How to Rule the World Using Altruism, Patriotism and Other Animal Instincts // JLOA 34

In this programme, we will explain what animal instincts compel us to become patriots, why are we, humans, so altruistic, and how to manipulate us with any disgusting stuff.
The ability to sacrifice oneself is not uniquely human. Animals are capable of it, too. The cause of animal altruism is the key characteristic that unites colonies of ants, bees and mole rats. All members of the colony are relatives, brothers and sisters, children of the same mother. Biologists call this type of altruism "kin altruism".
There is one important condition, under which kin altruism manifests itself most clearly. Experiments with chimpanzees and rats show that altruism within a group increases dramatically when strangers arrive. This rule applies to many group species, including our ancestors. Humans went through a tough selection process, favouring our ability to sacrifice an individual life for the group. According to the research, one in three archaic people died in a fight with neighbours, so only groups of humans with the genes for self-sacrifice could survive throughout the Palaeolithic.
But today, instincts and adaptations that helped us survive in the Palaeolitic have simply become an atavism, or even worse. The link between war and our instinctive altruism turned out to be a very convenient instrument for manipulating humans. Especially if you want to manipulate large groups of people.
Just Like Other Animals (Все как у зверей) tells stories about the origin of people and similarities in human and animal behaviour. Watch our selected videos with English subtitles - • Watch Just Like Other ...
Read more on patriotism and evolution of altruistic and aggressive behaviour:
- F. de Waal, The Bonobo and the Atheist - books.wwnorton.com/books/detai...
- K. Lorenz, On Agression - books.google.pt/books?id=rxSj...
- K. Lorenz, Civilized Man's Eight Deadly Sins - books.google.pt/books?id=MYdR...
- S. Bowles, Did warfare among ancestral hunter-gatherers affect the evolution of human social behaviors?, Science Magazine - www.sciencemag.org/content/324...
- J. K. Choi, S. Bowles, The coevolution of parochial altruism and war, Science - tuvalu.santafe.edu/~bowles/200...
- D.M. Amodio et al. Neurocognitive correlates of liberalism and conservatism, Nature Neuroscience - lcap.psych.ucla.edu/pdfs/amodi...
- D. Jones, Moral psychology: The depths of disgust, Nature - www.nature.com/nature/journal/...
Written and presented by Evgeniya Timonova, directed and edited by Serge Fenenko, filmed by Alexander Koshelev, comics by Akuaku, music by Ioniks.
#patriotism #propaganda #justlikeotheranimals