Our brains became hard wired for community in co operation. Those ancestors who, when they wander across the savanna, don't really care about the rest of the group or can't work well with them are going to get either tossed out or left behind to die. And so as a result, this becomes one of our most important needs. It was the beginning of the return, of our return as a species to the top of the food chain. Whereas previously we were skulking around the edges and running from everybody, now everybody has to run from us because we're so effective at working together. But that required more brain mass. And so that's when we see our cognitive abilities start
#371: Psychology professor Bill von Hippel explains the evolutionary science behind how we’re hardwired as humans.
We’re wired to be social, to connect, to communicate and cooperate.
We’re wired to want to learn and teach, to build a collective body of knowledge that stretches beyond what any single individual could ever learn in their lifetime.
We’re wired to feel surges of happiness that fade, so that we’re intrinsically motivated to keep repeating behaviors that lead to additional surges of happiness.
Once we understand the evolutionary science behind what makes us happy, Dr. von Hippel explains, we can apply this knowledge to making better decisions for our work, money and lives.
Bill von Hippel is a graduate of Yale University and the University of Michigan. He’s currently a psychology professor at the University of Queensland in Australia. He joins us to share his insights into the history and science of happiness.
For more information, visit the show notes at https://affordanything.com/shownotes
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices