Baboons always attack the weakest party in an altercation. Quite right too. We must never forget our glorious simian heritage.Naked Lunch, by William S. Burroughs
It is still controversial to say we evolved from monkeys. Some use their acceptance of this idea to claim higher social status than others, but I can’t be happy about comparing degrees of partial ignorance and calling one the winner. For the purposes of this article, we are going to assume that evolution occurred and that humans have a recent origin in simians, and even more, that some humans interbred with apes relatively recently.
Not surprising, then, is that they share some of our most basic cognitive traits:
This self-delusion, the result of what’s called cognitive dissonance, has been demonstrated over and over by researchers who have come up with increasingly elaborate explanations for it. Psychologists have suggested we hone our skills of rationalization in order to impress others, reaffirm our “moral integrity†and protect our “self-concept†and feeling of “global self-worth.â€
Once a monkey was observed to show an equal preference for three colors of M&M’s — say, red, blue and green — he was given a choice between two of them. If he chose red over blue, his preference changed and he downgraded blue. When he was subsequently given a choice between blue and green, it was no longer an even contest — he was now much more likely to reject the blue. ^
The article goes on to point out that cognitive dissonance is a coping mechanism. If you want the red fruit, but get given the blue one, and still need to eat, you have to find some way of liking that blue fruit. Similarly, we don’t all look like movie stars or have the skills of Bruce Lee. We have to find some way of still liking ourselves, which we often do by enjoying watching society’s truly stupid and ugly struggle (this sadistic aspect of human behavior has revealed itself enough to me that I no longer have any guilt about stating the obvious).
Like any coping mechanism, this can lead to problems, since it’s a weakness we’d rather not reveal. Our problems begin when we cross our individual coping mechanisms with social pressures, and we hone our skills of rationalization in order to impress others, reaffirm our “moral integrity†and protect our “self-concept†and feeling of “global self-worth”, as the article says. Look to the grossest examples of retrograde stupidity in humanity and you will see this mechanism at work.