Individualism is a modern luxury. It seems to me that for large swathes of our evolutionary history, being too selfish could you get killed directly, or indirectly through excommunication from the tribe. I'm not sure what the implication is to the present. Perhaps we have latent psychophysiological potential for decreased selfishness due to selective pressures. I don't think we understand the degree to which the apparent characteristics of human nature are actively modulated by environment.
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tribalism got more people killed than any other thing in human history. People falsely believe that they will get hit in a battle due to the psychology of the crowd. Same applies for demonstrations in the streets, politics, football matches anything really. More people get in trouble because the mind stops being of an individual. it is rendered too basic towards a very basic goal. This is why groups are also so brutal.
An individual would be more in danger from other groups, sure. But a group cannot offer more safety.
Also, being in a group is also a selfish act towards self-preservation. You just admit you have to do some shit in order to belong. business as usual.
we have a fairly good idea. Humans are not that complicated. they are much like any other animal. We just like to give too much credit to ourselves.
Not scientifically. Humans act within an immensely complex multi-variate system. We aren't remotely close to thoroughly decorrelating the variables in observational studies (it may never be possible) nor do we have accurate prediction models for anything other than extremely narrow contexts.
And of course humans are animals, but we possess cognitive abilities very different to other animals. There's also an immense amount of animal behaviour that we simply do not understand.
yeap. I said the exact same things in previous posts.
That's why I was surprised that you may have settled in on a fixed description of human nature.
Never..i am always on the lookout.
Great! I certainly appreciate a keen set of eyes with a different perspective to my own.