WEBVTT 00:12.680 --> 00:16.450 Professor Paul Bloom: On Monday we--I presented an 00:16.446 --> 00:20.076 introduction to evolutionary psychology, the looking at 00:20.077 --> 00:24.247 psychology from an evolutionary perspective, and trying to make 00:24.247 --> 00:28.417 a case and give some examples of how it can help illuminate and 00:28.416 --> 00:32.246 illustrate certain aspects of how the mind works. 00:32.250 --> 00:37.690 One of the advantages of an evolutionary perspective on the 00:37.686 --> 00:43.116 mind is that it forces us to look scientifically at what we 00:43.122 --> 00:46.592 would otherwise take for granted. 00:46.590 --> 00:50.370 There are a lot of aspects of how we are and what we are and 00:50.368 --> 00:52.928 what we do that seem so natural to us. 00:52.930 --> 00:56.810 They come so instinctively and easily it's difficult, 00:56.809 --> 01:00.299 and sort of unnatural, to step back and explore them 01:00.300 --> 01:03.700 scientifically but if we're going to be scientists and look 01:03.701 --> 01:07.041 at the mind from a scientific perspective we have to get a 01:07.043 --> 01:10.503 sort of distance from ourselves and ask questions that other 01:10.502 --> 01:13.202 people would not normally think to ask. 01:13.200 --> 01:19.230 And the clearest case of this arises with the emotions. 01:19.230 --> 01:23.050 And as a starting point there's a lovely quote from the 01:23.053 --> 01:27.023 psychologist and philosopher William James that I want to 01:27.018 --> 01:29.128 begin with. So, he writes: 01:29.129 --> 01:33.009 To the psychologist alone can such questions occur as: 01:33.010 --> 01:35.970 Why do we smile when pleased and not scowl? 01:35.970 --> 01:39.570 Why are we unable to talk to a crowd as we talk to a single 01:39.571 --> 01:42.021 friend? Why does a particular maiden 01:42.023 --> 01:43.853 turn our wits upside down? 01:43.849 --> 01:46.869 The common man--[None of you are the common man.] 01:46.865 --> 01:50.065 The common man can only say, "Of course we smile. 01:50.069 --> 01:52.419 Of course our heart palpitates at the sight of the crowd. 01:52.420 --> 01:54.990 Of course we love the maiden. 01:54.989 --> 01:57.519 And so probably does each animal feel about the particular 01:57.520 --> 02:00.140 things it tends to do in the presence of certain objects. 02:00.140 --> 02:03.460 To the lion it is the lioness which is made to be loved; 02:03.460 --> 02:05.400 to the bear the she-bear. 02:05.400 --> 02:08.060 To the broody hen, the notion would probably seem 02:08.060 --> 02:11.550 monstrous that there should be a creature in the world to whom a 02:11.551 --> 02:14.821 nestful of eggs was not utterly fascinating and precious and 02:14.821 --> 02:18.591 never to be too-much-sat-upon object which it is to her. 02:18.590 --> 02:21.830 Now, there's a few things to note about this passage. 02:21.830 --> 02:23.420 First, it's incredibly sexist. 02:23.419 --> 02:26.679 It assumes not just merely in reflexive use of phrases. 02:26.680 --> 02:30.770 It assumes that--William James assumes he's talking to males, 02:30.772 --> 02:35.072 male humans who sometimes take the perspective of male bears. 02:35.069 --> 02:39.069 And so, it assumes a male audience. 02:39.069 --> 02:41.399 You wouldn't normally--You wouldn't actually ever write 02:41.404 --> 02:43.324 this way. A second point is it's 02:43.320 --> 02:47.380 beautifully written and you're not--;also, not allowed to write 02:47.381 --> 02:49.151 that way anymore either. 02:49.150 --> 02:52.280 It's poetic and lyrical and if--William James 02:52.284 --> 02:54.924 characteristically writes that way. 02:54.919 --> 02:59.039 I think he writes so much better than his brother, 02:59.038 --> 03:01.978 Henry James, an obscure novelist. 03:01.979 --> 03:03.769 [laughter] Finally though, 03:03.772 --> 03:06.712 the point that he makes is a terrific one, 03:06.711 --> 03:09.851 which is yes, all of these things seem 03:09.853 --> 03:14.983 natural to us but the reason why they seem natural is not because 03:14.982 --> 03:19.312 they are in some sense necessary or logical truths. 03:19.310 --> 03:23.830 Rather, they emerge from contingent aspects of our 03:23.833 --> 03:25.683 biological nature. 03:25.680 --> 03:27.540 And so we need to step back. 03:27.539 --> 03:31.249 We actually--We need to step back and ask questions like--and 03:31.254 --> 03:35.344 these are questions we're going to ask--Why does poop smell bad? 03:35.340 --> 03:39.540 Avoid the temptation to say, "Well, poop smells bad because 03:39.537 --> 03:42.997 it's so stinky." The stinkiness of poop is not 03:42.996 --> 03:45.966 an irreducible fact about the universe. 03:45.970 --> 03:49.330 Rather, the stinkiness of poop is a fact about human 03:49.332 --> 03:52.102 psychology. To a dung beetle poop smells 03:52.099 --> 03:54.759 just fine. Why does chocolate taste good? 03:54.759 --> 03:58.549 Well, chocolate--The good tastiness of chocolate isn't 03:58.551 --> 04:01.271 some necessary fact about the world. 04:01.270 --> 04:05.020 It's a fact about our minds that doesn't hold true for many 04:05.024 --> 04:08.554 other creatures. And so, we have to step back 04:08.552 --> 04:12.772 and ask why to us do we find chocolate appealing? 04:12.770 --> 04:14.350 Why do we love our children? 04:14.350 --> 04:16.750 Don't say they're lovable. 04:16.750 --> 04:21.730 Many of them are not [laughter] and, as William James points 04:21.725 --> 04:24.335 out, every animal, most animals, 04:24.339 --> 04:27.459 many animals love their children. 04:27.459 --> 04:29.219 They think their children are precious and wonderful. 04:29.220 --> 04:33.070 Why? Why do we get angry when people 04:33.065 --> 04:35.295 hit us? Suppose somebody walked up to 04:35.304 --> 04:37.294 you and slapped you in the face? 04:37.290 --> 04:39.610 You'd be afraid. You'd be angry. 04:39.610 --> 04:44.880 Would you get sleepy, feel nostalgic, 04:44.884 --> 04:49.724 suddenly desire some cold soup? 04:49.720 --> 04:51.600 [laughter] No. Those are stupid alternatives. 04:51.600 --> 04:55.440 Of course if somebody slapped us you would--we would get angry 04:55.443 --> 04:59.583 or afraid. Why? 04:59.579 --> 05:03.399 Why do we feel good when someone does us a favor? 05:03.400 --> 05:06.560 Why don't we feel angry? 05:06.560 --> 05:09.210 Why don't we feel fearful? 05:09.209 --> 05:11.729 What we're going to do throughout this course is step 05:11.728 --> 05:13.228 back and ask these questions. 05:13.230 --> 05:16.680 We're going to ask questions nobody would have otherwise 05:16.678 --> 05:19.438 thought to ask, where the common man wouldn't 05:19.437 --> 05:20.927 address, and this is, 05:20.932 --> 05:23.222 of course, standard in all sciences. 05:23.220 --> 05:29.330 The first step to insight is to ask questions like why do things 05:29.329 --> 05:31.559 fall down and not up? 05:31.560 --> 05:34.450 And I imagine the first person who articulated the question 05:34.451 --> 05:36.591 aloud probably met with the response saying, 05:36.594 --> 05:37.994 "What a stupid question. 05:37.990 --> 05:39.490 Of course things fall down." 05:39.490 --> 05:42.570 Well, yes, of course things fall down, but why? 05:42.570 --> 05:45.050 Why is our flesh warm? 05:45.050 --> 05:48.460 Why does water turn solid when it gets cold? 05:48.459 --> 05:50.869 These are natural facts about the universe, 05:50.872 --> 05:54.032 but the naturalness needs to be explained and not merely 05:54.030 --> 05:56.460 assumed. In this class we're going to 05:56.463 --> 06:00.143 explore, throughout the course, what seems natural to us and 06:00.138 --> 06:01.818 try to make sense of it. 06:01.819 --> 06:05.969 And to that end we have to ask questions that you wouldn't 06:05.968 --> 06:09.058 normally ask. We've already done this to some 06:09.055 --> 06:12.075 extent with domains such as visual perception, 06:12.079 --> 06:16.549 memory, language and rationality, but now we're going 06:16.545 --> 06:21.175 to move to the case where it's maybe even somewhat more 06:21.183 --> 06:23.333 difficult to do this. 06:23.329 --> 06:26.399 Now, we're going to start dealing with the emotions. 06:26.399 --> 06:29.839 We're going to talk about the emotions, why they exist, 06:29.843 --> 06:32.653 what they're there for, and how they work. 06:32.649 --> 06:36.649 I want to start off with the wrong theory of the emotions. 06:36.649 --> 06:40.089 And the wrong theory of the emotions is beautifully 06:40.089 --> 06:43.739 illustrated in the television and movie series Star 06:43.735 --> 06:47.015 Trek. In this alternative fantasy 06:47.018 --> 06:49.758 world, there are characters, Mr. 06:49.760 --> 06:54.800 Spock in the original Star Trek, Data in one of the 06:54.802 --> 06:58.962 spin-offs, who are described as competent, 06:58.959 --> 07:03.229 capable, in fact in many ways, super competent and super 07:03.230 --> 07:06.700 capable people. But they're described as not 07:06.702 --> 07:09.352 having emotions. Spock is described as not 07:09.348 --> 07:12.558 having emotions because he's half Vulcan, from a planet where 07:12.561 --> 07:13.741 they lack emotions. 07:13.740 --> 07:17.950 Data is an android who is said to lack an emotion chip. 07:17.949 --> 07:20.679 This lack of emotions on this--on a TV series does not 07:20.675 --> 07:23.285 hurt them much. They're able to fully function. 07:23.290 --> 07:26.300 And in fact, in a TV series emotions are 07:26.299 --> 07:28.459 often seen as a detriment. 07:28.460 --> 07:30.530 You do better off without them. 07:30.529 --> 07:33.999 And there are many people in sort of common sense who might 07:34.004 --> 07:37.244 think "Gee, if only I could just use my rationality, 07:37.240 --> 07:41.610 think reasonably and rationally and not let my emotions guide my 07:41.605 --> 07:44.025 behavior I'd be much better off." 07:44.029 --> 07:48.779 It turns out that this is a notion of how to think about the 07:48.782 --> 07:51.362 emotions that is deeply wrong. 07:51.360 --> 07:55.370 And in fact, makes no sense at all. 07:55.370 --> 07:58.470 Using the example of Star Trek, Steven Pinker, 07:58.473 --> 08:01.823 in his book How the Mind Works, nicely illustrates 08:01.816 --> 08:03.066 the problem here. 08:03.069 --> 08:08.669 He writes, "Spock must have been driven by some motives or 08:08.673 --> 08:11.313 goals. Something must have led him to 08:11.306 --> 08:14.746 explore strange new worlds, to seek out new civilizations 08:14.752 --> 08:17.832 and to boldly go where no man had gone before." 08:17.829 --> 08:21.089 Presumably, it was intellectual curiosity that set him to drive 08:21.094 --> 08:22.204 and solve problems. 08:22.199 --> 08:27.979 It was solidarity with his allies that led him to be such a 08:27.980 --> 08:30.970 competent and brave officer. 08:30.970 --> 08:34.260 What would he have done if attacked by a predator or an 08:34.261 --> 08:35.421 invading Klingon? 08:35.419 --> 08:38.099 Did he do a handstand, solve the four-color map 08:38.097 --> 08:40.907 theorem? Presumably, a part of his brain 08:40.908 --> 08:45.438 quickly mobilized his faculties to scope out how to flee and how 08:45.437 --> 08:49.247 to take steps to avoid a vulnerable predicament in the 08:49.247 --> 08:52.287 future. That is, he had fear. 08:52.289 --> 08:56.529 Spock did not walk around naked around the ship. 08:56.530 --> 08:58.200 Presumably, he felt modesty. 08:58.200 --> 09:00.420 He got out of bed. 09:00.419 --> 09:02.719 Presumably, he had some ambitions and drive. 09:02.720 --> 09:04.630 He engaged in conversations. 09:04.629 --> 09:06.879 Presumably, he had some sociable interests. 09:06.879 --> 09:10.329 Without emotions to drive us we would do nothing at all. 09:10.330 --> 09:13.900 And you could illustrate this scientifically. 09:13.899 --> 09:19.079 Creatures like Spock and Data don't exist in the real world 09:19.077 --> 09:23.987 but there are unusual and unfortunate cases where people 09:23.986 --> 09:26.596 lose, to some extent or another, 09:26.597 --> 09:29.457 their emotions. And you could look at these 09:29.460 --> 09:31.860 people and see what happens to them. 09:31.860 --> 09:34.920 The classic case, the most famous case, 09:34.924 --> 09:38.074 is that of a man called Phineas Gage. 09:38.070 --> 09:42.230 Phineas Gage is the classic Intro Psych example – an 09:42.225 --> 09:44.965 extremely poor guy, poor schmuck. 09:44.970 --> 09:47.950 In 1848--He was a construction foreman. 09:47.950 --> 09:54.160 In 1848 he was working at a site with explosives and iron 09:54.163 --> 09:57.293 rods. And due to an explosion, 09:57.287 --> 10:01.687 an iron rod passed through his head like so. 10:01.690 --> 10:03.800 Imagine that rod shooting upwards. 10:03.799 --> 10:08.779 It went under his eye and popped out the top of his head. 10:08.779 --> 10:13.059 It landed about one hundred feet away covered with blood and 10:13.057 --> 10:16.757 brains. The rod itself weighed thirteen 10:16.762 --> 10:21.902 pounds. Amazingly, Gage was not killed. 10:21.899 --> 10:25.229 In fact, he was knocked unconscious only for a short 10:25.230 --> 10:29.080 period and then he got up and his friends surrounded him and 10:29.082 --> 10:30.782 asked, "Are you okay?" 10:30.779 --> 10:33.819 And they--And then they took him to the hospital. 10:33.820 --> 10:37.350 On the way to the hospital, they stopped by a tavern and he 10:37.354 --> 10:40.894 had a little pint of cider to drink, sat down and talked to 10:40.889 --> 10:43.839 people. And then he had an infection, 10:43.839 --> 10:45.489 had to have surgery. 10:45.490 --> 10:49.320 But when it was all said and done he wasn't blind, 10:49.316 --> 10:52.126 he wasn't deaf, didn't lose language, 10:52.127 --> 10:54.857 didn't become aphasic, no paralysis, 10:54.860 --> 10:57.910 no retardation. In some sense, 10:57.912 --> 11:00.942 what happened was much worse. 11:00.940 --> 11:04.510 He lost his character. 11:04.509 --> 11:08.689 Here's a description at the time of what Gage was like. 11:08.690 --> 11:13.350 And this is from Damasio's excellent book Descartes' 11:13.348 --> 11:16.598 Error: He used to be a really 11:16.597 --> 11:18.797 responsible guy, a family man, 11:18.800 --> 11:21.460 very reliable, very trustworthy. 11:21.460 --> 11:25.180 But after the accident he was fitful, irreverent, 11:25.183 --> 11:28.833 indulging at times in the grossest profanity, 11:28.830 --> 11:32.590 manifesting but little deference for his fellows, 11:32.589 --> 11:35.329 impatient of restraint or advice, 11:35.330 --> 11:39.810 a child in his intellectual capacities and manifestations. 11:39.809 --> 11:42.979 He had the animal pleasures of a strong man. 11:42.980 --> 11:47.750 His foul language is so debased that women are advised not to 11:47.754 --> 11:53.864 stay long in his presence. And he couldn't hold a job. 11:53.860 --> 11:56.350 He lost his family, couldn't hold a job. 11:56.350 --> 11:58.370 He ended up in the circus. 11:58.370 --> 12:01.820 He was in the circus going around the country with his big 12:01.824 --> 12:05.584 iron rod telling everybody the story as they surrounded him and 12:05.582 --> 12:08.742 clapped. There are other cases like 12:08.743 --> 12:12.493 Phineas Gage, cases where people have had 12:12.487 --> 12:17.917 damage to that same part of the brain, parts of the frontal 12:17.916 --> 12:22.086 cortex. And what they've lost is they 12:22.094 --> 12:26.944 basically lost a good part of their emotions. 12:26.940 --> 12:30.240 And what this means is they don't really care that much 12:30.242 --> 12:33.142 about things. They can't prioritize. 12:33.139 --> 12:37.779 Damasio tells a case of one of his patients who was under the 12:37.781 --> 12:39.871 pseudonym here of Elliot. 12:39.870 --> 12:44.010 And Elliot had a tumor in his frontal lobe. 12:44.009 --> 12:47.189 And the tumor had to be removed and with it came a lot of 12:47.187 --> 12:48.547 Elliot's frontal lobe. 12:48.549 --> 12:52.569 And again, as a result of this, Elliot was not struck blind or 12:52.568 --> 12:56.008 deaf or retarded, and he didn't become the sort 12:56.014 --> 12:59.574 of profane character that Phineas Gage became, 12:59.570 --> 13:04.020 but he lost the ability to prioritize. 13:04.019 --> 13:05.469 He lost the ability to set goals. 13:05.470 --> 13:07.100 Damasio describes him here: 13:07.100 --> 13:10.600 13:10.600 --> 13:14.260 At his job at an activity he would read and fully 13:14.264 --> 13:18.204 understand the significance of the material [He works in an 13:18.200 --> 13:20.510 office.] but the problem was he was 13:20.507 --> 13:22.187 likely, all of a sudden, 13:22.192 --> 13:25.002 to turn from the task he had initiated to doing something 13:25.002 --> 13:27.312 else and spending an entire day doing that. 13:27.309 --> 13:30.759 He might spend an entire afternoon deliberating on which 13:30.764 --> 13:34.224 principle of categorization he should apply to files. 13:34.220 --> 13:36.850 Should it be the date or the size of the document, 13:36.847 --> 13:39.097 pertinence to the case or another? 13:39.100 --> 13:41.300 He couldn't set his goals. 13:41.299 --> 13:44.129 He couldn't--He ended up not being able to keep a job, 13:44.132 --> 13:46.112 not being able to deal with people. 13:46.110 --> 13:50.120 And these are not men who have lost their emotions. 13:50.120 --> 13:53.420 There is no case around where you could have your emotions 13:53.418 --> 13:54.748 entirely blotted out. 13:54.750 --> 13:59.220 But they lost a large part of their emotional capacity and as 13:59.215 --> 14:01.965 a result, their rationality failed. 14:01.970 --> 14:05.640 Emotions set goals and establish priorities. 14:05.639 --> 14:10.039 And without them you wouldn't do anything, you couldn't do 14:10.040 --> 14:12.870 anything. Your desire to come to class to 14:12.873 --> 14:15.883 study, to go out with friends, to read a book, 14:15.879 --> 14:20.599 to raise a family, to be--to do anything are 14:20.604 --> 14:24.344 priorities set by your emotions. 14:24.340 --> 14:28.030 Life would be impossible without those emotions. 14:28.029 --> 14:32.289 And so, there's certain themes we're going to explore here. 14:32.289 --> 14:34.929 The first is this, that emotions are basically 14:34.930 --> 14:38.330 mechanisms that set goals and priorities and we're going to 14:38.334 --> 14:41.564 talk a lot about--in this class and the next class about 14:41.562 --> 14:45.262 universals. We're also going to talk about 14:45.259 --> 14:47.929 culture. It turns out that cultures, 14:47.929 --> 14:51.239 different cultures, including differences between 14:51.235 --> 14:55.085 America and Japan and the American South and the American 14:55.092 --> 14:57.572 North, have somewhat different 14:57.570 --> 15:01.910 emotional triggers and emotional baselines to respond to. 15:01.909 --> 15:04.979 But at the same time, as Darwin well knew, 15:04.983 --> 15:09.113 emotions have universal roots that are shared across all 15:09.106 --> 15:11.726 humans and across many animals. 15:11.730 --> 15:15.850 So, the agenda for this class and the next class is going to 15:15.852 --> 15:18.552 go like this. First, I want to talk a little 15:18.554 --> 15:21.594 bit about facial expressions, which are ways in which we 15:21.587 --> 15:24.287 communicate our emotions – not the only way, 15:24.289 --> 15:27.009 but an important way – and look, in particular, 15:27.006 --> 15:30.286 at the case of smiling because it's kind of interesting. 15:30.289 --> 15:34.349 Then I want to look at one case study of a nonsocial emotion, 15:34.346 --> 15:37.016 that of fear. I want to then deal with 15:37.017 --> 15:40.397 feelings towards our kin, people we're genetically 15:40.402 --> 15:43.012 related to, and then--and this will take us 15:43.005 --> 15:45.375 to the next class, feelings towards non kin. 15:45.380 --> 15:50.200 So first, faces. And as an introduction to faces 15:50.202 --> 15:54.402 I have a brief film clip from Paul Ekman, who is one of the 15:54.397 --> 15:58.807 world's great scholars in the study of facial expressions. 15:58.809 --> 16:01.629 In Ekman's work, he presents us with 16:01.634 --> 16:06.074 instructions on how to make different faces and identify 16:06.072 --> 16:08.312 faces. Ekman actually has a sort of 16:08.313 --> 16:11.183 more practical career along with his scientific career. 16:11.179 --> 16:15.699 He trains police and secret service members to try to figure 16:15.703 --> 16:18.543 out cues to honesty and dishonesty. 16:18.539 --> 16:21.069 There's a very interesting New Yorker profile on him 16:21.072 --> 16:23.602 by Malcolm Gladwell a few years ago, something you might be 16:23.604 --> 16:26.344 interested in. But let's do one of his faces. 16:26.340 --> 16:31.590 16:31.590 --> 16:33.510 Please lower your brows and draw them together. 16:33.510 --> 16:38.880 16:38.879 --> 16:40.869 That means even those who aren't making eye contact with 16:40.865 --> 16:41.185 me now. 16:41.190 --> 16:44.820 16:44.820 --> 16:47.030 Tense your lower and upper eyelids. 16:47.029 --> 16:50.059 Don't pop out contact lenses but just tense them. 16:50.060 --> 16:53.290 16:53.290 --> 16:56.860 Stare. Your eyes can bulge somewhat. 16:56.860 --> 16:59.670 [laughter] Okay. Now, the last part is important. 16:59.669 --> 17:02.699 Press your lips together with the corners straight or down. 17:02.700 --> 17:05.330 That's good. You got it. 17:05.330 --> 17:09.890 [laughter] Okay. Just because you are not making 17:09.894 --> 17:11.954 eye contact with me doesn't mean I can't see you. 17:11.950 --> 17:20.250 Okay. . And what face is that? 17:20.250 --> 17:23.220 What emotion does that correspond to? 17:23.220 --> 17:28.120 Anger. There's all sorts of databases 17:28.123 --> 17:30.903 of different faces from around. 17:30.900 --> 17:35.970 This guy--I don't know who he is but he seems to be on a lot 17:35.973 --> 17:40.883 of these things [laughter] but the thing is you don't need 17:40.875 --> 17:43.395 to rely on him. You don't need to rely on 17:43.397 --> 17:45.727 Western faces. Even if you go on line there's, 17:45.731 --> 17:49.341 by now, a lot of databases from faces from all sorts of genders 17:49.335 --> 17:50.725 and national origins. 17:50.730 --> 17:54.100 This is from a Japanese women facial expressions. 17:54.099 --> 17:57.369 And there are some subtle and very interesting differences 17:57.368 --> 18:00.578 across countries and across people, but there's also deep 18:00.579 --> 18:03.589 universals. You don't have to work very 18:03.585 --> 18:08.105 hard to figure out what these different facial expressions 18:08.114 --> 18:10.244 mean. I want to give one more face 18:10.238 --> 18:13.108 example because I want to focus on this a little bit. 18:13.110 --> 18:15.440 This one's a little bit easier. 18:15.440 --> 18:17.640 Raise the corners of your lips back and up, please. 18:17.640 --> 18:21.090 18:21.090 --> 18:24.100 [laughter] Raise your cheeks. 18:24.099 --> 18:27.859 Raise your lower eyelids if you can. 18:27.860 --> 18:30.110 [laughter] They're smiling. 18:30.110 --> 18:35.410 You're smiling. You can stop [laughter] smiling. 18:35.410 --> 18:39.170 Yale is actually really big on smiling. 18:39.170 --> 18:41.980 We have two of the world's experts on smiling. 18:41.980 --> 18:46.170 This is Angus Trumble, the curator at the British Art 18:46.168 --> 18:49.388 Gallery who wrote this wonderful book, 18:49.390 --> 18:52.730 A Brief History of the Smile looking at the smile 18:52.732 --> 18:54.782 in art. And this is my colleague, 18:54.781 --> 18:57.671 Marianne LaFrance, who is actually not smiling in 18:57.665 --> 19:01.385 that picture but she studies smiling and smiling in adults, 19:01.390 --> 19:04.230 smiling in children, smiling across cultures, 19:04.232 --> 19:07.012 and the different social uses of smiling. 19:07.009 --> 19:10.839 And there are some interesting discoveries people have made 19:10.842 --> 19:14.082 about smiles and about smiles and the emotions. 19:14.080 --> 19:18.660 One--Oh. Well, one is that smiles are 19:18.657 --> 19:21.587 universal. We know, for instance, 19:21.589 --> 19:23.809 that young children smile. 19:23.809 --> 19:28.719 This is my son, Zachary, when he was younger, 19:28.720 --> 19:32.510 not that weird-looking kid [laughs] 19:32.514 --> 19:39.274 next to him. [laughter] Thank God. 19:39.269 --> 19:42.509 [laughter] And even blind children, 19:42.513 --> 19:46.333 children blind from birth, will smile. 19:46.329 --> 19:49.829 They'll smile appropriately, making an important point that 19:49.829 --> 19:53.449 smiling is not learned by looking at other people's faces. 19:53.450 --> 19:56.830 Smiling is also not uniquely human. 19:56.830 --> 20:01.180 Nonhuman primates smile as well. 20:01.180 --> 20:04.410 Smiles are social signals. 20:04.410 --> 20:09.620 You might imagine that people smile when they're happy. 20:09.620 --> 20:12.010 This is actually not the case. 20:12.010 --> 20:14.200 It's not as simple as that. 20:14.200 --> 20:20.140 Rather, people smile when they wish to communicate happiness 20:20.141 --> 20:24.171 and we know that from several studies. 20:24.170 --> 20:27.490 There are some studies of bowlers and the studies are very 20:27.492 --> 20:29.192 nice. What they do is they film 20:29.194 --> 20:31.344 bowlers. So, the bowlers do their 20:31.342 --> 20:34.852 bowling and sometimes they knock down all the pins, 20:34.847 --> 20:36.667 which is called a what? 20:36.670 --> 20:39.350 A strike. So a strike--and that's good in 20:39.354 --> 20:40.464 the bowling world. 20:40.460 --> 20:43.140 So, they knock down all the pins but what they don't do, 20:43.143 --> 20:45.733 is they don't smile after they knock down the pins. 20:45.730 --> 20:46.960 They are being filmed. 20:46.960 --> 20:48.530 They don't smile. 20:48.529 --> 20:53.039 Then they turn around to their friends and give a big grin. 20:53.039 --> 20:57.559 Other studies have looked at films of people who have just 20:57.558 --> 20:59.618 won Olympic gold medals. 20:59.619 --> 21:03.919 Now, not surprisingly, people who have won Olympic 21:03.916 --> 21:06.456 gold medals are very happy. 21:06.460 --> 21:08.690 This is good news to win an Olympic gold medal. 21:08.690 --> 21:13.960 But they don't actually stand on the podium grinning. 21:13.960 --> 21:17.440 Rather, they stand there with their faces in a normal 21:17.440 --> 21:20.380 expression. Then when they stand up and 21:20.378 --> 21:23.288 face the crowds, there's a big smile. 21:23.289 --> 21:29.119 You can ask yourself whether during sex, an activity where 21:29.121 --> 21:33.731 many people enjoy, whether or not people smile 21:33.725 --> 21:39.435 during sex. And you can discover this 21:39.444 --> 21:47.484 yourself with [laughter] a partner or a mirror. 21:47.480 --> 21:52.380 [laughter] So, there are other things we 21:52.378 --> 21:54.888 know about smiles. 21:54.890 --> 21:58.280 There are different types of smiles. 21:58.279 --> 22:01.839 There are actually quite a few different types of smiles that 22:01.842 --> 22:03.982 are different in interesting ways. 22:03.980 --> 22:05.770 This is Paul Ekman again. 22:05.770 --> 22:09.040 22:09.040 --> 22:11.940 Which one's a better smile? 22:11.940 --> 22:14.020 Who votes for the one on the right? 22:14.019 --> 22:16.979 Who votes for the one on the left? 22:16.980 --> 22:19.390 There are two different sorts of smiles. 22:19.390 --> 22:24.240 The one on the right is a smile of greeting. 22:24.240 --> 22:27.490 It's sometimes known as a "Pan Am" smile. 22:27.490 --> 22:31.010 Pan Am is a now defunct airline which had at that time--They 22:31.013 --> 22:34.003 were--They don't call them stewardesses anymore but 22:33.998 --> 22:37.878 they're--the stewardesses would come in and they would smile. 22:37.880 --> 22:39.420 That was part of their job. 22:39.420 --> 22:42.940 But it was a big, fake smile, the Pan Am smile, 22:42.938 --> 22:47.448 a smile to communicate "hello" and--but it's as opposed to a 22:47.451 --> 22:52.271 smile where the communication is that of genuine happiness. 22:52.269 --> 22:54.389 The difference is around the eyes. 22:54.390 --> 22:55.790 It's not the mouth. 22:55.790 --> 22:59.230 It's the eyes. A real happiness smile, 22:59.231 --> 23:04.411 what's known as a Duchenne smile, after a neurophysiologist 23:04.405 --> 23:08.325 who studied it, involves moving the eyes. 23:08.329 --> 23:13.009 What's interesting is about only one out of every ten people 23:13.009 --> 23:15.229 can fake a Duchenne smile. 23:15.230 --> 23:20.790 So, if you smile at somebody, and you just hate their guts 23:20.789 --> 23:26.699 but you want to smile at them, it's--unless you're quite 23:26.704 --> 23:33.974 gifted it's difficult to fake a really good, really happy smile. 23:33.970 --> 23:38.160 You could--It's not difficult to study smiles in the real 23:38.161 --> 23:40.631 world. You could look at politicians, 23:40.634 --> 23:43.234 for instance. Politicians are often in 23:43.230 --> 23:46.170 contexts where they have to smile a lot. 23:46.170 --> 23:50.560 And what they do is they simply give the Pan Am smile. 23:50.559 --> 23:53.169 The mouth moves up, particularly if somebody is 23:53.172 --> 23:55.502 attacking their record or ridiculing them, 23:55.500 --> 23:58.680 and they'll smile and--but it's not a sincere smile. 23:58.680 --> 23:59.880 The eyes don't move. 23:59.880 --> 24:04.160 My favorite example of this was a few years ago when there was a 24:04.160 --> 24:07.150 huge battle for the House majority leader. 24:07.150 --> 24:11.140 And a guy named--a Republican named John Boehner won this 24:11.136 --> 24:13.696 position in quite a heated battle. 24:13.700 --> 24:16.860 And they took a picture of the guy--This is not very nice. 24:16.859 --> 24:19.669 They took a picture of the guy, Roy Blunt, as he stepped out. 24:19.670 --> 24:24.410 And he had lost and this was his expression. 24:24.410 --> 24:29.050 [laughter] And he's not really very happy 24:29.054 --> 24:33.234 [laughter] as opposed to a smile like 24:33.234 --> 24:36.954 this, which is a real smile. 24:36.950 --> 24:42.690 So, you have two sorts of smiles: A real happiness smile a 24:42.689 --> 24:48.629 Duchenne smile--called--also known as the Duchenne smile, 24:48.630 --> 24:55.080 and then a Pan Am smile, or greeting smile. 24:55.079 --> 24:58.479 And you'll use each of those smiles at different points in 24:58.479 --> 25:00.149 your day and in your life. 25:00.150 --> 25:03.730 It turns out that these different smiles have real 25:03.732 --> 25:05.562 psychological validity. 25:05.559 --> 25:09.029 They seem to sort of reflect deep differences in your mood 25:09.026 --> 25:10.726 and emotions and thoughts. 25:10.730 --> 25:12.860 Ten-month-olds, for instance, 25:12.855 --> 25:15.355 give different sorts of smiles. 25:15.359 --> 25:19.249 When their mother approaches there they give a real happiness 25:19.251 --> 25:21.461 smile. Then when a stranger approaches 25:21.456 --> 25:24.826 or someone else approaches there they'll tend to give more of a 25:24.830 --> 25:28.410 greeting smile. John Gottman studied married 25:28.413 --> 25:31.083 couples. And John Gottman does a lot of 25:31.079 --> 25:34.919 work--Well, what he does is he looks at film clips of couples. 25:34.920 --> 25:40.090 And by analyzing the film clips he tries to predict will their 25:40.086 --> 25:41.776 marriages survive. 25:41.779 --> 25:44.659 And one of his cues--There's different cues. 25:44.660 --> 25:47.250 Incidentally, sort of side topic: 25:47.245 --> 25:51.925 The death knell for a marriage for Gottman--This is his big 25:51.930 --> 25:55.400 finding. It's not if they fight a lot. 25:55.400 --> 25:57.220 It's not they scream at each other. 25:57.220 --> 26:01.050 It's not even if they hate each other. 26:01.049 --> 26:05.209 The death knell of a marriage is contempt. 26:05.210 --> 26:09.030 And so, if he shows these clips: I walk in, 26:09.028 --> 26:14.208 "Honey, I'm home," and my spouse has the look of contempt, 26:14.211 --> 26:16.571 it's a bad sign. [laughter] 26:16.573 --> 26:19.893 But another clue is the sort of smiles they give when they see 26:19.887 --> 26:22.167 each other when they walk into the lab. 26:22.170 --> 26:26.930 If it's a true happiness smile, that's actually bodes better 26:26.931 --> 26:31.451 for the relationship than a Pan Am, or greeting smile. 26:31.450 --> 26:36.520 Finally, studies have been done of college yearbook photos 26:36.520 --> 26:39.990 looking at people thirty years later. 26:39.990 --> 26:43.930 And it turns out that there's a correlation, a reliable 26:43.927 --> 26:48.377 relationship between how happy somebody is now and back thirty 26:48.376 --> 26:52.166 years ago in their yearbook photo--what sort of smile 26:52.168 --> 26:56.368 they're giving. There is some evidence for a 26:56.374 --> 26:58.384 third sort of smile. 26:58.380 --> 27:04.330 This is known as a coy smile or an appeasement smile. 27:04.329 --> 27:08.529 This is sort of a very specialized sort of smile. 27:08.529 --> 27:13.419 This is a smile of embarrassment or stress. 27:13.420 --> 27:18.040 You give it when you want people to like you, 27:18.039 --> 27:22.129 you want to join in; you want to make people feel 27:22.129 --> 27:23.399 positive about you. 27:23.400 --> 27:25.680 But you're in, sort of, a high-stress 27:25.681 --> 27:28.281 situation often with some sort of risk. 27:28.279 --> 27:32.969 And what you do is you sort of you turn away. 27:32.970 --> 27:34.040 There's no eye contact. 27:34.039 --> 27:37.219 You turn away and kind of give this-- And this actually shows 27:37.220 --> 27:38.440 up in other primates. 27:38.440 --> 27:43.660 Here's a nice picture. 27:43.660 --> 27:45.550 [laughter] So, the rhesus monkey bites her 27:45.546 --> 27:47.976 own infant, and the infant gives a scream and then the 27:47.983 --> 27:49.183 submissive, coy smile. 27:49.180 --> 27:51.620 And it also shows up in human infants. 27:51.619 --> 27:54.089 Here's a nice clip of a coy baby smile. 27:54.090 --> 27:55.570 I'll walk you through it. 27:55.569 --> 27:58.579 The baby is being approached, [laughter] 27:58.580 --> 28:01.210 goes like this , smiles like this , 28:01.205 --> 28:03.285 and then the aversion . 28:03.290 --> 28:08.410 Yeah. Babies are cute. 28:08.410 --> 28:10.490 [laughter] Any questions at this point 28:10.490 --> 28:11.390 about smiling? 28:11.390 --> 28:17.740 28:17.740 --> 28:21.120 What are your smiling questions? 28:21.120 --> 28:23.910 [laughter] Yeah. Student: Do nonhuman 28:23.906 --> 28:26.446 primates' smiles [inaudible] Professor Paul Bloom: 28:26.449 --> 28:27.629 That's a good question. 28:27.630 --> 28:30.840 I don't know. There's evidence that the coy 28:30.841 --> 28:33.281 smile shows up in non--The question was, 28:33.277 --> 28:37.147 "Do nonhuman primates give the same smiles that humans do?" 28:37.150 --> 28:40.080 such as a distinction between the Pan Am smile, 28:40.076 --> 28:42.746 a greeting smile, versus a genuine smile of 28:42.749 --> 28:44.519 happiness? I don't know. 28:44.519 --> 28:46.239 I'll find out for you for next class though. 28:46.240 --> 28:47.380 That's a good question. 28:47.380 --> 28:50.380 Yeah. Student: How come some 28:50.381 --> 28:53.741 people's smiles are better than other people's smiles? 28:53.740 --> 28:55.290 Professor Paul Bloom: How come some people's smiles 28:55.291 --> 28:56.381 are better than other people's smiles? 28:56.380 --> 28:59.760 The non-interesting psychological answer, 28:59.760 --> 29:04.320 some people are better looking and there's more thing-- 29:04.323 --> 29:07.623 [laughter] but the deeper answer is some 29:07.618 --> 29:10.828 people are better able to smile. 29:10.829 --> 29:14.919 Some people are better able to use the cues to express true 29:14.923 --> 29:17.313 happiness. There's something else about 29:17.306 --> 29:20.706 smiles which is going to come up, which your question raises, 29:20.710 --> 29:24.970 I think, which is going to come up in--when we talk about 29:24.968 --> 29:27.628 emotional contagion and actually, 29:27.630 --> 29:29.140 some issues of morality. 29:29.140 --> 29:32.110 Smiles are extremely contagious. 29:32.109 --> 29:35.489 So, what I'd like people to do--If you're sitting next to 29:35.486 --> 29:39.096 somebody, please turn around and find someone next to you and 29:39.104 --> 29:40.804 look at them. Don't do anything. 29:40.800 --> 29:41.930 Just look at them. 29:41.930 --> 29:44.580 Whoever is being looked at, look back. 29:44.579 --> 29:47.269 [laughter] This is not-- [laughter] 29:47.267 --> 29:49.477 Please arbitrarily decide. 29:49.480 --> 29:52.390 Okay. Please arbitrarily decide on 29:52.393 --> 29:54.433 the smiler. That will be--No, 29:54.433 --> 29:56.793 not at me, at each other, [laughter] 29:56.787 --> 30:00.887 and that will be the person--If you are unable to resolve this 30:00.889 --> 30:03.539 dispute--yes, you two, please--if you are 30:03.544 --> 30:06.754 unable to resolve this dispute, the person to the right of me 30:06.753 --> 30:07.933 will be the smiler. 30:07.930 --> 30:12.300 So, look at each other expressionless. 30:12.299 --> 30:15.409 [laughter] Now, the person who is the 30:15.410 --> 30:17.660 mandated smiler, [laughter] 30:17.657 --> 30:19.987 on three, please smile. 30:19.990 --> 30:28.930 One, two, three. [laughter] Okay. 30:28.930 --> 30:33.270 [laughter] Worst class demo ever 30:33.273 --> 30:38.743 [laughter] but if one could imagine more 30:38.737 --> 30:44.947 restrained circumstances, it is actually extremely 30:44.952 --> 30:50.512 difficult to be facing somebody who's really smiling at you and 30:50.513 --> 30:52.523 not smile. This is true, 30:52.522 --> 30:55.572 by the way, for virtually every other emotion. 30:55.569 --> 30:59.459 The phenomena is known as "emotional contagion," where if 30:59.462 --> 31:02.082 you're facing somebody, for instance, 31:02.075 --> 31:05.845 and they're--they look at you in a face of absolute rage, 31:05.849 --> 31:09.819 it is very difficult to just sit there without your own face 31:09.824 --> 31:12.254 molding in accord to their own. 31:12.250 --> 31:15.720 And the reasons why this happens and how that works is 31:15.715 --> 31:18.195 something we'll talk about later on. 31:18.200 --> 31:23.180 So that's--One more question. 31:23.180 --> 31:26.240 Yes. Student: [inaudible] 31:26.237 --> 31:30.837 Professor Paul Bloom: I don't know if that's--The 31:30.835 --> 31:33.885 question is, "Is there a difference between 31:33.886 --> 31:37.176 smiling with your teeth versus just your lips closed?" 31:37.180 --> 31:38.970 There probably is. 31:38.970 --> 31:42.320 That's not a main smile difference but my bet is that 31:42.322 --> 31:44.452 there probably is a difference. 31:44.450 --> 31:47.700 And my bet also is that that sort of distinction, 31:47.696 --> 31:50.466 how much teeth you show when you smile, 31:50.470 --> 31:54.060 is the sort of thing that would show regional and country by 31:54.060 --> 31:55.400 country differences. 31:55.400 --> 31:57.280 For instance, there's been research finding 31:57.282 --> 31:59.792 that people in England smile different from people in the 31:59.793 --> 32:01.953 United States. And I think that those are the 32:01.948 --> 32:04.828 sort of contrasts that you would expect to find in cross-cultural 32:04.825 --> 32:07.185 differences. Every culture is going to have 32:07.187 --> 32:08.927 Pan Am smiles, happiness smiles, 32:08.931 --> 32:12.311 coy smiles, but the variation of that sort is something which 32:12.307 --> 32:15.457 will vary as a result of how you're raised and the people 32:15.457 --> 32:16.467 around you. 32:16.470 --> 32:23.420 32:23.420 --> 32:27.140 I want to deal with a few emotions in this class and next 32:27.135 --> 32:31.115 and the first case study of an emotion I want to deal with is 32:31.117 --> 32:32.707 the emotion of fear. 32:32.710 --> 32:36.100 And I want to deal with fear for different reasons. 32:36.099 --> 32:39.669 One reason is it's a basic emotion, it's universal. 32:39.670 --> 32:41.070 All humans have it. 32:41.069 --> 32:43.499 Many nonhumans, probably most nonhuman, 32:43.495 --> 32:44.895 species have it too. 32:44.900 --> 32:48.870 And it also brings us back to the lecture on behaviorism where 32:48.872 --> 32:52.192 we talked about classical conditioning and different 32:52.194 --> 32:54.934 theories of what people are afraid of. 32:54.930 --> 32:59.340 It's a nonsocial emotion. 32:59.339 --> 33:02.609 What I mean by this is it's possible, of course, 33:02.610 --> 33:06.160 to be afraid of a person, but unlike an emotion like 33:06.158 --> 33:09.288 gratitude, it's not intrinsically social. 33:09.289 --> 33:12.039 You could be afraid of falling off a cliff or something. 33:12.039 --> 33:14.959 It has a distinctive facial expression again. 33:14.960 --> 33:21.660 This is a famous picture of Lee Harvey Oswald who was being 33:21.656 --> 33:24.886 assassinated by Jack Ruby. 33:24.890 --> 33:28.000 And this is the detective's face standing there, 33:28.000 --> 33:32.040 a mixture of fear and anger – the face being drawn back in a 33:32.036 --> 33:36.066 universal expression that every human everywhere would be able 33:36.072 --> 33:39.282 to recognize. So, the basic question to ask 33:39.278 --> 33:41.158 is "What are we afraid of?" 33:41.160 --> 33:46.510 And the answer's a little bit interesting. 33:46.509 --> 33:48.839 We're afraid of spiders, snakes, heights, 33:48.836 --> 33:51.046 storms, large animals, darkness, blood, 33:51.046 --> 33:54.006 strangers, humiliation, deep water, and leaving home 33:54.012 --> 33:56.772 alone. We are afraid of other things 33:56.767 --> 34:00.027 too but those are big things to be afraid of. 34:00.030 --> 34:01.380 I'm not even going to ask. 34:01.380 --> 34:04.200 If there's somebody who--in this room, who's not afraid of 34:04.201 --> 34:05.291 any of those things? 34:05.289 --> 34:07.429 You're a tougher person than I am. 34:07.430 --> 34:10.100 These are universal fear elicitors. 34:10.100 --> 34:13.510 Why? What do they have in common? 34:13.510 --> 34:15.530 Why would you be afraid of those things? 34:15.530 --> 34:19.400 And the answer is--And why would--why are there so few 34:19.398 --> 34:23.338 people afraid of guns, cars, and electrical outlets? 34:23.340 --> 34:27.210 The answer is not particularly surprising. 34:27.210 --> 34:31.850 These are things that--something's ticking over 34:31.852 --> 34:34.812 there. These are things that are scary 34:34.809 --> 34:36.889 in our ancestral environment. 34:36.889 --> 34:39.539 More particularly, these are things that through 34:39.539 --> 34:42.809 the course of human evolution have been dangerous to us. 34:42.809 --> 34:48.839 And so, we are afraid of these things and not so afraid of 34:48.842 --> 34:53.872 these things; similarly for nonhuman primates. 34:53.869 --> 34:57.289 So, chimpanzees are afraid of certain things and they can 34:57.292 --> 34:59.922 often develop phobias for certain things, 34:59.920 --> 35:03.250 but the phobias they develop, the fears they develop, 35:03.250 --> 35:05.620 are things like spiders and snakes. 35:05.619 --> 35:08.199 There was a nice study done in urban Chicago, 35:08.201 --> 35:10.021 in the inner city of Chicago. 35:10.019 --> 35:12.869 And they asked children raised in the inner city, 35:12.869 --> 35:14.769 "What are you most afraid of?" 35:14.769 --> 35:19.169 And you might think they would say, "I'm afraid of being shot. 35:19.170 --> 35:20.010 I'm afraid of guns. 35:20.010 --> 35:24.630 I'm afraid of being killed by somebody or being harmed by 35:24.632 --> 35:27.422 somebody. I'm afraid of being run over by 35:27.423 --> 35:30.593 a car." The two biggest fears of 35:30.585 --> 35:36.935 children in urban Chicago are that , snakes and spiders, 35:36.940 --> 35:40.200 even though many of these children have probably never 35:40.199 --> 35:43.089 seen a snake outside of a zoo in their lives. 35:43.090 --> 35:44.570 These are natural fears. 35:44.570 --> 35:48.570 There is some research done by the psychologist Judy DeLoache 35:48.567 --> 35:52.697 at University of Virginia where she's studying babies' fears of 35:52.697 --> 35:55.737 spiders and snakes, babies obviously who, 35:55.741 --> 36:00.061 since their parents are normal, have not yet seen spiders and 36:00.060 --> 36:02.760 snakes. There are various ethical 36:02.761 --> 36:06.731 reasons why you can't show babies--you can't try to 36:06.725 --> 36:11.155 construct phobias in babies of spiders and snakes but the 36:11.164 --> 36:16.084 research she's finding using more indirect methods finds, 36:16.079 --> 36:18.829 as one would expect, these are what psychologists 36:18.831 --> 36:22.931 would call "pre-potent stimuli"; that is, these are things that 36:22.930 --> 36:25.440 naturally elicit fear and concern. 36:25.440 --> 36:29.470 And that's all I have to say about fear. 36:29.469 --> 36:35.669 I want to turn for the rest of this lecture and for next 36:35.671 --> 36:40.521 lecture next week to the social emotions. 36:40.519 --> 36:44.859 And the social emotions can be broken down into two categories. 36:44.860 --> 36:47.030 Bless you, bless you. 36:47.030 --> 36:51.830 Those emotions you feel towards your kin, towards your genetic 36:51.832 --> 36:56.642 relatives, and those emotions that you feel towards the people 36:56.635 --> 37:00.095 you're not related to but interact with. 37:00.099 --> 37:06.959 And I want to focus particularly on emotions that 37:06.963 --> 37:12.543 generate kind or altruistic behavior. 37:12.539 --> 37:16.499 "Altruism" is the biologists' term meaning kindness, 37:16.504 --> 37:20.944 generosity, and evolutionary biologists have worked really 37:20.936 --> 37:25.286 hard to explain why animals might evolve to be kind. 37:25.290 --> 37:28.470 37:28.469 --> 37:33.749 A very old, very wrong view of evolution is that evolution has 37:33.748 --> 37:38.938 shaped animals such that they're merely survival machines. 37:38.940 --> 37:42.350 If so, then from an evolutionary standpoint any 37:42.345 --> 37:47.005 kindness towards an animal--that an animal shows towards another 37:47.009 --> 37:48.859 animal--is a mystery. 37:48.860 --> 37:54.550 If evolution wired us up simply to survive, then it's a puzzle 37:54.549 --> 37:59.679 why animals would relate positively to other animals. 37:59.680 --> 38:03.970 But of course, that's not true. 38:03.969 --> 38:07.069 Here's a simple example showing it's not true. 38:07.070 --> 38:10.070 Imagine two genes, two sorts of animals each 38:10.073 --> 38:12.033 containing their own gene. 38:12.030 --> 38:14.600 Gene "A" makes an animal care for its offspring. 38:14.599 --> 38:18.729 Gene "B" makes an animal care only for itself. 38:18.730 --> 38:22.010 Imagine what will happen in the next generation. 38:22.010 --> 38:24.660 Plainly, Gene "A" will win out. 38:24.660 --> 38:26.860 It's a very simple case. 38:26.860 --> 38:29.600 An animal who has evolved a brain that says, 38:29.602 --> 38:33.112 "Take care of your offspring" will do much better from a 38:33.109 --> 38:37.129 natural selection point of view from an animal who has evolved a 38:37.127 --> 38:39.867 brain that says, "Eat your offspring." 38:39.869 --> 38:43.209 The animal that eats its offspring, those genes are a 38:43.214 --> 38:44.634 biological dead end. 38:44.630 --> 38:48.460 What matters then is not survival, per se. 38:48.460 --> 38:51.490 What matters is reproduction. 38:51.489 --> 38:56.799 And so, that simple fact is why we would expect animals to care 38:56.796 --> 39:00.986 for their children, because children are the means 39:00.990 --> 39:03.900 through which genes replicate. 39:03.900 --> 39:06.640 But it gets a little bit richer than that. 39:06.639 --> 39:10.839 And this is one of the major revolutions in evolutionary 39:10.836 --> 39:13.656 biology over the last half century. 39:13.659 --> 39:18.629 Forget about the animal a bit and take another perspective. 39:18.630 --> 39:21.500 Take a perspective of the cold virus. 39:21.500 --> 39:24.390 People have been sneezing in the front row. 39:24.390 --> 39:25.480 Now, you're coughing. 39:25.480 --> 39:29.350 Thank you. Why do you sneeze when you get 39:29.350 --> 39:34.500 a cold? Here's not a-- Point made. 39:34.500 --> 39:37.740 Here is--Here's not a bad answer. 39:37.739 --> 39:40.739 You sneeze because you've got all these germs inside you and 39:40.742 --> 39:43.492 your body wants to get the germs out, so you sneeze. 39:43.489 --> 39:47.349 It's not that it's totally wrong, but it's not bad. 39:47.349 --> 39:51.079 The real answer is a little bit more interesting. 39:51.079 --> 39:53.859 Don't look at it from the person's perspective. 39:53.860 --> 39:56.610 If you have a cold, try to get away from your own 39:56.613 --> 39:58.853 selfish perspective, "I have a cold." 39:58.849 --> 40:02.659 Look at it from the perspective of the cold virus. 40:02.659 --> 40:06.519 The cold virus has evolved just as much as you evolved. 40:06.519 --> 40:10.179 And it's evolved due to survival and reproduction. 40:10.179 --> 40:13.649 What the cold virus does is evolve different strategies to 40:13.649 --> 40:15.109 cause it to reproduce. 40:15.110 --> 40:20.540 And what it does is--one way to reproduce is to occupy other 40:20.538 --> 40:25.688 animals and manipulate their bodies so as to expel it. 40:25.690 --> 40:29.810 From this point of view then, the reason why you sneeze when 40:29.812 --> 40:33.802 you have a cold is that your cold--the cold virus is using 40:33.795 --> 40:36.865 your body as a tool to replicate itself. 40:36.869 --> 40:40.439 From this person--this perspective, a person is just a 40:40.435 --> 40:42.785 germ's way of making other germs. 40:42.789 --> 40:45.589 And there's tons of other examples of this. 40:45.590 --> 40:50.030 There's a parasite known as toxoplasmosis that lives in the 40:50.028 --> 40:53.638 bodies of rats. But it gets passed on when the 40:53.635 --> 40:55.475 rats get eaten by cats. 40:55.480 --> 40:58.950 And then it ends up in the cats' feces and then it ends up 40:58.947 --> 41:02.157 back in rats. If you are a rat and you have 41:02.161 --> 41:05.261 toxoplasmosis, you are perfectly healthy 41:05.255 --> 41:07.155 except for one thing. 41:07.159 --> 41:11.819 The toxoplasmosis rewires your brain and it makes you less 41:11.820 --> 41:16.200 afraid of cats. Now, again, this is not some 41:16.196 --> 41:20.566 sort of bizarre quirk of a humorous god. 41:20.570 --> 41:24.950 Rather, it's because this is a perfectly--this is the adaptive 41:24.950 --> 41:27.680 strategy of the toxoplasmosis virus. 41:27.679 --> 41:32.079 In fact, a real powerful virus would skip the respiratory 41:32.076 --> 41:36.076 system altogether, even better than a cold virus. 41:36.079 --> 41:39.819 What it would do is it would take over the brain and it will 41:39.820 --> 41:43.620 make people want to run around and have sex with other people 41:43.624 --> 41:45.594 and kiss them on the mouth. 41:45.590 --> 41:49.160 And in fact, there is some evidence that 41:49.157 --> 41:51.687 this happens. There's some evidence, 41:51.689 --> 41:53.749 for instance, that one of the effects of 41:53.745 --> 41:56.905 sexually transmitted diseases like syphilis is it arouses the 41:56.907 --> 41:59.097 libido, makes people more sexually 41:59.099 --> 42:02.939 engaged, because this is part of the strategy through which these 42:02.940 --> 42:04.860 viruses replicate themselves. 42:04.860 --> 42:07.100 Imagine a virus, for instance, 42:07.100 --> 42:11.810 that captured an animal's brain and then modified the animal's 42:11.811 --> 42:16.601 brain such that the animal would run out and bite other animals 42:16.600 --> 42:19.150 so as to pass on the virus. 42:19.150 --> 42:22.720 And then, of course, you would call that virus 42:22.717 --> 42:25.027 "rabies." Along these lines, 42:25.026 --> 42:29.656 the evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins took the general 42:29.656 --> 42:34.526 step of suggesting that animals are the vehicles through which 42:34.525 --> 42:37.075 genes exploit to reproduce. 42:37.079 --> 42:40.559 From this perspective, an animal is just the 42:40.556 --> 42:45.566 person's--is just the gene's way of creating another animal. 42:45.570 --> 42:49.390 Well, as psychologists, what benefit does that--does 42:49.388 --> 42:51.708 this way of analysis give us? 42:51.710 --> 42:54.520 It actually can help us explain altruism. 42:54.519 --> 42:57.459 So, which genes are going to survive? 42:57.460 --> 43:00.040 Well, the genes that survive are going to be the ones that 43:00.043 --> 43:01.723 make the most copies of themselves. 43:01.719 --> 43:04.029 Animals are vehicles through which genes reproduce. 43:04.030 --> 43:07.910 An animal's merely the gene's way of making another gene. 43:07.909 --> 43:11.589 Hence, selfish genes will lead to altruistic animals because, 43:11.590 --> 43:15.030 to the extent that evolution operates at the level of the 43:15.026 --> 43:18.096 genes, there's no hard and fast 43:18.103 --> 43:24.163 distinction between your own body and someone else's body. 43:24.159 --> 43:26.929 And here's an illustration by the biologist Haldane. 43:26.929 --> 43:30.909 So, Haldane was once asked, "Would you lay down your life 43:30.908 --> 43:32.328 for your brother?" 43:32.329 --> 43:36.059 And he responded, "No, but I would gladly give my 43:36.055 --> 43:41.095 life for three brothers or five nephews or nine first cousins." 43:41.100 --> 43:44.620 Now, he's joking. 43:44.619 --> 43:47.299 You don't actually do the math if you're normal. 43:47.300 --> 43:52.530 But what he's capturing is the logic, the ultimate causation of 43:52.533 --> 43:55.153 our feelings towards our kin. 43:55.150 --> 44:00.190 Our genes have wired us up--our brains up to love our children 44:00.187 --> 44:03.237 and love our kin because, in this way, 44:03.243 --> 44:06.963 our genes manage to replicate themselves. 44:06.960 --> 44:11.300 And in fact, you get his calculations by 44:11.304 --> 44:14.984 looking at genetic relatedness. 44:14.980 --> 44:17.810 The genetic relatedness, from an evolutionary 44:17.811 --> 44:21.481 standpoint, affects how much you care for other people. 44:21.480 --> 44:26.080 From the standpoint of your genes, you dying for the life of 44:26.084 --> 44:30.614 three brothers is an excellent compromise because the genes 44:30.610 --> 44:33.420 replicate by fifty percent more. 44:33.420 --> 44:37.130 If you imagined--;So, here is his calculations. 44:37.130 --> 44:40.620 If you imagined a choice between this one gene that makes 44:40.620 --> 44:44.550 the animal choose to die and the other gene that makes an animal 44:44.548 --> 44:48.508 choose for its brothers to die, the gene that sacrifices the 44:48.513 --> 44:52.083 body it belongs to will make more copies in the future. 44:52.079 --> 44:54.889 And there's an interesting irony to this. 44:54.889 --> 44:57.689 The selfish gene theory is often seen as sort of a 44:57.687 --> 44:59.797 cold-blooded evolutionary analysis, 44:59.800 --> 45:03.530 but it provides a scientific basis for real, 45:03.531 --> 45:07.351 genuine altruism, for really arguing that, 45:07.349 --> 45:11.569 from the standpoint of the genes, there really is no hard 45:11.569 --> 45:15.939 and fast difference between yourself and another person. 45:15.940 --> 45:19.330 From this perspective, we can start to answer some 45:19.329 --> 45:22.719 interesting questions at least about nonhumans. 45:22.719 --> 45:27.939 When a new male lion takes over a pride what he does is kill all 45:27.936 --> 45:32.486 the remaining cubs and any lionesses undergo spontaneous 45:32.490 --> 45:35.840 abortions. This all might seem very cruel 45:35.836 --> 45:39.186 but from a genetic standpoint it makes sense. 45:39.190 --> 45:43.320 The other cubs are genetic competition for him. 45:43.320 --> 45:45.620 They do not have his genes. 45:45.619 --> 45:50.609 Moreover, only once they're out of the way can he reproduce and 45:50.614 --> 45:52.874 copulate with the females. 45:52.869 --> 45:56.909 The females do their spontaneous abortions because 45:56.906 --> 45:59.786 that's a reliable adaptive trick. 45:59.789 --> 46:02.809 These cubs are not going to survive once they are born so 46:02.810 --> 46:06.370 the female's best strategy is to get rid of them and start anew. 46:06.369 --> 46:09.869 From a psychological point then, animals have evolved to be 46:09.865 --> 46:12.635 nice to their kin, particularly their children, 46:12.638 --> 46:15.168 and particularly in birds and mammals. 46:15.170 --> 46:19.180 Birds and mammals invest in quality and not quantity, 46:19.178 --> 46:21.798 as opposed to fish and reptiles. 46:21.800 --> 46:27.280 For birds and mammals, we don't have many kids but--so 46:27.279 --> 46:32.339 we devote a huge amount of psychological energy to 46:32.344 --> 46:36.174 protecting the ones that we have. 46:36.170 --> 46:40.410 Moreover, the kids we have are vulnerable for long periods of 46:40.408 --> 46:42.738 time and require our resources. 46:42.739 --> 46:46.259 So, there's various psychological mechanisms that 46:46.260 --> 46:47.800 this gives rise to. 46:47.800 --> 46:51.410 One is how parents or how adults in general respond to 46:51.410 --> 46:54.050 children. Another one is how children 46:54.050 --> 46:55.450 respond to parents. 46:55.449 --> 46:57.679 And I'll briefly talk about a few of these phenomena. 46:57.680 --> 47:06.890 47:06.889 --> 47:10.049 Small animals make distress calls. 47:10.050 --> 47:13.150 They chirp, they mew, they bleat or they cry. 47:13.150 --> 47:17.130 The governing of a distress call is actually an extremely 47:17.134 --> 47:20.834 delicate high-wire act for any young organism from an 47:20.834 --> 47:23.044 evolutionary point of view. 47:23.039 --> 47:27.109 It has to on the one hand be annoying enough to actually 47:27.108 --> 47:30.288 generate help, to get people to help you, 47:30.289 --> 47:31.889 to feed you, to pick you up, 47:31.889 --> 47:34.199 to take you and put them next to you. 47:34.199 --> 47:37.239 On the other hand, it can't be so annoying that 47:37.242 --> 47:39.892 the people around you kill you [laughter] 47:39.888 --> 47:41.738 and so it's complicated. 47:41.739 --> 47:45.839 But, from your point of view, you're wired up to respond to 47:45.844 --> 47:47.614 them. That sound is, 47:47.605 --> 47:50.945 at very minimum, extremely annoying. 47:50.949 --> 47:54.689 And it's more--it's not annoying because of its volume 47:54.693 --> 47:57.363 or pitch. It's annoying because your 47:57.360 --> 48:01.870 brains are wired up so that that baby cry is going to drive you 48:01.869 --> 48:05.719 up the wall. On the more positive side, 48:05.723 --> 48:10.153 babies are cute. I got this from Google Images, 48:10.151 --> 48:12.951 typing in "cute baby," [laughter] 48:12.947 --> 48:16.177 getting rid of the porn and [laughter] 48:16.180 --> 48:18.190 coming on to that. 48:18.190 --> 48:23.080 No, no, Playboy, but anyway it was over that. 48:23.079 --> 48:25.649 [laughter] And do not be tempted to say, 48:25.648 --> 48:29.528 "Isn't it wonderful that the way nature works is that babies 48:29.533 --> 48:33.803 are cute? Otherwise we would have killed 48:33.795 --> 48:35.035 them." [laughter] 48:35.039 --> 48:36.299 That's not the right story. 48:36.300 --> 48:39.450 If--Babies are not--Human babies are not, 48:39.454 --> 48:41.904 sort of, metaphysically cute. 48:41.900 --> 48:43.510 If Martians came down they wouldn't say, 48:43.514 --> 48:45.724 "Oh, cute baby." Rather, they're cute because of 48:45.722 --> 48:47.092 how our brains are wired up. 48:47.090 --> 48:52.600 They're cute because there are certain cues that correspond to 48:52.601 --> 48:54.951 the way our brains work. 48:54.949 --> 48:57.119 And in fact, this is how it works for all 48:57.117 --> 49:00.187 mammals. So, babies have these big, 49:00.185 --> 49:04.555 protruding foreheads, an upturned little nose, 49:04.556 --> 49:07.466 chubby cheeks and big eyes. 49:07.469 --> 49:10.139 Those are the ingredients for cute. 49:10.139 --> 49:12.589 Stephen Jay Gould has a wonderful essay where he 49:12.586 --> 49:14.766 discussed this, looking at the evolution of 49:14.771 --> 49:17.271 Mickey Mouse from the Walt Disney character. 49:17.269 --> 49:20.519 Mickey Mouse starts off as an ugly, little rodent. 49:20.519 --> 49:23.049 [laughter] Over time he gets cuter and 49:23.052 --> 49:26.822 cuter and cuter as the artist converged on more and more 49:26.815 --> 49:28.385 baby-like features. 49:28.389 --> 49:33.299 Studies of adults show what's known as a baby-face bias. 49:33.300 --> 49:35.010 This is not unique to the United States. 49:35.010 --> 49:38.210 The same studies have been done in Asia. 49:38.210 --> 49:42.820 You find a baby face in an adult, Leonardo DiCaprio, 49:42.824 --> 49:47.534 to be particularly naive, helpless, kind and warm. 49:47.530 --> 49:51.790 And in mock trials, people with baby faces are more 49:51.793 --> 49:56.573 likely to be found innocent than people like Ben Affleck, 49:56.568 --> 50:00.148 [laughter] who do not have baby faces. 50:00.150 --> 50:03.160 [laughter] Now, one question which is 50:03.156 --> 50:07.916 going to come up for an entire lecture later on is "who is 50:07.917 --> 50:12.257 sexier, the baby faced man or Testosterone Man?" 50:12.260 --> 50:14.830 here . [laughter] 50:14.833 --> 50:16.993 And I am going to ask actually for a vote because I'm going to 50:16.992 --> 50:20.982 return to this. I do not--I only want the men 50:20.983 --> 50:24.533 to vote, please. Who would go for--And forget 50:24.531 --> 50:26.791 the fact that he looks sort of unhappy. 50:26.789 --> 50:29.179 Who would go for Ben Affleck here? 50:29.180 --> 50:31.980 Okay. [laughter] 50:31.982 --> 50:33.612 Who would go for Leonardo? 50:33.610 --> 50:35.520 Okay. [laughter] 50:35.521 --> 50:39.651 Well, the women votes would actually be more complicated. 50:39.650 --> 50:41.900 We will discuss when we get the lecture on sex. 50:41.900 --> 50:46.410 Your choice will depend on where you are in the menstrual 50:46.414 --> 50:48.384 cycle. [laughter] 50:48.381 --> 50:53.931 Now, so far, we're talking about how babies 50:53.932 --> 51:01.732 respond to--We're talking about our responses to babies. 51:01.730 --> 51:04.790 What about babies' responses to us? 51:04.789 --> 51:09.339 Well, there's a very old theory known as the "Cupboard Theory" 51:09.339 --> 51:11.729 proposed by the behaviorist B.F. 51:11.726 --> 51:15.606 Skinner which argues that babies' attachment to their 51:15.605 --> 51:19.255 parents is because the parent provides food, 51:19.260 --> 51:22.530 characteristically breast milk, but it could be food from a 51:22.527 --> 51:23.707 bottle or whatever. 51:23.710 --> 51:26.670 And because of operant conditioning, 51:26.670 --> 51:29.970 the baby is driven towards the adult. 51:29.970 --> 51:33.750 51:33.750 --> 51:37.870 An alternative theory is that of Bowlby, which is that they're 51:37.872 --> 51:41.592 drawn to their mother for comfort and social interaction 51:41.589 --> 51:43.819 as well as fear of strangers. 51:43.820 --> 51:47.230 To test this, the psychologist Harlow 51:47.225 --> 51:52.515 performed a series of ingenious experiments with nonhuman 51:52.523 --> 51:58.203 primates distinguishing between what he called "wire mothers" 51:58.200 --> 52:00.660 and "cloth mothers." 52:00.659 --> 52:03.879 And you'll see illustrations of this to follow. 52:03.880 --> 52:07.980 Wire mothers are mothers that are built that they give food. 52:07.980 --> 52:10.590 They have a little nipple attached and you can drink from 52:10.586 --> 52:12.026 it and give food to the baby. 52:12.030 --> 52:13.630 And that's the baby's source of food. 52:13.630 --> 52:17.680 Cloth mothers don't give any food but they give warmth and 52:17.679 --> 52:19.669 comfort. There was a while in the 52:19.672 --> 52:22.662 psychology department where one professor was known to be 52:22.663 --> 52:25.493 extremely supportive to his students but didn't really 52:25.494 --> 52:26.834 provide much warmth. 52:26.829 --> 52:28.889 And he was known as the cloth mother. 52:28.889 --> 52:32.559 And another one was very productive and everything but 52:32.555 --> 52:33.865 provided no love. 52:33.869 --> 52:35.499 And she was known as the wire mother. 52:35.500 --> 52:40.150 But anyway, I'll show you the movies. 52:40.150 --> 52:43.980 I have to warn you this third and final movie is an example of 52:43.981 --> 52:46.621 why this research is not currently done, 52:46.619 --> 52:58.219 but it illustrates an important scientific point. 52:58.221 --> 53:01.301 Oh. Now him-- I think I'm-- They're 53:01.295 --> 53:02.795 just more Google Images. 53:02.800 --> 53:04.690 [laughter] I think I'll--I want to begin 53:04.690 --> 53:07.650 next class by wrapping up and explaining the Harlow studies in 53:07.647 --> 53:09.487 more detail and what they tell us. 53:09.489 --> 53:13.069 And then we'll move towards altruism, towards non kin. 53:13.070 --> 53:15.000 I'll see you next week.