7 weird things our brains are wired to do

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

The behavior that once helped our ancestors to survive is getting in the way of modern man.

Over the past 12 thousand years, humanity has come a long way. At first, from a hunter-gatherer, man turned into a sedentary farmer, then he built cities, mastered writing, then agriculture gave way to an industrial society.

The cultural baggage of knowledge is accumulating more and more rapidly, but the anatomy and physiology remain the same as they were in the very first Homo sapiens. We live in a world where there is no need to hide from predators and look for food for ourselves every day. Most of us have a roof over our heads and a shop nearby. But our brain is the same as it was 50 or 70 thousand years ago.

What did we inherit from our ancestors? Let's try to find out what theories are accepted in the scientific community and how they explain our strange behavior today.

What is explained by the peculiarities of our brain

1. Overeating

Believe it or not, obesity is now easier to die than malnutrition. Too much food is a relatively new phenomenon.

Since the human brain developed in conditions of lack of food, our ancestors constantly had to look for different sources of it: fruit trees, berries, roots - anything high in carbohydrates, which are the main source of energy. 50 thousand years ago, if our ancestor found a full meadow of berries or a fruit tree, the most correct thing would be to eat as much as possible, without leaving for later. The hunter-gatherers had no surplus.

The world has changed since then. The brain is not. That is why we sometimes eat as much as is not worth it.

The brain still cannot believe that its owner has enough food for tomorrow and next week.

2. Desire to look into the refrigerator

Some people have a habit of going into the refrigerator, looking at the food, and then closing it again. It would seem that this is illogical. In fact, it is even very logical.

Let's go back to the ancient man who was always ready to eat all the berries in the clearing or all the fruits from the tree. He did not have a constant source of food, and it certainly did not lie idle.

Our Paleolithic brain simply cannot believe that we have food until we see it. Even if we know she's there. That is why we sometimes need to check if food is in place by looking in the refrigerator. The brain can make sure everything is in order and calm down. Until next time.

3. Dislike of healthy food

Probably, everyone can remember how in childhood he did not like onions, dill or herbs, but someone still hates them and considers them tasteless. It can be considered whims, but it is unlikely that this hostility came from nowhere.

In the days of hunter-gatherers, before cultivation, plants could cause indigestion and poisoning. Tongue receptors were formed in such a way that a person could recognize healthy and unhealthy foods. Healthy food rich in carbohydrates tasted sweet, while harmful and dangerous food tasted bitter.

Therefore, our love for sugary and high-carbohydrate foods makes perfect sense. After all, 100 thousand years ago, no one could have suspected that one day there would be an abundance of easily digestible foods, and the consumption of useful and necessary carbohydrates would begin to lead to obesity or diabetes.

4. Desire to gossip

Gossip is considered something mean, mean and unworthy. However, anthropologists agree that it is these conversations that help people in a team stick together.

Man is a social being, he cannot live fully alone for a long time. Even before the creation of the first large settlements, people lived in groups of 100-230, and most often about 150 people. This number is not accidental. It indicates the number of permanent social connections that one person can maintain, and is called the Dunbar number. It is through gossip that these social connections are maintained. People in a team are not discussing some abstract things, but socially significant ones.

It was vitally important for an ancient man in a small group to know who to turn to for help, who did not need to be trusted, and who was definitely worth fearing.

At the same time, it is unprofitable for those who are gossiped to be exhibited in a black light. After all, if they talk badly about you, then after a while they will stop helping you.

5. Ability to see faces and figures where they are not

We often find faces in inanimate objects: in clouds, chaotic drawings, among pebbles on the beach, even on the screen of an ultrasound machine. The ability to see faces, figures of people and animals is called pareidolia (from the ancient Greek para - "near", "about", "deviation from something" and eidolon - "image") and, apparently, has an evolutionary basis.

Once upon a time, when there was still no science, man still tried to explain the phenomena of nature. Since the brain was predisposed to understand people and their motives, our ancestors began to personify natural phenomena: thunderstorms, rain, illness, or even death. Hence the phenomenon of apophenia grew (from the ancient Greek apophene - "to make a judgment", "to make explicit") - the ability to see connections where there are none.

This mechanism is one of the systematic errors of thinking that interfere with thinking rationally, but allow you to make a decision quickly. He helped our ancestors survive thousands, if not millions of years ago: thanks to her, a person could recognize the approach of a friend or foe. Perhaps this is why we understand other people's facial expressions so well. However, now this ability can lead to the fact that people see angels, aliens or ghosts.

6. Involuntary attention at the sight of moving objects

Another evolutionary legacy of those times, when man escaped from predators in the African savannah or a little later pursued prey with a spear. A quick reaction could save lives in both cases. In the first, a person could hide from a dangerous beast in advance, and in the second, he could catch himself a delicious dinner and not die of hunger.

If our ancestors studied the yellow-black spot for a long time and in detail in order to recognize whether it is a butterfly or a tiger in the bushes, it could cost them their lives.

It was much easier and less energy-consuming to decide that it was a tiger and run away before he jumped out of the bushes.

According to the hunter-farmer theory, put forward by writer and psychotherapist Thomas Hartman, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is explained precisely by our nomadic and hunting past, when it was necessary to respond quickly to external stimuli. Later, when man moved from the life of a hunter-gatherer to the settled life of a farmer, it took more attention. It was this need to focus on movement in an age of information overload that could lead to the development of clip thinking and the inability to concentrate for a long time.

7. Tendency to anxiety

It was easier in the old days. The stress was short-lived. Escaped from the predator - well done. He returned from hunting - well done. Found a fruit tree and fed the children - well done. When we are nervous, so-called stress hormones - cortisol and adrenaline - are released into the bloodstream. The sympathetic nervous system is activated, which is responsible for the excitement of cardiac activity. Pupils dilate to see better, tension, energy and attention increase - all in order to cope with the situation.

In the modern world, things have become much more complicated. We have loans, mortgages, sessions, renovations, relocations, deadlines, diplomas, long-term commitments, work projects. The stress responses that were supposed to help the person to mobilize no longer work.

We live in a constant state of stress. For some, this leads to the formation of neuroses, depression and other mental disorders. And while some are trying to get rid of anxiety in order to live a calm life, others experience an adrenaline addiction. Without stress and strong emotions, they feel that their life is becoming gray and bland. Some take up alcohol and drugs, others become workaholics, and still others seek refuge in extreme sports.

Why even know about it

We don't know a lot about the world and about ourselves. At the same time, our brain is always trying to find logical explanations and build a consistent picture of the world. Therefore, many people are always ready to accept the data that correspond to their views, and throw out the rest as unnecessary, because the logical picture of the world is destroyed by inconvenient facts.

But the more we know about ourselves, the fewer mistakes we can make.

Alexander Panchin Biologist, popularizer of science.

I think knowledge protects against a wide variety of forms of cheating that is based on the use of cognitive biases. From the practice of alternative medicine. That is, it can help save health and money.

What to read on the topic

• "", Pascal Boyer.
• "", Asya Kazantseva.
• "", Alexander Panchin.
• "", Alexander Panchin.
• "Light the fire. How Cooking Made Us Human,”Richard Wrangham.
• "", Yuval Noah Harari.