October 08, 2019

Robin Hanson on Motives and Human Behavior

43 minutes

Robin Hanson is an Associate Professor of Economics at George Mason University and a Research Associate at the Future of Humanity Institute of Oxford University. His book, The Elephant In The Brain: Hidden Motives In Everyday Life, is what he and Eric discuss in this episode. They explore topics like motives, perspective, the left brain interpreter and so much more as it relates to human behavior. This episode will give you a lot of insight into yourself and others.

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In This Interview, Robin Hanson and I Discuss Motives, Human Behavior, and …

His book, The Elephant In The Brain: Hidden Motives In Everyday Life

How often, we keep our true motives hidden from others

That we also keep our true motives hidden from ourselves

Modularity

The things happening at a conscious as well as an unconscious level

The left brain interpreter being like a press secretary

Needing to tell a story about our motives

Questioning whether or not you know the motives of others

That we have multiple motives for doing things

Understand others and then assume you’re a lot like them

Cynicism and Misanthropy

Perspective

The evolution to protect ourselves from each other

The need to have others like us and think well of us

Obliviation

What if others couldn’t see what you bought – that their opinion of you wouldn’t change because of what you bought – how would that change what you’d buy?

That we pay a lot for variety

Proximate and distal causes

That evolution designed us to be relatively unaware of our motives – so why is it good to know about them?

Robin Hanson Links:

elephantinthebrain.com

overcomingbias.com

Twitter

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By Eric Zimmer

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