Nonfiction and Nonsense

Chapter 17 (War and Peace) is kind of like a giant review of everything that was discussed in the previous 16 chapters. Sapolsky goes over how if, historically, you consider how terrible some of our behaviors of have been, we have evolved into relatively decent beings, as a whole. Consider acts we once considered normal, burning witches and lobotomies, that are no longer viewed as acceptable. The fact we don’t burn men and women who are suspected of witchcraft, whatever that means, is an improvement. We don’t remove parts of the brain of the mentally ill without serious medical and moral consideration, whereas in the past it was done without question to make these individuals more manageable as they were sent to institutions. These are just two examples of many, we have improved in so many ways. And there is still room for further improvement. Just believing that something can get better can start a chain of events that can lead to change.

The Epilogue is very short, and mostly consists of bullet points of all the themes found in the book. But on the last two pages, the author wrote something that left more of an impression on me than the bulk of the book, which is 675 pages in total, not including the appendix.  The fact that I had access to this book, read it, and understood it (to a point), puts me in a better position than most. In his words, it makes me “ideally suited” to try to improve something that is not right in the world, and for this reason I should try to. I’m inspired to try to find something small that I think I can change. And I may not become well known for my efforts to try to make a change, but if I can improve my behavior or the behavior of someone else, then I think I will have made the author proud.

I debated about whether I should include this additional part in my book reviews, but I get such a joy out of it that I decided that I had to. Before I get into it, I just need to say that I am not an editor. I have no formal education in editing, writing, journalism, English, publishing, or any related field. I’m just a person who is fond of reading. Now, when I’m reading a book, if I come across a spelling or grammatical error, I get giddy.  A book has been mass produced and I happened to find something incorrect.

I only found one error in this book, a grammatical one, and I almost missed it. The second paragraph on the page begins with the word “the”, but when you read it, it doesn’t sound correct. I believe the sentence should begin with “this”. I’m not going to hold this against anyone (pun intended?). For a book this long, it’s incredible that I only noticed this one very small mistake.  

I will also be concluding my reviews with final thoughts. If you like science, biology, psychology, and have a very good working knowledge of the subjects, this is a great book for you. Myself, I had a lot of trouble getting through the book because none of these are my areas of expertise. But it was written in such a way that I was entertained even though I was struggling. The author has a great sense of humor and he does warn you that things will be difficult to understand if you are not well versed in the subject. He is very considerate in his inclusion of an appendix, and his footnotes are informative and funny when it’s appropriate. In a few years, I might pick this up again and hopefully I will be able to better understand what he has taken such immense care to write about.

Chapter 15 (Metaphors We Kill By) was a relatively easy chapter for me to both read and understand. I learned that although we encounter metaphors daily, they are relatively new to us as a species evolutionarily speaking. Because of this, we do have trouble some identifying metaphors. I learned that there is an association between cleanliness and organization and feeling good about something, and filth and chaos having an association with being bad. The author made a remark that doing something simple like cleaning your home or doing your laundry can be incredibly relaxing when the rest of your life is a mess, and I very much related to this. I feel very good after completing a chore or cleaning up, and when my home is a mess, I very much feel unhappy and indeed, dirty. I then learned about how even touch can influence how we perceive something. In studies, when subjects were led to interact with something pleasant, an activity they were directed to afterwards was described in a positive manner. When subjects had to interact with something unpleasant, the following activity was later recounted in a not so positive way.

Chapter 16 (Biology, the Criminal Justice System, and (Oh, Why Not?) Free Will) discusses if we have total free will, no free will, something in between the two, the biology behind it, and how neuroscience is being used in the courtroom. There are a lot of topics in this chapter that are debatable, controversial, and philosophical. Does having brain damage impair your ability to make decisions? If so, should this disability excuse you from a crime you committed, or should you be condemned the same as a person with a healthy brain because there are others with your same disability who have never committed a crime? How do we make these types of decisions? We cannot base decisions in criminal cases, or in any type of situation really, on only one factor. We are reminded of all the other chapters read prior to this, our behaviors are a product of our biology, both our pre- and post-natal environments, the society we live in, memories, outside stimuli, whether or not our brain is fully developed, the list goes on and on. This was one of my favorite chapters, and while I’m not sure if I would read this entire book again, I would definitely reread this chapter.

Chapter 13 (Morality and Doing the Right Thing, Once You’ve Figured Out What That Is) looks at what morality is for humans. Morals vary depending on culture, something that is taboo in one culture is a part of everyday life in another, but there are a few morals that are found world over. I took a lot of notes about cross cultural differences that were discussed, particularly the section about how in collectivist cultures it is common to shame a person who has done wrong according to the morals of the community, and in individualist cultures it is more common for the person to feel guilty over a rotten judgment they have made. This has to do with collectivist cultures putting focus on social roles and being part of a group, your poor judgment reflects badly on the whole group, thus, we will now shame you for it. Whereas in individualist cultures, where the individual and their privacy are valued, their poor judgment may not be known to others, so they must face only themselves with the knowledge of the wrong they have done. And when we make a poor judgment, we sometimes try to rationalize our decision through reasoning. Yes, our seemingly wrong or poor decision was made but it is acceptable and this is why. We try to reason with others, and ourselves, when we make a questionable decision.

Chapter 14 (Feeling Someone’s Pain, Understanding Someone’s Pain, Alleviating Someone’s Pain) discusses empathy, sympathy, compassion, how we deal with our own pain, how we deal with others pain, and when and why and in what situations would we help others that are in pain. If you see someone being pinched, and you think of yourself being pinched and you flinch at the thought, this is sensorimotor contagion. Emotional contagion is when you become a part of what is going on around you, such as deciding to join a group of protestors that pass you as you are walking down the street. Mimicry is simply copying another person’s movements as you see them doing the action. I enjoyed reading about mirror neurons and the theories that try to explain why they do what they do (read to learn more about them). The chapter ends with a discussion about altruism, with a small section detailing pathological altruism which I found very interesting.

Chapter 11 (Us Versus Them) discussed Us (in-group) and Them (out-group). We show preference for persons that we view as an Us, this could be someone who is the same age as us, has the same color hair, is a fan of the same team, someone who went to the same college, and endless other categories of sameness. We view someone as a Them when they fall into a different category than the one we are focusing on, and they are perceived as being threatening, shady, and they fill us with rage. The author discussed ways in which we can increase feelings of either affection or disdain that we have towards an Us or a Them, and circumstances in which the normal reactions one would have towards a Them disappear, this being when individuals on opposing sides find a category to which they both belong that takes precedence over the category that separates them.  I really enjoyed the warmth/competence matrix detailed out by the author, along with the feelings associated with the various pairings of high and low as well as the feelings that fall between the squares.

Chapter 12 (Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance) explains ranking systems, first discussing the different types amongst animals. Humans are animals, and there are similarities between the hierarchies we have and the ones that some animals have. But we also have a ranking system that is unique to us (I will let you read to discover what it is). Following this, the author goes into how we determine a persons rank using biological factors. Determining a persons rank can be as simple as looking at their face or checking out their body language. Glucocorticoids are brought up again, and the way in which a high-ranking job can make you sick from the stress of it, but it all depends on how much authority you have, how many people are above or below you in the chain, and how many people you actually work with day to day. The CEO of company may have a very prestigious job, but the people directly below them or a few levels below them are the ones most likely to experience considerable stress. Next, there is a section about leaders and how we choose them. Following this, the author discusses obedience and conformity while mentioning the author of one of my favorite books, The Lucifer Effect by Philip Zimbardo (which I suggest you read if you want to learn more about just how far things can go in the name of conforming). After going through several examples of people doing terrible things in the name of conforming or being obedient, Sapolsky does tell us how it’s possible to reduce the chances of doing something horrible if the only reason you would be doing the act in question is because someone in position of power or great esteem has told you to do it.