let’s meet this two individuals that
call Don and John Don is this type of
guy that you might call patriarchal but
we are called well John is very much
egalitarian he cares much less about
hierarchies
Don is so patriarchal that you might
define him easily as sexist while John
is matriarchal feminist type of
orientation Don is violent he
appreciates weapons he is surrounded
with like-minded individuals while John
on the other hand is utterly utterly
nonviolent Don is xenophobic xenophobic
so xenophobic that he’s prone to
genocide while John is accepting our
differences very much less xenophobic
Don is this type of guy that thinks that
conceptuality should be kept under
strict control and especially female
sexuality should be controlled while on
the other hand John is for free
sexuality everybody can love whoever he
wants or she and the promiscuity is
perfectly okay female or male doesn’t
matter this is the type of idea that
John has about that issue and you might
say this is perfectly clear these are
two archetypes of political orientation
in today’s today’s modern society
Don is conservative while John is
liberal and this is clear well think
twice because Don is a chimpanzee and
John is a bonobo these two types of
primates are the closest genetic
relatives to our species there’s only 2%
of genetic difference between humans and
chimps and humans and bonobos this also
means that we must share a lot of common
genetic programs coming out from our
common evolutionary history now wait a
minute we are talking about ideologies
we are talking about political
orientations isn’t it supposed to be
connected with philosophy
ethical principles isn’t it supposed to
be connected with this bulge that has
grown here in last hundreds and
thousands of years is called the frontal
cortex something’s something that has
arrived to define our species as
something remarkably different from the
rest of living beings on this planet
isn’t it supposed to be connected with
our higher cognitive functions well
according to the research not so much
because it’s connected with genes
it’s connected with biology is connected
with nor anatomy is connected with
instincts let’s explore some of this
data up to 40% of your political
orientation is due to your genes 40% of
heritability of political orientation
has been found by the research you might
know this guy
his name is Colin Firth Academy
award-winning actor UK known to be
liberal in one of the BBC radio shows he
launched this proposal this provocation
he said I will never be able to
understand why I never understand
conservatives and they will never
understand me we it seems like we have
different brains completely different
brains is there somebody who can check
this out and actually a group of
neuroscientists from University College
of London accepted this idea and this
challenge and they’ve scanned the brain
the brains of conservatives and liberals
and what they have found is quite from
you might imagine that at the beginning
nobody expected this research to yield
any significant result however what they
have found is quite remarkable the more
active and the bigger is your amygdala
the more likely you are to be
conservative this has to do this
amygdala has to do with threat
distraction with fight versus fly
behavior with violence and protection
from violence
especially since it’s very much
connected with testosterone it has to do
with hierarchical behaviors and violence
stemming out of hierarchies and another
thing important thing amygdala lights up
when you see people coming from far away
with different racial features amygdala
lights up in order to signal threat on
the other hand conservatives have bigger
and more active anterior cingulate
cortex ACC this ACC has to do with
conflict management with interrupting
learned patterns of behavior in
accordance with expectations of rewards
and punishments coming from social
social environment okay it’s true you
can say that these anatomic differences
are causing ideological differences it
might be vice-versa through
neuroplasticity it might be that
something else is causing both of these
phenomena however the findings of this
research are quite quite suggestive now
we mentioned genes we mentioned
neuroanatomy let’s explore instincts the
instinct of disgust the more you are
prone to disgust the more you’re likely
to be conservative
now let’s split discussed in three sub
parts there is so-called pathogen
related disgust sexual behavior related
disgust and moral disgust and you will
understand that there is a quite clear
meaning evolutionary meaning of these
instinctive programs pathogen related
disgust is our behavioral immune system
it’s aimed to protect us from getting in
contact with potential sources of
harmful microbes microbes that might not
be known to my immune system or to
immune systems inside my community well
this type of pathogens are growth or can
be brought by people coming from far
away sexual related disgust it doesn’t
have to do only with
transmissible infections it has to do
with all these types of sexual behavior
that is not strictly aimed at
procreation and at the end the moral
type of disgust which is clearly clearly
connected with conservative type of
thinking so it has its meaning its
purpose well it’s also true that in
today’s society most of these purposes
are easily achieved by a simple
antibiotic or by a condom but however
let’s explore a bit more about this
evolutionary purpose conservatives what
is the advantage of being conservative
or live or to live in a in a in a
community which is predominantly
conservative this advantage could be
called as genetic advantage this type of
communities are based on fierce
competition and by using that
competition the genetic advantage is
that are selected those genetic
materials that can deal easily with
environments poor of resources lacking
of resources being based on competition
means that this type of community needs
a violence reduction reduction program
something that might control the
violence otherwise it was spiral out of
control and the type of mechanisms in
this case is the strict respect of
hierarchy and the monogamous mating
choice there are clear threats connected
with this kind of predominantly
conservative type of community these
threats are due to stress the the
competition leads to violence leads to
stress exposure leads to cortisol
exposure which is the hormone of stress
and all this has clear adverse adverse
mental health and health consequences
and also deaths due to agonistic
encounters among individuals members of
this community liberals on the other
hand might have this what we were
defined as cultural advantage getting in
contact between different
communities means cultural exchanges
means accumulating knowledge cultural
heritages in order to cope to be
prepared to cope better with different
types of environment this requires a
relative abundance because it’s bait is
based on cooperation inside the
community and between different
communities is based on cooperation
nevertheless it requires also a violence
reduction mechanism in this case this is
completely different
it’s almost as much as possible free
access to sexuality and democratic
access to sexuality which involves
promiscuity especially female
promiscuity and there are threats
there are also threats in this case and
the threats are connected with invasions
and are connected with infections and
environmental there are cities such as
famille for instance so we are talking
about two completely different
behavioral programs with genetic basis
that survive throughout yields of our
evolutionary history and arrive up to
our modern times because they have had
important advantages and purposes both
of them this advantage and purpose
should be connected with fitting with
the right environment and we should be
able if this hypothesis is true we
should be able to recognize something
like that on a map of the world on this
map you will see one important feature
the darker is the country on this map
the more economically unequal it is the
lighter it is the more economically
egalitarian it is this this simple
important economic parameter has to do
or is expected to be connected with
importance of hierarchies the more
unequal the more important the hierarchy
and it’s also something that under this
hypothesis would bring a more
conservative type of orientation inside
the given community let’s check if this
is true
the most unequal country economically
unequal country in the world is South
Africa South Africa witches which also
has highest level of violence highest
level of violent crime very high levels
of rape and still burning racial
conflicts all this is supposedly brings
to a very conservative type of
predominant orientation inside a
community there’s there are patriarchal
countries of South America and there is
one interesting example United States
which united states are the only rich
country that is also with with high
levels of the on equality most of the
countries are much more egalitarian rich
countries and this brings United States
to be much more conservative than
similar countries such as Canada such as
Australia such as New Zealand such as
rich countries of European Union and
above every other is are the
Scandinavian countries as the most
egalitarian countries another important
analogy all these light-colored
countries are the countries where the
rights of sexual choice is guaranteed
for men and women where the egalitarian
type of orientation brings sexual
freedom to men and women at the same at
the same level okay
so we think about two types of programs
genetically genetically predetermined
that are making us better fitting inside
two different types of environment so
next time when you will be in front of
the polling station in front of a ballot
box think do you live in a bonobo like
or in a chimp like society and after all are you a chimp or a burnable
call Don and John Don is this type of
guy that you might call patriarchal but
we are called well John is very much
egalitarian he cares much less about
hierarchies
Don is so patriarchal that you might
define him easily as sexist while John
is matriarchal feminist type of
orientation Don is violent he
appreciates weapons he is surrounded
with like-minded individuals while John
on the other hand is utterly utterly
nonviolent Don is xenophobic xenophobic
so xenophobic that he’s prone to
genocide while John is accepting our
differences very much less xenophobic
Don is this type of guy that thinks that
conceptuality should be kept under
strict control and especially female
sexuality should be controlled while on
the other hand John is for free
sexuality everybody can love whoever he
wants or she and the promiscuity is
perfectly okay female or male doesn’t
matter this is the type of idea that
John has about that issue and you might
say this is perfectly clear these are
two archetypes of political orientation
in today’s today’s modern society
Don is conservative while John is
liberal and this is clear well think
twice because Don is a chimpanzee and
John is a bonobo these two types of
primates are the closest genetic
relatives to our species there’s only 2%
of genetic difference between humans and
chimps and humans and bonobos this also
means that we must share a lot of common
genetic programs coming out from our
common evolutionary history now wait a
minute we are talking about ideologies
we are talking about political
orientations isn’t it supposed to be
connected with philosophy
ethical principles isn’t it supposed to
be connected with this bulge that has
grown here in last hundreds and
thousands of years is called the frontal
cortex something’s something that has
arrived to define our species as
something remarkably different from the
rest of living beings on this planet
isn’t it supposed to be connected with
our higher cognitive functions well
according to the research not so much
because it’s connected with genes
it’s connected with biology is connected
with nor anatomy is connected with
instincts let’s explore some of this
data up to 40% of your political
orientation is due to your genes 40% of
heritability of political orientation
has been found by the research you might
know this guy
his name is Colin Firth Academy
award-winning actor UK known to be
liberal in one of the BBC radio shows he
launched this proposal this provocation
he said I will never be able to
understand why I never understand
conservatives and they will never
understand me we it seems like we have
different brains completely different
brains is there somebody who can check
this out and actually a group of
neuroscientists from University College
of London accepted this idea and this
challenge and they’ve scanned the brain
the brains of conservatives and liberals
and what they have found is quite from
you might imagine that at the beginning
nobody expected this research to yield
any significant result however what they
have found is quite remarkable the more
active and the bigger is your amygdala
the more likely you are to be
conservative this has to do this
amygdala has to do with threat
distraction with fight versus fly
behavior with violence and protection
from violence
especially since it’s very much
connected with testosterone it has to do
with hierarchical behaviors and violence
stemming out of hierarchies and another
thing important thing amygdala lights up
when you see people coming from far away
with different racial features amygdala
lights up in order to signal threat on
the other hand conservatives have bigger
and more active anterior cingulate
cortex ACC this ACC has to do with
conflict management with interrupting
learned patterns of behavior in
accordance with expectations of rewards
and punishments coming from social
social environment okay it’s true you
can say that these anatomic differences
are causing ideological differences it
might be vice-versa through
neuroplasticity it might be that
something else is causing both of these
phenomena however the findings of this
research are quite quite suggestive now
we mentioned genes we mentioned
neuroanatomy let’s explore instincts the
instinct of disgust the more you are
prone to disgust the more you’re likely
to be conservative
now let’s split discussed in three sub
parts there is so-called pathogen
related disgust sexual behavior related
disgust and moral disgust and you will
understand that there is a quite clear
meaning evolutionary meaning of these
instinctive programs pathogen related
disgust is our behavioral immune system
it’s aimed to protect us from getting in
contact with potential sources of
harmful microbes microbes that might not
be known to my immune system or to
immune systems inside my community well
this type of pathogens are growth or can
be brought by people coming from far
away sexual related disgust it doesn’t
have to do only with
transmissible infections it has to do
with all these types of sexual behavior
that is not strictly aimed at
procreation and at the end the moral
type of disgust which is clearly clearly
connected with conservative type of
thinking so it has its meaning its
purpose well it’s also true that in
today’s society most of these purposes
are easily achieved by a simple
antibiotic or by a condom but however
let’s explore a bit more about this
evolutionary purpose conservatives what
is the advantage of being conservative
or live or to live in a in a in a
community which is predominantly
conservative this advantage could be
called as genetic advantage this type of
communities are based on fierce
competition and by using that
competition the genetic advantage is
that are selected those genetic
materials that can deal easily with
environments poor of resources lacking
of resources being based on competition
means that this type of community needs
a violence reduction reduction program
something that might control the
violence otherwise it was spiral out of
control and the type of mechanisms in
this case is the strict respect of
hierarchy and the monogamous mating
choice there are clear threats connected
with this kind of predominantly
conservative type of community these
threats are due to stress the the
competition leads to violence leads to
stress exposure leads to cortisol
exposure which is the hormone of stress
and all this has clear adverse adverse
mental health and health consequences
and also deaths due to agonistic
encounters among individuals members of
this community liberals on the other
hand might have this what we were
defined as cultural advantage getting in
contact between different
communities means cultural exchanges
means accumulating knowledge cultural
heritages in order to cope to be
prepared to cope better with different
types of environment this requires a
relative abundance because it’s bait is
based on cooperation inside the
community and between different
communities is based on cooperation
nevertheless it requires also a violence
reduction mechanism in this case this is
completely different
it’s almost as much as possible free
access to sexuality and democratic
access to sexuality which involves
promiscuity especially female
promiscuity and there are threats
there are also threats in this case and
the threats are connected with invasions
and are connected with infections and
environmental there are cities such as
famille for instance so we are talking
about two completely different
behavioral programs with genetic basis
that survive throughout yields of our
evolutionary history and arrive up to
our modern times because they have had
important advantages and purposes both
of them this advantage and purpose
should be connected with fitting with
the right environment and we should be
able if this hypothesis is true we
should be able to recognize something
like that on a map of the world on this
map you will see one important feature
the darker is the country on this map
the more economically unequal it is the
lighter it is the more economically
egalitarian it is this this simple
important economic parameter has to do
or is expected to be connected with
importance of hierarchies the more
unequal the more important the hierarchy
and it’s also something that under this
hypothesis would bring a more
conservative type of orientation inside
the given community let’s check if this
is true
the most unequal country economically
unequal country in the world is South
Africa South Africa witches which also
has highest level of violence highest
level of violent crime very high levels
of rape and still burning racial
conflicts all this is supposedly brings
to a very conservative type of
predominant orientation inside a
community there’s there are patriarchal
countries of South America and there is
one interesting example United States
which united states are the only rich
country that is also with with high
levels of the on equality most of the
countries are much more egalitarian rich
countries and this brings United States
to be much more conservative than
similar countries such as Canada such as
Australia such as New Zealand such as
rich countries of European Union and
above every other is are the
Scandinavian countries as the most
egalitarian countries another important
analogy all these light-colored
countries are the countries where the
rights of sexual choice is guaranteed
for men and women where the egalitarian
type of orientation brings sexual
freedom to men and women at the same at
the same level okay
so we think about two types of programs
genetically genetically predetermined
that are making us better fitting inside
two different types of environment so
next time when you will be in front of
the polling station in front of a ballot
box think do you live in a bonobo like
or in a chimp like society and after all are you a chimp or a burnable
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