that science is painting a rosier picture of humankind. This continues the trend of rational optimists, like Matt Riddley and Steven Pinker, who see humankind on a trajectory to an ever more peaceful and egalitarian future. However, looking around in the world, or just on their Facebook or Twitter feeds, make many people wonder if these scientists are out of touch with reality.
The good news is, that Homo Sapiens is fairly peaceful as compared to our chimpanzee cousins and evolutionary ancestors. For the past 20.000 years, we have been on a trajectory to self-domestication and lower in-group aggressiveness, which shows in diverse anatomical features such as higher digit ratio (less testosterone) and increased juvenile features.. The bad news is our tribalism and out-group hostility that can currently be seen pretty much everywhere, online even more than in the real world where it is more hidden.
I do believe in the good of most people, but an inevitable trajectory towards a better and more peaceful future seems an illusion to me. So, what’s the story? Until 10.000 years ago human hunter-gatherers managed to live in egalitarian societies. Then the advent of farming and herding upset this egalitarian balance. Farmers and herders became more hierarchically organized, which benefited both economic productivity and individual reproduction. Farmers and herders also became more in-group social, i.e. they became even friendlier and more generous to in-group and less altruistic towards outgroup members.
Hare and Woods have a highly interesting infographic in their book, illustrating the different extreme social forces:
Group hierarchy is opposed to egalitarianism and anti-conformity is opposed to conformity. Where do these forces come from? Most people are somewhat moderate, but when their innate instincts are challenged (e.g. by perceived threats), they tend to gravitate towards an extreme depending on their evolved temperament which is derived from our ancestral mode of subsistence.
Farmers - authoritarian: are in the conformity authoritarian group, this is how early farming evolved, by a hierarchical organization, with people assuming subordinate or superior positions, something unthinkable in hunter-gatherer societies. It their extreme form farmer types wish for an authoritarian leader who protects their values, conformity, law & order. Farmer´types are also the most patriotic people. Outgroup people (e.g. different religion, ethnicity, etc.) are often perceived as a threat
Herders - oligarchy: pastoralist people all over the world share similar personality traits: they are extremely generous towards their in-group but can be outright cruel to out-group members and completely void of empathy for them. Herder types often see out-group people as inferior and their own group as superior. In their extreme form, these people are Trump supporters, but instead of flying the Star-Spangled Banner they would fly Nazi flags, as illustrated in this tweet here:
Hunter-gatherers: really belong together, but there is a difference between them. Hunter types are the provisioning, more male personality profile, whereas gatherers are the prosocial-caregiving profile. While both of them are highly egalitarian, gatherers are more actively so, i.e. promoting egalitarianism (extreme form: communism), whereas hunters would be more defensive of their rights and fighting conformism (extreme form: anarchists). Even so, historically most communists theoreticians and politicians were hunter types (Marx, Lenin, Stalin). Ernesto "Che" Guevara was a famous gatherer type communist.
So here is the infographic updated with “political temperament” types from our evolutionary past. Of course, it’s only a very generalized model, but it’s sole purpose is to explain where the current tribalistic tendencies come from:
Which of the four types are the friendliest? Farmer types are typically the friendliest, as their in-group usually extends to the level of the state (patriots), hunter-gatherer types are typically the most altruistic, as they also care about non-in-group members and herder types are the most generous. When all of them are more moderate the world can be a beautiful place, like the world in the early 90s when the Berlin Wall had come down and people were looking forward to a cooperative future with less defined political and social borders. 40 years later, unfortunately not much seems to have left of that early 90s spirit.
My favourite song in 1990 reflected the general atmosphere of hope and cooperation. Here it is:
Wind of Change
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
An August summer night
Soldiers passing by
Listening to the wind of change
The world is closing in
Did you ever think
That we could be so close, like brothers
The future's in the air
I can feel it everywhere
Blowing with the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change
Walking down the street
Distant memories
Are buried in the past forever
I follow the Moskva
Down to Gorky Park
Listening to the wind of change
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams)
With you and me
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night (the glory night)
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change (the wind of change)
The wind of change
Blows straight into the face of time
Like a stormwind that will ring the freedom bell
For peace of mind
Let your balalaika sing
What my guitar wants to say
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow share their dreams (share their dreams)
With you and me (with you and me)
Take me to the magic of the moment
On a glory night
Where the children of tomorrow dream away (dream away)
In the wind of change (in the wind of change)
Source: LyricFind
Songwriters: Klaus Meine
Wind Of Change lyrics © BMG Rights Management
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