Throughout the book, he offers suggestions for how we might subvert social tendencies to conform and aim our behavior towards better social ends. And this is true even if that nefariousness can be positively hijacked, to unleash the best of our angels. Yet Sapolsky provides some hope about how to steer ourselves toward better behavior. Distrust essentialism. Keep in mind that what seems like rationality is often just rationalization, playing catch-up with subterranean forces that we never suspect.
Focus on the larger, shared goals. Practice perspective taking. Individuate, individuate, individuate. Recall the historical lessons of how often the truly malignant Thems keep themselves hidden and make third parties the fall guy. Importantly, Sapolsky makes these points without the classical hubris of a know-it-all neurobiologist talking down to social scientists, which makes his arguments digestible to non-scientists.
At the same time, his book alerts basic scientists that their often mechanistic take on behavior can miss some things—namely, an appropriate understanding of how context shapes the biology of good and bad. And, as an African American who has engineered much of his social life around avoiding racism personal and institutional —the way I live, my politics, the manner in which I communicate, how and where I work—I find it somewhat sobering to learn that racist behavior is a manifestation of a cognitive quicksand that the species continues to fall into, the product of very essential, very real, very tractable biology.
We can treat bigotry and its troubling consequences for what they are: not inevitable, but an arbitrary manifestation of some human characteristics that can be tweaked and tuned by culture and understanding. This message is, in the end, the defining one of Behave : Humans are fragile, capable of much on all ends of the moral spectrum.
Because we now understand more about ourselves than ever before, we are finally in a position to do more to bring out the best in all of us. They can only be inferred indirectly by tracking facial electromyographic activity fEMG , analyzing facial expressions , monitoring arousal using ECG, galvanic skin response GSR , respiration sensors, or self-reported measures, for example.
Actions, cognitions and emotions do not run independently of each other — their proper interaction enables you to perceive the world around you, listen to your inner wishes and respond appropriately to people in your surroundings. However, it is hard to tell what exactly is cause and effect — turning your head action and seeing a familiar face might cause a sudden burst of joy emotion accompanied by an internal realization cognition :.
You actively move your body to achieve cognitive goals and desires, or to get into positive or out of negative emotional states. In other words: While cognition and emotion cannot be observed directly, they certainly drive the execution of observable action. For example, through moving your body to achieve cognitive goals and desires, or to get into positive or out of negative emotional states.
The former is important as you have to couple responses dynamically to stimuli, dependent on intentions and instructions. This allows you to respond to one and the same stimulus in near-unlimited ways. Stability, by contrast, is crucial for maintaining lasting stimulus-response relationships, allowing you to respond consistently to similar stimuli. Even abstract cognitions devoid of direct physical interaction with the environment are body-based. Imagining limb movements triggers the same brain areas involved when actually executing the movements.
When you rehearse material in working memory, the same brain structures used for speech perception and production are activated Wilson, When we talk about behavior, we need to consider how it is acquired.
Learning denotes any acquisition process of new skills and knowledge, preferences, attitudes and evaluations, social rules and normative considerations. There simply is too much evidence for the impact of nature and nurture alike — behavior is considered to be established by the interplay of both factors. Current theoretical frameworks also emphasize the active role of of the agent in acquiring new skills and knowledge.
You are able to develop and change yourself through ongoing skill acquisition throughout life, which can have an impact on a neurological level. Classical conditioning refers to a learning procedure in which stimulus-response pairings are learned — seeing tasty food typically triggers salivation yummy! While food serves as unconditioned stimulus, salivation is the unconditioned response.
If encountering food is consistently accompanied by a previously neutral stimulus such as ringing a bell, a new stimulus-response pairing is learned. The bell becomes a conditioned stimulus and is potent enough to trigger salivation even in absence of the actual food. Described as generalization, this learning process was first studied by Ivan Pavlov and team through experiments with dogs, which is why classical conditioning is also referred to as Pavlovian conditioning.
Today, classical conditioning is one of the most widely understood basic learning processes. Operant conditioning, also called instrumental conditioning, denotes a type of learning in which the strength of a behavior is modified by the consequences reward or punishment , signaled via the preceding stimuli. In both operant and classical conditioning behavior is controlled by environmental stimuli — however, they differ in nature.
In operant conditioning, behavior is controlled by stimuli which are present when a behavior is rewarded or punished. Operant conditioning was coined by B. As a behaviorist, Skinner believed that it was not really necessary to look at internal thoughts and motivations in order to explain behavior. Instead, he suggested to only take external, observable causes of human behavior into consideration. According to Skinner, actions that are followed by desirable outcomes are more likely to be repeated while those followed by undesirable outcomes are less likely to be repeated.
In this regard, operant conditioning relies on a fairly simple premise: Behavior that is followed by reinforcement will be strengthened and is more likely to occur again in the future.
These learning theories give guidance for knowing how we gather information about the world. The way in which we learn is both emotionally and physiologically appraised. This will have consequences for how we act, and carry out behaviors in the future — what we attend to, and how it makes us feel.
Back to top. But which are the factors driving our decisions? Theories such as social learning theory provide a base set of features, but one of the most influential psychological theories about decision-making actually has its origins in an economics journal.
He proposed that there are two systems that determine how we make decisions: System 1 — which is fast but relatively inaccurate, and system 2 — which is slow but more accurate. The theory suggests that our everyday decisions are carried out in one of these two ways, from buying our morning coffee, to making career choices. We will use different approaches depending on the circumstances. Human behavior and decision-making are heavily affected by emotions — even in subtle ways that we may not always recognize.
An example of mood manipulation affecting decision making was completed by researchers who wanted to know how a willingness to help could be affected by positive feelings. To study their question, they placed a Quarter 25ct clearly visible in a phone booth yes, these things actually existed! An actor working on behalf of the psychologist stepped in, asking to take an urgent phone call.
Research on human behavior addresses how and why people behave the way they do. However, as you have seen in the previous sections, human behavior is quite complex as it is influenced, modulated and shaped by multiple factors which are often unrecognized by the individual: Overt or covert, logical or illogical, voluntary or involuntary.
Consciousness is a state of awareness for internal thoughts and feelings as well for proper perception for and uptake of information from your surroundings. A huge amount of our behaviors are guided by unconscious processes. Just like an iceberg, there is a great amount of hidden information, and only some of it is visible with the naked eye. Overt behavior describes any aspects of behavior that can be observed, for example body movements or inter- actions.
Also, physiological processes such as blushing, facial expressions or pupil dilation might be subtle, but can still be obeserved. Covert processes are thoughts cognition , feelings emotion or responses which are not easily seen. In this case, bio- or physiological sensors are used to aid the observation with quantitative measures as they uncover processes that are covert in the first place. Rational behavior might be considered any action, emotion or cognition which is pertaining to, influenced or guided by reason.
In contrast, irrational behavior describes actions that are not objectively logical. Voluntary actions are self-determined and driven by your desires and decisions.
By contrast, involuntary actions describe any action made without intent or carried out despite an attempt to prevent it. Psychologists define attitudes as a learned tendency to evaluate things in a certain way. This can include evaluations of people, issues, objects, or events. Such evaluations are often positive or negative, but they can also be uncertain at times. For example, you might have mixed feelings about a particular person or issue. Researchers also suggest that there are several different components that make up attitudes.
Attitudes can also be explicit and implicit. Explicit attitudes are those that we are consciously aware of and that clearly influence our behaviors and beliefs. Implicit attitudes are unconscious but still have an effect on our beliefs and behaviors.
There are a number of factors that can influence how and why attitudes form. Here is a closer look at how attitudes form. Attitudes form directly as a result of experience. They may emerge due to direct personal experience, or they may result from observation. Social roles and social norms can have a strong influence on attitudes. Social roles relate to how people are expected to behave in a particular role or context.
Social norms involve society's rules for what behaviors are considered appropriate. Attitudes can be learned in a variety of ways. Consider how advertisers use classical conditioning to influence your attitude toward a particular product. In a television commercial, you see young, beautiful people having fun on a tropical beach while enjoying a sports drink. This attractive and appealing imagery causes you to develop a positive association with this particular beverage.
Operant conditioning can also be used to influence how attitudes develop. Imagine a young man who has just started smoking. Whenever he lights up a cigarette, people complain, chastise him, and ask him to leave their vicinity. This negative feedback from those around him eventually causes him to develop an unfavorable opinion of smoking and he decides to give up the habit. Finally, people also learn attitudes by observing people around them. When someone you admire greatly espouses a particular attitude, you are more likely to develop the same beliefs.
For example, children spend a great deal of time observing the attitudes of their parents and usually begin to demonstrate similar outlooks. We tend to assume that people behave according to their attitudes. However, social psychologists have found that attitudes and actual behavior are not always perfectly aligned. After all, plenty of people support a particular candidate or political party and yet fail to go out and vote.
People also are more likely to behave according to their attitudes under certain conditions. In some cases, people may actually alter their attitudes in order to better align them with their behavior.
Cognitive dissonance is a phenomenon in which a person experiences psychological distress due to conflicting thoughts or beliefs. Imagine the following situation: You've always placed a high value on financial security, but you start dating someone who is very financially unstable. In order to reduce the tension caused by the conflicting beliefs and behavior, you have two options. You can end the relationship and seek out a partner who is more financially secure, or you can de-emphasize fiscal stability importance.
In order to minimize the dissonance between your conflicting attitude and behavior, you either have to change the attitude or change your actions. While attitudes can have a powerful effect on behavior, they are not set in stone.
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