This is your Brain on Survival of the Fittest

Our brains are a product of evolution, and they evolved to aid us in the core mission: survive and propagate. Your brain is the product of hundreds of thousands of years of trial-and-error with the goal of sending you the signals that will keep you alive, increase your mating opportunities, and ideally let you be around long enough to get your offspring off to a strong start in a hostile world.

Our brains did not evolve to be determiners and dispensers of truth. For example, the hunter-gathers that make up the vast majority of our ancestors spent a lot of time in the same world that contains saber-toothed cats, cave bears, and Gigantopithecus, among other things that could kill them in seconds. Who lives longer: the individual who thinks every rustle of bushes is a sign of potential danger or the individual who assumes the noise was “nothing”? The genes of the former get passed down because more of them survive, and brains learn to favor such wariness.

Homo sapiens – us – have been around for roughly 300,000 years. 99% of that time we were tribal hunter-gatherers. For about .8% of our history, we lived in an agricultural society, and for the remaining .2%, in an industrialized society. Our brains simply haven’t kept pace with our rate of technological advancement and that creates issues.

We like to think that we make decisions out of reason, but there have been studies that suggest that we go with our “guts” and use the reasoning parts of our brain after the fact to rationalize our actions. Whether we realize it or not, we’re making decisions based on instinct more often than not, and those instincts have been honed for situations we rarely face in the modern world.

There are numerous studies that support the idea that our brains are agnostic to truth and will deceive us when it seems beneficial. Some of the ways our brains support a culture of falsehood are called cognitive biases.

Five cognitive biases most of us share

Confirmation Bias is when we seek out – or more readily recognize – information that supports our existing beliefs. We also downplay information that contradicts what we already believe. This helps us make quick decisions which was imperative for the few hundred thousand years when that rustle in the bushes might have been a saber-tooth cat. In our modern world, however, we often make decisions based on incomplete information or, basically, what we prefer to believe.

An Optimistic Bias causes us to overestimate our chances of success while underestimating the likelihood of failure. It helps us stay motivated but it can be dangerous to allow our optimism to steer us blindly into risk.

Overconfidence Bias (similar to the Dunning-Kruger effect) is a cognitive bias where people with low ability in a specific area overestimate their skills, while those with higher ability may underestimate their own. In social settings – and humans are social animals – this can make us look confident and increase our influence, but it can also lead us down the path of incorrect decisions.

A Narrative Fallacy is when we interpret random events as related and meaningful, building a story that we can tell ourselves that probably isn’t true. Given my background, I think of how many times I heard a preacher say “God told me to” in response to a thought that popped into his head. This behavior helps us fashion a view of our complex environment in such a way that we feel more comfortable, but it just isn’t true and it can result in someone charging forward as if their actions are “meant to be” and their victory is assured.

Finally, there’s Emotionally Driven Cognition which is pretty self-explanatory: it’s when we act based on our feelings instead of an attempt at a reasoned response.

Let’s just take the example of fear. Fear is the most fundamental survival emotion, triggering the “fight-or-flight” response which prepares our bodies to confront or evade a threat. While this does occasionally happen in the modern world, it’s generally not as useful as it once was. An employee who is called to a surprise, closed-door meeting in her bosses’ office is likely to experience fear, but she’s probably neither going to tackle her supervisor nor run screaming from the building.

In a life-or-death situation, there isn’t time for in-depth and thoughtful analysis. Therefore the parts of our brain that handle emotions evolved to be faster-acting than the parts that handle reason. This is why we often act upon our emotional response; not only does it come first, but the emotional response immediately captures our full attention and is more memorable to us than non-emotional events.

Remember, Homo sapiens first appeared around 300,000 years ago. We’ve only been sedentary (as in farming) for about 0.033% of that time. If we look at the start of the industrial revolution, the amount of human history that has been lived in a modern setting drops to 0.00075%. The behavioral systems described above have had a long time to practice keeping us from being eaten by predators, but very little time to adjust to a world where so many things have changed.

Why This Matters

We all make bad decisions. These decisions can be harmful to us, to our families, in our jobs, our communities, or – in the case of how a lot of people voted in the last presidential election – all of the above. From regrettable casual encounters to snapping at a coworker to poorly chosen financial investments, otherwise intelligent humans repeatedly make self-defeating decisions.

How can we fix it?

There’s a reason why the phrase “Know Thyself” appeared over the entrance to the famed Oracle at Delphi. People came from all around to seek answers from the priestesses and their prophetic visions. It seems amusing that the best answer was right there over the doorway.

Bearing in mind the strength of our system of biases, bringing them completely under control is likely impossible. However, careful self-examination can help. When we think about our decisions after the fact and consider what led us to make the choices we made, we can begin to identify the causal factors. Once we’ve identified them, we’ll slowly find ourselves recognizing them as they happen, and that gives us a chance to derail the default biological responses and make better choices.

Here are some tips…

• Mindfulness Meditation: Meditation helps you observe your thoughts and feelings without judgment, increasing your awareness of your mental state.
• Just Breathe! Deep breathing can ground you in the present moment, helping you recognize your emotional responses.
• Write It Down: Writing about your daily experiences and feelings can reveal patterns in your thoughts and behaviors, aiding self-discovery.
• Ask for Feedback: Asking friends or colleagues for their perceptions can provide insights into how your actions affect those around you.
• Identify Your Triggers: Recognizing what situations provoke strong emotional reactions can help you manage your responses more effectively.
• Go Easy on “You”: Being kind to yourself during moments of struggle fosters a non-judgmental awareness of your feelings. Remember, it’s about progress, not perfection.
• Flip the Questions: Instead of asking “Why do I struggle?”, ask “What can I do to improve?” This encourages a growth mindset and actionable solutions.
• Visualize the “You” You Want to Be: Envisioning the best version of yourself can motivate you to align your actions with your values and aspirations.

References:

• Nickerson, R. S. (1998). Confirmation bias: A ubiquitous phenomenon in many guises. Review of General Psychology, 2(2), 175–220.
• Taleb, N. N. (2007). The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable. Random House.
• Weinstein, N. D. (1980). Unrealistic optimism about future life events. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 39(5), 806–820.
• https://www.betterup.com/blog/what-is-self-awareness
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-awareness