Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

Cover......Page 1
Title......Page 3
Contents......Page 6
Introduction......Page 9
THE APPROACH IN THIS BOOK......Page 13
OUR LIVES AS ANIMALS AND OUR HUMAN VERSATILITY AT BEING AGGRESSIVE......Page 19
1. The Behavior......Page 22
2. One Second Before......Page 27
THREE METAPHORICAL (BUT NOT LITERAL) LAYERS......Page 29
THE LIMBIC SYSTEM......Page 31
The Autonomic Nervous System and the Ancient Core Regions of the Brain......Page 32
The Interface Between the Limbic System and the Cortex......Page 34
A First Pass at the Amygdala and Aggression......Page 38
A Whole Other Domain of Amygdaloid Function to the Center Stage......Page 40
The Amygdala as Part of Networks in the Brain......Page 45
THE FRONTAL CORTEX......Page 50
The Subregions of the Frontal Cortex......Page 51
The Frontal Cortex and Cognition......Page 52
Frontal Metabolism and an Implicit Vulnerability......Page 53
The Frontal Cortex and Social Behavior......Page 55
The Obligatory Declaration of the Falseness of the Dichotomy Between Cognition and Emotion......Page 58
The Frontal Cortex and Its Relationship with the Limbic System......Page 61
Nuclei, Inputs, and Outputs......Page 68
Reward......Page 69
The Anticipation of Reward......Page 73
Pursuit......Page 76
A Final Small Topic: Serotonin......Page 79
CONCLUSIONS......Page 81
So What Does All of This Tell Us?......Page 83
3. Seconds to Minutes Before......Page 85
UNIVERSAL RULES VERSUS KNOBBY KNEES......Page 86
Sensory Triggers of Behavior in Some Other Species......Page 87
Under the Radar: Subliminal and Unconscious Cuing......Page 88
Interoceptive Information......Page 93
Unconscious Language Effects......Page 95
Even Subtler Types of Unconscious Cuing......Page 96
A Wonderfully Complicating Piece of the Story......Page 99
CONCLUSIONS......Page 101
4. Hours to Days Before......Page 102
Correlation and Causality......Page 103
Subtleties of Testosterone Effects......Page 105
Contingent Testosterone Effects......Page 107
A Key Synthesis: The Challenge Hypothesis......Page 108
Basics......Page 111
Neurobiologists Take Notice......Page 112
Prosociality Versus Sociality......Page 116
Contingent Effects of Oxytocin and Vasopressin......Page 117
And the Dark Side of These Neuropeptides......Page 118
Maternal Aggression......Page 120
Bare-Knuckled Female Aggression......Page 121
Perimenstrual Aggression and Irritability......Page 123
The Basic Dichotomy of the Acute and the Chronic Stress Response......Page 127
A Brief Digression: Stress That We Love......Page 129
Sustained Stress and the Neurobiology of Fear......Page 130
Sustained Stress, Executive Function, and Judgment......Page 132
Sustained Stress and Pro- and Antisociality......Page 133
SOME IMPORTANT DEBUNKING: ALCOHOL......Page 136
SUMMARY AND SOME CONCLUSIONS......Page 137
5. Days to Months Before......Page 139
NONLINEAR EXCITATION......Page 140
“AHA” VERSUS ACTUALLY REMEMBERING......Page 142
Rescued from the Trash......Page 144
Axonal Plasticity......Page 146
DIGGING DEEPER IN THE ASH HEAP OF HISTORY......Page 149
SOME OTHER DOMAINS OF NEUROPLASTICITY......Page 152
SOME CONCLUSIONS......Page 154
6. Adolescence; or, Dude, Where’s My Frontal Cortex?......Page 156
THE REALITY OF ADOLESCENCE......Page 158
THE NUTS AND BOLTS OF FRONTAL CORTICAL MATURATION......Page 159
Frontal Cortical Changes in Cognition in Adolescence......Page 161
Frontal Cortical Changes in Emotional Regulation......Page 162
ADOLESCENT RISK TAKING......Page 163
PEERS, SOCIAL ACCEPTANCE, AND SOCIAL EXCLUSION......Page 167
EMPATHY, SYMPATHY, AND MORAL REASONING......Page 170
ADOLESCENT VIOLENCE......Page 173
A FINAL THOUGHT: WHY CAN’T THE FRONTAL CORTEX JUST ACT ITS AGE?......Page 175
7. Back to the Crib, Back to the Womb......Page 177
COMPLEXIFICATION......Page 178
A BRIEF TOUR OF BRAIN DEVELOPMENT......Page 179
STAGES......Page 180
Feeling Someone Else’s Pain......Page 184
Moral Development......Page 186
Level 1: Should I Eat the Cookie? Preconventional Reasoning......Page 187
Level 3: Should I Eat the Cookie? Postconventional Reasoning......Page 188
Marshmallows......Page 190
CONSEQUENCES......Page 193
LET’S START AT THE VERY BEGINNING: THE IMPORTANCE OF MOTHERS......Page 194
ANY KIND OF MOTHER IN A STORM......Page 198
DIFFERENT ROUTES TO THE SAME PLACE......Page 200
THE BIOLOGICAL PROFILE......Page 201
Observing Violence......Page 204
Bullying......Page 205
A KEY QUESTION......Page 207
A SLEDGEHAMMER......Page 208
CULTURE, WITH BOTH A BIG AND A LITTLE......Page 210
Collectivist Versus Individualist Cultures......Page 213
Class Differences......Page 215
The Cat in the Hat in the Womb......Page 218
BOY AND GIRL BRAINS, WHATEVER THAT MIGHT MEAN......Page 220
And Us......Page 224
Expanding the Scope of “Environment”......Page 227
CONCLUSIONS......Page 230
8. Back to When You Were Just a Fertilized Egg......Page 232
Do Genes Know What They Are Doing? The Triumph of the Environment......Page 235
Epigenetics......Page 238
The Modular Construction of Genes: Exons and Introns......Page 239
Transposable Genetic Elements, the Stability of the Genome, and Neurogenesis......Page 240
Chance......Page 241
Some Key Points, Completing This Part of the Chapter......Page 242
Twins, Adoptees, and Adopted Twins......Page 243
The Debates About Twin and Adoption Studies......Page 246
The Fragile Nature of Heritability Estimates......Page 249
The Difference Between a Trait Being Inherited and Having a High Degree of......Page 250
The Reliability of Heritability Measures......Page 251
Gene/Environment Interactions......Page 253
Studying Candidate Genes......Page 258
The Serotonin System......Page 259
The Dopamine System......Page 263
The Neuropeptides Oxytocin and Vasopressin......Page 266
Genes Related to Steroid Hormones......Page 267
Fishing Expeditions, Instead of Looking Where the Light Is......Page 268
CONCLUSIONS......Page 272
9. Centuries to Millennia Before......Page 273
DEFINITIONS, SIMILARITIES, AND DIFFERENCES......Page 277
COLLECTIVIST VERSUS INDIVIDUALIST CULTURES......Page 282
PASTORALISTS AND SOUTHERNERS......Page 291
Violence Turned Inward......Page 297
STRATIFIED VERSUS EGALITARIAN CULTURES......Page 301
POPULATION SIZE, POPULATION DENSITY, POPULATION HETEROGENEITY......Page 306
THE RESIDUES OF CULTURAL CRISES......Page 311
OH, WHY NOT: RELIGION......Page 314
Fractured Bones......Page 316
Prehistorians in the Flesh......Page 320
War and Hunter-Gatherers, Past and Present......Page 326
SOME CONCLUSIONS......Page 338
10. The Evolution of Behavior......Page 340
EVOLUTION 101......Page 341
BEHAVIOR CAN BE SHAPED BY EVOLUTION......Page 344
THE DEMISE OF GROUP SELECTION......Page 345
INDIVIDUAL SELECTION......Page 347
KIN SELECTION......Page 350
Recognizing Relatives?......Page 353
RECIPROCAL ALTRUISM......Page 356
Gigantic Question #1: What Strategy for Cooperating Is Optimal?......Page 358
Gigantic Question #2: How Can Cooperation Ever Start?......Page 365
Pair-Bonding Versus Tournament Species......Page 367
Parent-Offspring Conflict......Page 370
Intersexual Genetic Conflict......Page 371
Genotype Versus Phenotype, and the Most Meaningful Level of Selection......Page 373
The Resurrection of Group Selection......Page 375
Promiscuous Tournament or Monogamous Pair-Bonded?......Page 378
Individual Selection......Page 379
Kin Selection......Page 380
Reciprocal Altruism and Neo–Group Selectionism......Page 384
THE USUAL: WHERE ARE THE GENES?......Page 386
Punctuated Equilibrium......Page 387
A FINAL CHALLENGE LACED WITH POLITICS: IS EVERYTHING ADAPTIVE?......Page 395
11. Us Versus Them......Page 401
THE STRENGTH OF US/THEM......Page 402
US......Page 407
THOSE THEMS......Page 412
Thoughts Versus Feelings About Them......Page 413
Individual Intergroup Interactions Versus Group Intergroup Interactions......Page 417
Multiple Us-es......Page 419
Cold and/or Incompetent......Page 424
Some of My Best Friends......Page 428
The Subterranean Forces of Cuing and Priming......Page 431
Changing the Rank Ordering of Us/Them Categories......Page 432
Hierarchy......Page 433
CONCLUSIONS......Page 436
12. Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance......Page 438
THE NATURE AND VARIETIES OF HIERARCHIES......Page 439
RANK AND HIERARCHY IN HUMANS......Page 443
Internal Standards......Page 444
Detecting Rank......Page 445
Your Brain and Your Own Status......Page 446
Your Body and Your Own Status......Page 447
And Us......Page 452
A Really Odd Thing That We Do Now and Then......Page 455
OH, WHY NOT TAKE THIS ONE ON? POLITICS AND POLITICAL ORIENTATIONS......Page 458
Implicit Factors Underlying Political Orientation......Page 459
And of Course, Some Underlying Biology......Page 465
OBEDIENCE AND CONFORMITY, DISOBEDIENCE AND NONCONFORMITY......Page 469
Roots......Page 470
Neural Bases......Page 471
Asch, Milgram, and Zimbardo......Page 473
Situational Forces and What Lurks in All of Us......Page 476
Some Different Takes......Page 477
Modulators of the Pressures to Conform and Obey......Page 481
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS......Page 487
13. Morality and Doing the Right Thing, Once You’ve Figured Out What That Is......Page 490
THE PRIMACY OF REASONING IN MORAL DECISION MAKING......Page 492
YEAH, SURE IT IS: SOCIAL INTUITIONISM......Page 494
AGAIN WITH BABIES AND ANIMALS......Page 497
MR. SPOCK AND JOSEPH STALIN......Page 501
CONTEXT......Page 502
“But This Circumstance Is Different”......Page 506
Cultural Context......Page 507
Which Dead White Male Was Right?......Page 517
Slow and Fast: The Separate Problems of “Me Versus Us” and “Us Versus Them”......Page 521
Veracity and Mendacity......Page 524
14. Feeling Someone’s Pain, Understanding Someone’s Pain, Alleviating Someone’s Pain......Page 532
“FOR” VERSUS “AS IF” AND OTHER DISTINCTIONS......Page 533
EMOTIONALLY CONTAGIOUS, COMPASSIONATE ANIMALS......Page 535
EMOTIONALLY CONTAGIOUS, COMPASSIONATE CHILDREN......Page 539
The Affective Side of Things......Page 541
The Cognitive Side of Things......Page 544
A MYTHIC LEAP FORWARD......Page 549
Doing Something......Page 555
Doing Something Effectively......Page 558
Are There Ever Any Bloody Altruists?......Page 559
CONCLUSIONS......Page 563
EXAMPLE 1......Page 565
EXAMPLE 2......Page 567
EXAMPLES 3, 4, AND 5......Page 568
FEELING SOMEONE ELSE’S PAIN......Page 573
DISGUST AND PURITY......Page 575
REAL VERSUS METAPHORICAL SENSATION......Page 580
DUCT TAPE......Page 583
THE METAPHORICAL DARK SIDE......Page 585
A GLIMMER......Page 590
DON’T FORGET TO CHECK THEIR TEAR DUCTS......Page 595
THREE PERSPECTIVES......Page 600
DRAWING LINES IN THE SAND......Page 602
Age, Maturity of Groups, Maturity of Individuals......Page 605
The Nature and Magnitude of Brain Damage......Page 606
The Time Course of Decision Making......Page 607
Causation and Compulsion......Page 608
Starting a Behavior Versus Halting It......Page 609
“You Must Be So Smart” Versus “You Must Have Worked So Hard”......Page 610
BUT DOES ANYTHING USEFUL ACTUALLY COME OF THIS?......Page 614
Explaining Lots and Predicting Little......Page 616
HOW THEY WILL VIEW US......Page 622
POSTSCRIPT: NOW FOR THE HARD PART......Page 628
17. War and Peace......Page 629
SOMEWHAT BETTER ANGELS......Page 630
Why Were People So Awful Then?......Page 631
Why Have People Gotten Less Awful?......Page 632
Have People Really Gotten Less Awful?......Page 633
SOME TRADITIONAL ROUTES......Page 635
Religion......Page 636
Contact......Page 641
Burning and Unburning Bridges......Page 644
Cooperation......Page 648
Punishment......Page 649
Reconciliation, and Things That Are Not Synonymous with It......Page 652
Recognizing Our Irrationalities......Page 657
Our Incompetence at and Aversion to Killing......Page 658
Rousseau with a Tail......Page 662
One Person......Page 666
Finally—the Potential for Collective Power......Page 677
Epilogue......Page 686
Two Last Thoughts......Page 689
Acknowledgments......Page 691
Appendix 1: Neuroscience 101......Page 694
ONE NEURON AT A TIME......Page 695
The Defeat of the Synctitium-ites......Page 703
Neurotransmitters......Page 705
Types of Neurotransmitters......Page 707
Neuropharmacology......Page 709
Neuromodulation......Page 710
Sharpening a Signal over Time and Space......Page 711
Two Different Types of Pain......Page 714
Which Guy Is It?......Page 716
One More Round of Scaling Up......Page 720
Appendix 2: The Basics of Endocrinology......Page 724
DNA AS THE BLUEPRINT FOR CONSTRUCTING PROTEINS......Page 729
MUTATIONS AND POLYMORPHISMS......Page 731
DNA AS THE BLUEPRINT FOR CONSTRUCTING PROTEINS......Page 728
MUTATIONS AND POLYMORPHISMS......Page 730
Glossary of Abbreviations......Page 734
Abbreviations in the Notes......Page 736
Notes......Page 737
Illustration Credits......Page 822
Index......Page 824
About the Author......Page 860