Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

by Robert M. Sapolsky

  64.J. Dovidio et al., “Why Can’t We Just Get Along? Interpersonal Biases and Interracial Distrust,” Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psych 8 (2002): 88.

  65.J. Richeson et al., “An fMRI Investigation of the Impact of Interracial Contact on Executive Function,” Nat Nsci 12 (2003): 1323; J. Richeson and J. Shelton, “Negotiating Interracial Interactions: Cost, Consequences, and Possibilities,” Curr Dir Psych Sci 16 (2007): 316.

  66.J. N. Shelton et al., “Expecting to Be the Target of Prejudice: Implications for Interethnic Interactions,” PSPB 31 (2005): 1189.

  67.P. M. Herr, “Consequences of Priming: Judgment and Behavior,” JPSP 51 (1986): 1106; N. Dasgupta and A. Greenwald, “On the Malleability of Automatic Attitudes: Combating Automatic Prejudice with Images of Admired and Disliked Individuals,” JPSP 81 (2001): 800.

  68.W. A. Cunningham et al., “Rapid Social Perception Is Flexible: Approach and Avoidance Motivational States Shape P100 Responses to Other-Race Faces,” Front Hum Nsci 6 (2012): 140.

  69.A. D. Galinsky and G. B. Moskowitz, “Perspective-Taking: Decreasing Stereotype Expression, Stereotype Accessibility, and In-group Favoritism,” JPSP 78 (2000): 708; I. Blair et al., “Imagining Stereotypes Away: The Moderation of Implicit Stereotypes Through Mental Imagery,” JPSP 81 (2001): 828; T. J. Allen et al., “Social Context and the Self-Regulation of Implicit Bias,” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 13 (2010): 137; J. Fehr and K. Sassenberg, “Willing and Able: How Internal Motivation and Failure Help to Overcome Prejudice,” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 13 (2010): 167.

  70.C. Macrae et al., “The Dissection of Selection in Person Perception: Inhibitory Processes in Social Stereotyping,” JPSP 69 (1995): 397.

  71.T. Pettigrew and L. A. Tropp, “A Meta-analytic Test of Intergroup Contact Theory,” JPSP 90 (2006): 751.

  72.A. Rutherford et al., “Good Fences: The Importance of Setting Boundaries for Peaceful Coexistence,” PLoS ONE 9 (2014): e95660; L. G. Babbitt and S. R. Sommers, “Framing Matters: Contextual Influences on Interracial Interaction Outcomes,” PSPB 37 (2011): 1233.

  73.M. J. Williams and J. L. Eberhardt, “Biological Conceptions of Race and the Motivation to Cross Racial Boundaries,” JPSP 94 (2008): 1033.

  74.G. Hodson et al., “A Joke Is Just a Joke (Except When It Isn’t): Cavalier Humor Beliefs Facilitate the Expression of Group Dominance Motives,” JPSP 99 (2010): 460; F. Pratto and M. Shih, “Social Dominance Orientation and Group Context in Implicit Group Prejudice,” Psych Sci 11 (2000): 515; F. Pratto et al., “Social Dominance Orientation and the Legitimization of Inequality Across Cultures,” J Cross-Cultural Psych 31 (2000); 369; F. Durante et al., “Nations’ Income Inequality Predicts Ambivalence in Stereotype Content: How Societies Mind the Gap,” Brit J Soc Psych 52 (2012): 726; A. C. Kay and J. T. Jost, “Complementary Justice: Effects of ‘Poor but Happy’ and ‘Poor but Honest’ Stereotype Exemplars on System Justification and Implicit Activation of the Justice Motive,” JPSP 85 (2003): 823; A Kay, et al., “Victim Derogation and Victim Enhancement as Alternate Routes to System Justification,” Psych Sci 16 (2005): 240.

  75.C. Sibley and J. Duckitt, “Personality and Prejudice: A Meta-analysis and Theoretical Review,” PSPR 12 (2008): 248.

  76.J. Dovidio et al., “Commonality and the Complexity of ‘We’: Social Attitudes and Social Change.,” PSPR 13 (2013): 3; E. Hehman et al., “Group Status Drives Majority and Minority Integration Preferences,” Psych Sci 23 (2011): 46.

  77.A demonstration that a reward shared with an in-group member activates dopaminergic reward pathways more than does the same reward shared with a stranger: J. B. Freeman and D. Fareri et al., “Social Network Modulation of Reward-Related Signals,” J Nsci 32 (2012): 9045.

  Chapter 12: Hierarchy, Obedience, and Resistance

  1.J. Freeman et al., “The Part: Social Status Cues Shape Race Perception,” PLoS ONE 6 (2011): e25107.

  2.Footnote: George, “Faith and Toilets,” Sci Am, November 19, 2015.

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  4.F. Amici et al., “Fission-Fusion Dynamics, Behavioral Flexibility, and Inhibitory Control in Primates,” Curr Biol 18 (2008): 1415; A. B. Bond et al., “Serial Reversal Learning and the Evolution of Behavioral Flexibility in Three Species of North American Corvids (Gymnorhinus cyanocephalus, Nucifraga columbiana, Aphelocoma californica),” JCP 121 (2007): 372; A. Bond et al., “Social Complexity and Transitive Inference in Corvids,” Animal Behav 65 (2003): 479.

  5.J. Lehmann and R. I. Dunbar, “Network Cohesion, Group Size and Neocortex Size in Female-Bonded Old World Primates,” Proc Royal Soc B: Biol Sci 276 (2009): 4417.

  6.J. Powell et al., “Orbital Prefrontal Cortex Volume Predicts Social Network Size: An Imaging Study of Individual Differences in Humans,” Proc Royal Soc B: Biol Sci 279 (2012): 2157; P. A. Lewis et al., “Ventromedial Prefrontal Volume Predicts Understanding of Others and Social Network Size,” Neuroimage 57 (2011): 1624; J. L. Powell et al., “Orbital Prefrontal Cortex Volume Correlates with Social Cognitive Competence,” Neuropsychologia 48 (2010): 3554; K. C. Bickart et al., “Amygdala Volume and Social Network Size in Humans,” Nat Nsci 14 (2011): 163; R. Kanai et al., “Online Social Network Size Is Reflected in Human Brain Structure,” Proc Royal Soc B: Biol Sci 279 (2012): 1327.

  7.F. Elgar et al., “Income Inequality and School Bullying: Multilevel Study of Adolescents in 37 Countries,” J Adolescent Health 45 (2009): 351.

  8.E. González-Bono et al., “Testosterone, Cortisol and Mood in a Sports Team Competition,” Horm Behav 35 (2009): 55; E. González-Bono et al., “Testosterone and Attribution of Successful Competition,” Aggressive Behav 26 (2000): 235.

  9.N. O. Rule et al., “Perceptions of Dominance Following Glimpses of Faces and Bodies,” Perception 41 (2012): 687.

  10.L. Thomsen et al., “Big and Mighty: Preverbal Infants Mentally Represent Social Dominance,” Sci 331 (2011): 477.

  11.S. V. Shepherd et al., “Social Status Gates Social Attention in Monkeys,” Curr Biol 16 (2006): R119; J. Massen et al., “Ravens Notice Dominance Reversals Among Conspecifics Within and Outside Their Social Group,” Nat Communications 5 (2013); 3679.

  12.M. Karafin et al., “Dominance Attributions Following Damage to the Ventromedial Prefrontal Cortex,” J Cog Nsci 16 (2004): 1796; L. Mah et al., “Impairment of Social Perception Associated with Lesions of the Prefrontal Cortex,” Am J Psychiatry 161 (2004): 1247; T. Farrow et al., “Higher or Lower? The Functional Anatomy of Perceived Allocentric Social Hierarchies,” Neuroimage 57 (2011): 1552; C. F. Zink et al., “Know Your Place: Neural Processing of Social Hierarchy in Humans,” Neuron 58 (2008): 273.

  13.A. A. Marsh et al., “Dominance and Submission: The Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex and Responses to Status Cues,” J Cog Nsci 21 (2009): 713; T. Allison et al., “Social Perception from Visual Cues: Role of the STS Region,” TICS 4 (2000): 267; J. B. Freeman et al., “Culture Shapes a Mesolimbic
Response to Signals of Dominance and Subordination That Associates with Behavior,” Neuroimage 47 (2009): 353.

  14.M. Nader et al., “Social Dominance in Female Monkeys: Dopamine Receptor Function and Cocaine Reinforcement,” BP 72 (2012): 414; M. P. Noonan et al., “A Neural Circuit Covarying with Social Hierarchy in Macaques,” PLoS Biol 12 (2014): e1001940; F. Wang et al., “Bidirectional Control of Social Hierarchy by Synaptic Efficacy in Medial Prefrontal Cortex,” Sci 334 (2011): 693.

  15.M. Rushworth et al., “Are There Specialized Circuits for Social Cognition and Are They Unique to Humans?” PNAS 110 (2013): 10806.

  16.For example: J. C. Beehner et al., “Testosterone Related to Age and Life-History Stages in Male Baboons and Geladas,” Horm Behav 56 (2009): 472.

  17.J. Brady et al., “Avoidance Behavior and the Development of Duodenal Ulcers,” J the Exp Analysis of Behav 1 (1958): 69; J. Weiss, “Effects of Coping Responses on Stress,” J Comp Physiological Psych 65 (1968): 251.

  18.R. Sapolsky, “The Influence of Social Hierarchy on Primate Health,” Sci 308 (2005): 648; H. Uno et al., “Hippocampal Damage Associated with Prolonged and Fatal Stress in Primates,” J Nsci 9 (1989): 1705; R. Sapolsky et al., “Hippocampal Damage Associated with Prolonged Glucocorticoid Exposure in Primates,” J Nsci l0 (1990): 2897; See also E. Archie et al., “Social Status Predicts Wound Healing in Wild Baboons,” PNAS 109 (2012): 9017.

  19.R. Sapolsky, “The Physiology of Dominance in Stable Versus Unstable Social Hierarchies,” in Primate Social Conflict, ed. W. Mason and S. Mendoza (New York: SUNY Press, 1993).

  20.L. R. Gesquiere et al., “Life at the Top: Rank and Stress in Wild Baboons,” Sci 333 (2011): 357.

  21.D. Abbott et al., “Are Subordinates Always Stressed? A Comparative Analysis of Rank Differences in Cortisol Levels Among Primates,” Horm Behav 43 (2003): 67.

  22.R. Sapolsky and J. Ray, “Styles of Dominance and Their Physiological Correlates Among Wild Baboons,” Am J Primat 18 (1989) 1; J. C. Ray and R. Sapolsky, “Styles of Male Social Behavior and Their Endocrine Correlates Among High-Ranking Baboons,” Am J Primat 28 (1992): 231; C. E. Virgin and R. Sapolsky, “Styles of Male Social Behavior and Their Endocrine Correlates Among Low-Ranking Baboons,” Am J Primat 42 (1997): 25.

  23.J. Chiao et al., “Neural Basis of Preference for Human Social Hierarchy Versus Egalitarianism,” ANYAS 1167 (2009): 174; J. Sidanius et al., “You’re Inferior and Not Worth Our Concern: The Interface Between Empathy and Social Dominance Orientation,” J Personality 81 (2012): 313.

  24.G. Sherman et al., “Leadership Is Associated with Lower Levels of Stress,” PNAS 109 (2012): 17903; R. Sapolsky, “Importance of a Sense of Control and the Physiological Benefits of Leadership,” PNAS 109 (2012): 17730.

  25.N. Adler and J. Ostrove, “SES and Health: What We Know and What We Don’t,” ANYAS 896 (1999): 3; R. Wilkinson, Mind the Gap: Hierarchies, Health and Human Evolution (London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 2000); I. Kawachi and B. Kennedy, The Health of Nations: Why Inequality Is Harmful to Your Health (New York: New Press, 2002); M. Marmot, The Status Syndrome: How Social Standing Affects Our Health and Longevity (New York: Bloomsbury, 2015).

  26.A. Todorov et al., “Inferences of Competence from Faces Predict Election Outcomes,” Sci 308 (2005): 1623.

  27.T. Tsukiura and R. Cabeza, “Shared Brain Activity for Aesthetic and Moral Judgments: Implications for the Beauty-Is-Good Stereotype,” SCAN 6 (2011): 138.

  28.K. Dion et al., “What Is Beautiful Is Good,” JPSP 24 (1972): 285.

  29.N. K. Steffens and S. A. Haslam, “Power Through ‘Us’: Leaders’ Use of We-Referencing Language Predicts Election Victory,” PLoS ONE 8 (2013): e77952.

  30.B. R. Spisak et al., “Warriors and Peacekeepers: Testing a Biosocial Implicit Leadership Hypothesis of Intergroup Relations Using Masculine and Feminine Faces,” PLoS ONE 7 (2012): e30399; B. R. Spisak, “The General Age of Leadership: Older-Looking Presidential Candidates Win Elections During War,” PLoS ONE 7 (2012): e36945; B. R. Spisak et al., “A Face for All Seasons: Searching for Context-Specific Leadership Traits and Discovering a General Preference for Perceived Health,” Front Hum Nsci 8 (2014): 792.

  31.J. Antonakis and O. Dalgas, “Predicting Elections: Child’s Play!” Sci 323 (2009): 1183.

  32.K. Smith et al., “Linking Genetics and Political Attitudes: Reconceptualizing Political Ideology,” Political Psych 32 (2011): 369.

  33.G. Hodson and M. Busseri, “Bright Minds and Dark Attitudes: Lower Cognitive Ability Predicts Greater Prejudice Through Right-Wing Ideology and Low Intergroup Contact,” Psych Sci 32 (2012): 187; C. Sibley and J. Duckitt, “Personality and Prejudice: A Meta-analysis and Theoretical Review,” PSPR 12 (2008): 248.

  34.L. Skitka et al., “Dispositions, Ideological Scripts, or Motivated Correction? Understanding Ideological Differences in Attributions for Social Problems,” JPSP 83 (2002): 470; L. J. Skitka, “Ideological and Attributional Boundaries on Public Compassion: Reactions to Individuals and Communities Affected by a Natural Disaster,” PSPB 25 (1999): 793; L. J. Skitka and P. E. Tetlock, “Providing Public Assistance: Cognitive and Motivational Processes Underlying Liberal and Conservative Policy Preferences,” JPSP (1993): 65, 1205; G. S. Morgan et al., “When Values and Attributions Collide: Liberals’ and Conservatives’ Values Motivate Attributions for Alleged Misdeeds,” PSPB 36 (2010): 1241; J. T. Jost and M. Krochik, “Ideological Differences in Epistemic Motivation: Implications for Attitude Structure, Depth of Information Processing, Susceptibility to Persuasion, and Stereotyping,” Advances in Motivation Sci 1 (2014): 181.

  35.S. Eidelman et al., “Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism,” PSPB 38 (2012): 808; H. Thórisdóttir and J. T. Jost, “Motivated Closed-Mindedness Mediates the Effect of Threat on Political Conservatism,” Political Psych 32 (2011): 785.

  36.B. Briers et al., “Hungry for Money: The Desire for Caloric Resources Increases the Desire for Financial Resources and Vice Versa,” Psych Sci 17 (2006): 939; S. Danziger et al., “Extraneous Factors in Judicial Decisions,” PNAS 108 (2011): 6889. The preceding is the source of the figure in the text. C. Schein and K. Gray, “The Unifying Moral Dyad,” PSPB 41 (2015): 1147.

  37.S. J. Thoma, “Estimating Gender Differences in the Comprehension and Preference of Moral Issues,” Developmental Rev 6 (1986): 165; S. J. Thoma, “Research on the Defining Issues Test,” in Handbook of Moral Development, ed. M. Killen and J. Smetana (New York: Psychology Press 2006), p. 67; N. Mahwa et al., “The Distinctiveness of Moral Judgment,” Educational Psych Rev 11 (1999): 361; E. Turiel, The Development of Social Knowledge: Morality and Convention (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983); N. Kuyel and R. J. Clover, “Moral Reasoning and Moral Orientation of U.S. and Turkish University Students,” Psych Rep 107 (2010): 463.

  38.J. Haidt, “The New Synthesis in Moral Psychology,” Sci 316 (2007): 998; G. L. Baril and J. C. Wright, “Different Types of Moral Cognition: Moral Stages Versus Moral Foundations,” Personality and Individual Differences 53 (2012): 468.

  39.N. Shook and R. Fazio, “Political Ideology, Exploration of Novel Stimuli, and Attitude Formation,” JESP 45 (2009): 995; M. D. Dodd et al., “The Political Left Rolls with the Good and the Political Right Confronts the Bad: Connecting Physiology and Cognition to Preferences,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Soc B 640 (2012) 640; K. Bulkeley, “Dream Content and Political Ideology,” Dreaming 12 (2002): 61; J. Vigil, “Political Leanings Vary with Facial Expression Processing and Psychosocial Functioning,” Group Processes & Intergroup Relations 13 (2011): 547; J. Jost et al., “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” Psych Bull 129 (2003): 339; L. Castelli and L. Carraro, “Ideology Is Related to Basic Cognitive Processes Involved in Attitude Formation,” JESP 47 (2011): 1013; L. Carraro et al., “Implicit and Explicit Illusory Correlation as a Function of Political Ideology,” PLoS ONE 9 (2014
): e96312; J. R. Hibbing et al., “Differences in Negativity Bias Underlie Variations in Political Ideology,” BBS 37 (2014): 297.

  40.For an interesting analysis of the relationships among rank, stability, and risk aversion, see J. Jordan et al., “Something to Lose and Nothing to Gain: The Role of Stress in the Interactive Effect of Power and Stability on Risk Taking,” Administrative Sci Quarterly 56 (2011): 530. Discussed in: J. Jost et al., “Political Conservatism as Motivated Social Cognition,” Psych Bull 129 (2003): 339.

  41.P. Nail et al., “Threat Causes Liberals to Think Like Conservatives,” JESP 45 (2009): 901; J. Greenberg et al., “The Causes and Consequences of the Need for Self-Esteem: A Terror Management Theory,” in Public Self and Private Self, ed. R. Baumeister (New York: Springer, 1986); T. Verlag Pyszczynski et al., “A Dual Process Model of Defense Against Conscious and Unconscious Death-Related Thoughts: An Extension of Terror Management Theory,” Psych Rev 106 (1999): 835.

  42.J. L. Napier and J. T. Jost, “Why Are Conservatives Happier Than Liberals?” Psych Sci 19 (2008): 565.

  43.J. Block and J. Block, “Nursery School Personality and Political Orientation Two Decades Later,” J Res in Personality 40 (2006): 734. Also see: M. R. Tagar et al., “Heralding the Authoritarian? Orientation Toward Authority in Early Childhood,” Psych Sci 25 (2014): 883; R. C. Fraley et al., “Developmental Antecedents of Political Ideology: A Longitudinal Investigation from Birth to Age 18 Years,” Psych Sci 23 (2012): 1425.

  44.Y. Inbar et al., “Disgusting Smells Cause Decreased Liking of Gay Men,” Emotion 12 (2012): 23; T. Adams et al., “Disgust and the Politics of Sex: Exposure to a Disgusting Odorant Increases Politically Conservative Views on Sex and Decreases Support for Gay Marriage,” PLoS ONE 9 (2014): e95572; H. A. Chapman and A. K. Anderson, “Things Rank and Gross in Nature: A Review and Synthesis of Moral Disgust,” Psych Bull 139 (2013): 300.

  45.G. Hodson and K. Costello, “Interpersonal Disgust, Ideological Orientations, and Dehumanization as Predictors of Intergroup Attitudes,” Psych Sci 18 (2007): 691; K. Smith et al., “Disgust Sensitivity and the Neurophysiology of Left-Right Political Orientations,” PLoS ONE 6 (2011): e2552.