week 10 - culture and industrial societies

Question 1

how has our environment become alien to us?

Answer 1

we are not in the world that we first evolved in
-dont have the capacity to produce our own food, medicine, shoes, etc.
- alien relative to our EEA

Question 2

EEA

Answer 2

environment of evolutionary adaptedness

Question 3

culture in the science way

Answer 3

transmission of information by extra cellular means
-culture can free us from biology
- ex. passing on information can prevent people from dying from natural outcomes of biology

Question 4

instincts

Answer 4

behaviors that dont require any environmental input to develop
-culture reduces the use of our instincts
-because of culture, the most adaptive choice isnt the most important to the eea

Question 5

7 ways that we are not adapted to our environment

Answer 5

1. food distribution and production can get us anything we want
2. birth control reduces cuckoldry risk
3. day care reduces need for parental care
4. teenagers have to fight the urge to have kids
5. firearms reduce the need for strength
6. armies can now fight our battles
7. money reduces our reliance on others

Question 6

genetically coded hypothesis

Answer 6

causal relationship between things that hurt us
“if i feel sick, it must be something i ate”

Question 7

sauce bernaise phenomenon

Answer 7

if you get sick once because of something, you will likely associate illness with that food for a long time

Question 8

why can we condition some rats into doing certain things?

Answer 8

if it has evolutionary meaning, then it can be easily conditioned
- if we have no adaptive instinct toward it, then we cannot do it

Question 9

fundamental reproductive equation

Answer 9

sex = pregnancy = babies = maternal child care = loss of economic power = loss of female political power

Question 10

explain rubber example as to why the fundamental reproductive equation is flawed now

Question 11

explain the rat experiment that showed that some things can be learned easily

Question 12

explain the rat experiment and why some things cant be taught easily

Question 13

what is the paradox of happiness?

Answer 13

being richer somehow does not make us happier
-happiness evens out after really good financial things happen

Question 14

why do our genes only care about improvement rather than absolute levels of achievement?

Answer 14

evolution is a relative game, and the alleles that become the highest frequency in the population are alleles that produce more offspring

Question 15

example of how genes care about improvement

Answer 15

alleles that code for longer necks in giraffes do better than the ones that dont

Question 16

how do emotions affect us?

Answer 16

emotions alter our behavior in ways beneficial to our genes
-going to motivate our behavior to act in a certain way

Question 17

happiness

Answer 17

brain state created by our genes that is going to nudge our behavior and induce you to change what we are doing

Question 18

what happens when someone does something nice for you?

Answer 18

reward centers fire and dopamine release intensifies

Question 19

what happens when people are selfish?

Answer 19

reward centers de - activated, dopamine stops and brain experience resembles pain

Question 20

why dont emotions last as long as we think they will?

Answer 20

• we adjust quickly to good fortune
• ex. when people win the lottery, their happiness goes down quicker than we would think

Question 21

what happens when catastrophe strikes?

Answer 21

we bottom out after something bad happens, and then it comes back (ex. man with life altering disability)

Question 22

2 pieces of advice

Answer 22

1. take your goals less seriously
   - achieving your dreams wont make you happy forever
2. take more chances
   - pain and humiliation dont hurt for as long as we imagine they will

Question 23

conclusion of pain ending on a good note

Answer 23

people were more likely to come back to a post colonoscopy evaluation if the procedure ended on a positive note
- we prefer things that end on a positive note

Question 24

what does happiness occur in?

Answer 24

in response to environment, not absolute levels of achievement
-our emotions are way less permanent than they feel