Love

Lyrs · Post by **Lyrs** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:53 pm

stop smilie secks!

MistyCaldwell · Post by **MistyCaldwell** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 12:57 pm

Tab. wrote:But our evolutionary setup isn't case-dependent. Even though you can't have children, you're still being driven through tons of subconscious productionally-rooted drives to have a partner and such.

Pair bonding is part of successful propagation of the species. That's why it happens as an instinctive drive and that does not just include lust, it includes the drives which make us feel good when we are in a situation that alerts us to the fact that we have a mate/bond.

or perhaps since I am not totally motivated by grunting and instincts alone, I can use my brain? I like to come home and talk to one person for companionship. Someone to go along with on trips (to the grocery or across the country), be fascinated by their interests and talents that don't match my own....a partnership for paying bills for living expenses...we both have more money and time since we can split the costs. Don't say that sounds boring, because the rest is none of your business 8)

No kids for me thanks, and that's the way it'll stay. I don't have a drive to care for something that is completely helpless. Pair bonding may be rooted in evolutionary motivations, but the nice part about being human is that we don't have to follow what mother nature gave us in terms of rudimentary insticnts. Ask a vegan....

I also volunteer for things that I don't like, and those that I do because I want to help people I don't even know. TSuch as donating blood for free, I hate it but I'll do it...and during the times they need it the most...I volunteer for the Salvation army and do free labor for people I'll never see. I don't see what evolutionary motivations I can get with that. Altruism is derived in doing favors you'll benefit from, but I will never even know who used my blood so not likely they'll buy me ice cream.

kthulhu · Post by **kthulhu** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:00 pm

[quote="MistyCaldwell"but I will never even know who used my blood so not likely they'll buy me ice cream.[/quote]

Ungrateful bastards.

downwithpants · Post by **downwithpants** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:43 pm

MistyCaldwell wrote:I also volunteer for things that I don't like, and those that I do because I want to help people I don't even know. TSuch as donating blood for free, I hate it but I'll do it...and during the times they need it the most...I volunteer for the Salvation army and do free labor for people I'll never see. I don't see what evolutionary motivations I can get with that. Altruism is derived in doing favors you'll benefit from, but I will never even know who used my blood so not likely they'll buy me ice cream.

I'm taking an animal behavior course and they say that one reason people are charitable to people they will never see is to make themselves look good to others. In effect, the people who act charitably do so expecting to receive social benefits among their peers. The peers aren't receiving the donations, but they are more likely to act benevolently to the charitable person.

To test the benefits of appearing charitable to others, experimental games have been set up where subjects are allowed to give each other 'points' and observe how many 'points' other people give. The subjects ended up giving the greatest proportion of their points to the subject who gave the most total points.

However, this motivation probably isn't the main reason you donate to someone you don't know (unless you are a superficial person). The main reason people donate anonymously is probably because of an evolved trait called compassion. I talked about this in an earlier post. -- It was a necessary adaptation for the evolution of the human race as a social species. It was originally beneficial to us because we could use it to understand the feelings and thoughts of other members of our community. However, we have come to a point to where we are now compassionate to others around the entire world, and even other species of animals (I think this is a result of improved communication, e.g. seeing those save-a-starving-child-in-third-world-country ads on TV).

Flint the Dwarf · Post by **Flint the Dwarf** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 1:50 pm

Lyrs wrote:stop smilie secks!

I'm still not going to post my views on this yet. If this topic is still alive this weekend, I will. But Misty's come close to mine, for all practical purposes.

Tab. · Post by **Tab.** » Tue Oct 21, 2003 2:16 pm

MistyCaldwell wrote:
Tab. wrote:But our evolutionary setup isn't case-dependent. Even though you can't have children, you're still being driven through tons of subconscious productionally-rooted drives to have a partner and such.

Pair bonding is part of successful propagation of the species. That's why it happens as an instinctive drive and that does not just include lust, it includes the drives which make us feel good when we are in a situation that alerts us to the fact that we have a mate/bond.
or perhaps since I am not totally motivated by grunting and instincts alone, I can use my brain? I like to come home and talk to one person for companionship. Someone to go along with on trips (to the grocery or across the country), be fascinated by their interests and talents that don't match my own....a partnership for paying bills for living expenses...we both have more money and time since we can split the costs. Don't say that sounds boring, because the rest is none of your business 8)

No kids for me thanks, and that's the way it'll stay. I don't have a drive to care for something that is completely helpless. Pair bonding may be rooted in evolutionary motivations, but the nice part about being human is that we don't have to follow what mother nature gave us in terms of rudimentary insticnts. Ask a vegan....

I also volunteer for things that I don't like, and those that I do because I want to help people I don't even know. TSuch as donating blood for free, I hate it but I'll do it...and during the times they need it the most...I volunteer for the Salvation army and do free labor for people I'll never see. I don't see what evolutionary motivations I can get with that. Altruism is derived in doing favors you'll benefit from, but I will never even know who used my blood so not likely they'll buy me ice cream.

Yeah, that's pretty much what I said. We can use our logical or higher thinking instead of our instinctual thinking. But then it isn't strictly emotional, it's intellectual. My point is the emotional drives that fuel common love (or what I percieve to be common love anyway) are based on mere emotions manifested by the hypothalamous and reptilian brain.