Our lives are filled with advancements in science and technology designed to make our lives easier, and more fulfilling, and improve our well-being. And yet, as individuals and as a collective, we often work against our best interests with behaviors that seem hardwired to make things harder than they need to be.
We are often our own worst enemies.
While we possess remarkable intelligence, creativity, and adaptability, our biology and psychology can also lead us to do things that are harmful to ourselves and to others, both in the short term and the long term.
Our biology has evolved to give us certain advantages, but these same advantages can also lead us to make decisions that are harmful to ourselves and to our planet.
- Many are drawn to social media but prolonged use causes loneliness, anxiety, and depression.
- Our need for instant gratification (and dopamine hits) often overrides long-term pursuits, leaving us in a cycle of short-term reward-seeking activities that do not contribute to our overall well-being or goals.
- We strive to improve our personal and professional lives, but setting unattainable goals can foster self-doubt, inadequacy, and the fear of failure – ultimately undermining our confidence and resilience.
In order to better understand and overcome these destructive and puzzling tendencies, it’s crucial to take a closer look at how our biology, psychology, and personal choices intertwine.
Our Evolutionary History
As humans, we have evolved with certain instincts, responses, and cognitive patterns that have helped us survive and thrive in a diverse array of environments.
Throughout much of human history, our ancestors faced numerous challenges and threats, including predators, disease, and scarcity of resources. To survive and thrive in these environments, we evolved a number of instincts and behaviors that helped us to avoid danger and secure our basic needs.
As Robert Wright explains:
Over the ages, via natural selection, our ancestors got smarter, developing bigger and bigger brains. But the rule that shaped and reshaped those brains, that added and refined new cognitive equipment, remained the same: the kinds of brains that did the best job of propelling genes into future generations were the kinds that became typical of the species.
So it’s not surprising that we’re good at things like eating, having sex, and killing or otherwise thwarting rivals. It’s not even all that shocking that we’re good at inventing complex and powerful technologies. After all, inventing a valued technology is a good way to elevate your status and power and hence the prospects for your genes
Our propensity for negativity bias – the tendency to pay more attention to negative events and emotions – has its roots in our ancestors’ need to constantly be on guard and responsive to potential threats.
Our ability to adapt to new environments also comes with a flip side: a strong resistance to change and loss aversion, which can discourage novel, innovative solutions to problems in favor of ingrained habits.
In today’s world, many of these instincts and behaviors are no longer adaptive or appropriate.
Our preference for high-calorie foods, developed to help us survive periods of food scarcity, now contributes to the epidemic of obesity and related health problems.
Our tendency to prioritize immediate rewards over delayed gratification, developed to help us seize opportunities in a risky and unpredictable world, now leads us to make impulsive and short-sighted decisions that can have long-term consequences.
Reward-Seeking
Our brains are wired to seek out rewards. This is a good thing, as it motivates us to do things that are necessary for our survival, such as eating and reproducing. However, it can also lead us to make poor choices, such as overeating or engaging in risky behaviors.
Groups and Tribes
We are also social creatures. We evolved to live in groups, and we rely on each other for support and protection.
Our tendency to form ingroups and outgroups, developed to help us cooperate and compete with others, can also lead to prejudice and discrimination based on race, gender, and other characteristics.
In many ways, the country’s extreme division is a result of our biology clashing with the media and tech environment.
Our desire for status and recognition, developed to help us establish our place in social hierarchies, can also lead to cutthroat competition, narcissism, and social isolation.
Our social instincts can also lead us to make decisions that are harmful to others, such as engaging in conflict or violence.
Cognitive Biases
Our brains are fill of cognitive biases, systematic errors or distortions in thinking that affect our judgments, decisions, and behavior.
These biases cause all kinds of problems for us, both individually and collectively.
Every day I read comments from incompetent and uninformed politicians, business leaders, and others arrogantly posing as experts. Yes, we all have a right to express our views, regardless of how lame they may be, but when it comes to making them public or to passing laws that affect others, we have a responsibility to support our views with actual evidence and not just the bluster of entitlement.
Here are a few examples of the ways our brain works counter to our best interest, and even warp reality itself.
Confirmation Bias: the tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms our pre-existing beliefs or expectations, while ignoring or discounting information that contradicts them.
The Sunk Cost Fallacy: This is the tendency to continue investing in something that is not working, simply because we have already invested a lot of time or money into it and we do not willing to admit that we have made a mistake (to ourselves as well as to others).
Overconfidence bias: the tendency to overestimate one’s own abilities, knowledge, or judgment, leading to unwarranted confidence and risk-taking and underestimating the likelihood of negative events.
The Dunning-Kruger effect: This is the tendency for people who are unskilled in a particular area to overestimate their own ability. This can lead to poor decision-making and a lack of willingness to learn from others.
The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves and wise people so full of doubts.
-Bertrand Russell
Availability Bias: This is the tendency to judge the likelihood of an event by how easily examples of it come to mind. This can lead us to overestimate the likelihood of rare events, such as plane crashes, and to underestimate the likelihood of common events, such as car accidents.
Anchoring Bias: the tendency to rely too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions, even if it is irrelevant or misleading.
Hindsight Bias: the tendency to perceive events as more predictable or inevitable after they have occurred, leading to an overestimation of one’s own ability to have predicted or prevented them.
Gambler’s Fallacy: the belief that past events can influence the probability of future events when in reality each event is independent and has no memory of previous events.
Loss Aversion Bias: This is the tendency to prefer avoiding losses to acquiring equivalent gains. This can lead us to make decisions that are not in our best interests, as we are more afraid of losing something than we are excited about gaining something.
Framing Effect: the way in which information is presented or framed can influence our perception of it, leading to different judgments or decisions.
The Halo Effect: This is the tendency to judge someone or something based on our overall impression of them, rather than on each individual characteristic. This can lead us to make unfair or inaccurate judgments.
Representativeness Heuristic: This is the tendency to judge the probability of an event by how similar it is to other events that we have experienced. This can lead us to make inaccurate judgments, as not all events are equally likely.
These are just a few examples of the many cognitive biases that have been identified and studied by psychologists and behavioral scientists. Understanding these biases can help us to recognize them in ourselves and others, and to make more rational and informed decisions.
We Are Capable Of Great Things
We are capable of great things, but we are also capable of great destruction. We have the power to create and destroy, and we often use our power for selfish reasons. This has led to environmental destruction, war, and other forms of violence.
Can we overcome our destructive tendencies?
I don’t know but I’m hopeful. The first step is to be aware of our biases and our limitations.
Studying Self-Sabotaging Tendencies
Researchers have explored the concept of self-sabotaging behavior through various lenses and methodologies, including neuroscience, social psychology, and cognitive-attributional theory.
Contradictory behaviors are frequently seen in different aspects of life, such as procrastination and self-handicapping. While such actions might seem counterproductive, they are often a form of self-preservation in the face of uncertainty.
For instance, neuroscience has revealed that people who procrastinate may actually be experiencing a heightened stress response with regard to the task they are postponing. This stress response can be mitigated by shifting attention to a less threatening activity. While this may provide some temporary relief, it ultimately works against our best interests in accomplishing our goals and making progress.
We need to understand that we are not always rational creatures and that we are often driven by our emotions.
Collectively, these individual-level biases and behaviors can have serious consequences for our societies and our planet. They can lead to environmental destruction, social inequality, political polarization, and other forms of harm. Moreover, they can be difficult to overcome, as they are deeply rooted in our biology and culture.
Once we are aware of our biases, we can start to make more informed decisions.
By recognizing these biases and behaviors, and by working to overcome them through education, dialogue, and collective action, we can begin to create a more just, sustainable, and fulfilling world for ourselves and future generations.
Strategies To Break Free Of Self-Sabotaging Behaviors
The following are ways that both as individuals and collectively we can overcome the self-destructive aspects of human nature and make progress toward our goals.
- Develop greater self-awareness: To make changes, we must first recognize unhelpful patterns and reflect on our motives and emotions.
- Emphasize self-compassion: Establishing realistic expectations and being kind to ourselves allows for progress, learning, and growth.
- Set SMART goals: Make goals specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound to better facilitate achievement.
- Establish habits that promote well-being: Prioritize activities that bring joy and satisfaction, while limiting those that lead to unhealthy behaviors.
- Challenge negative thoughts: Examine our inner dialogue and question whether these beliefs hold true in reality.
- Connect with others: We need to remember that we are not alone and that we need each other. When we work together, we can achieve great things.
- Have hope: We need to believe that we can create a better future and that we can overcome our destructive tendencies. If we have hope, we will be more likely to take action and make a difference.
Collectively and individually, we are capable of great things, but we also have the potential to destroy ourselves. It is up to us to choose which path we take.
