Evolutionary Biology Applied to Everyday Life
Last night I attended a dinner party where I attempted to share the below theory with the group. Midway through my first sentence, the women in the group burst out in rage and started attacking my character, which was both amusing and ironic, because it validated the exact point I was trying to make. They weren’t able to think critically about my rumination, differentiate their thoughts from their feelings, or to view it from any other lens than their own experiences. I’d like to thank them for inspiring this post.
Why do we do what we do?
This question is one I’ve pondered every day, and over the last few years, I believe I’ve found my answer: A majority of our actions are borne out of self preservation and the desire to protect the image of ourselves that we want to project, or our “aspirational self”. In short, our insecurities drive most decisions.
Where do our insecurities come from?
Historically men and women have played different biological roles, sharing the common goal of procreation. To ensure that their seeds endure, each looks for certain characteristics in a mate. Men typically look for a women with healthy genes, high fertility, and childbearing traits such as thick hair, clear skin, and long nails. Women typically look for a man who can protect and provide. Most men, therefore, have insecurities rooted in their ability to provide, while most women have insecurities rooted in their ability to attract a strong provider and mate, or in their physical appearance.
How do these insecurities manifest today?
Considering that collaboration and competition are core elements of game theory and economic growth, men typically excel in workplace environments that thrive on both of those elements because they’ve historically understood their value. Women, on the other hand, have only recently begun to partake in workplace settings and only embody competition, because it’s the only necessary element to their core biological objective- To find the most powerful and protective male counterpart they can secure to provide for and protect their seed. In recent years as women have engaged in workplace settings, they’ve continued to hold onto competition without understanding that collaboration can be equally effective in securing economic success. ‘Catty’ behavior stems from the biologically embedded desire to compete in social settings, but works against the perpetrator in many workplace settings, which is why we see far fewer women in leadership positions in the workplace.
Ultimately everything we do comes down to one core objective- Procreation and Natural Selection. Of course this cerebration is very generalized, simplified, and high level- Context and experience matter. But objecting to this train of thought simply because it makes you feel smaller and less evolved only validates your insecurities. So for those of you who are fuming as you’re reading this, ask yourself… Why?
When was the last time you made a detrimentally illogical decision that was born from your insecurities?
