I love that the opening lines of the rhesus monkey study are:
"Individuals value information that improves decision making. When social interactions complicate the decision process, acquiring information about others should be particularly valuable."
Doesn't this sum up a big part of what Epstein et al were up to, exchanging information about powerful peers and their movements?
On reading the title I remembered when my grandparents used to say “be careful what you write” when sending letters to family in East Germany/ Lithuania because they thought letters were intercepted in the communist regimes. How far have we come. It’s even scarier now with our current technology.
I literally have to do this when I email my former PhD students who are now back in China. I just take it for granted that everything I write is going to be monitored, and I don't want to accidentally get them in trouble because I phrase something stupidly. One of them however is much more relaxed in the other direction, and I hope one day to be able to ask him where his confidence comes from…!
Much of this also seems to go back to Richard Posner’s thesis in 1967 that “gossip” can be good and adaptive for social groups.
These monkey experiments may just show that humans evolved for gossip, as gossip is informative about who to trust, who to turn to for help, etc (but of course taken to extremes or cruel extents are counterproductive).
I love that the opening lines of the rhesus monkey study are:
"Individuals value information that improves decision making. When social interactions complicate the decision process, acquiring information about others should be particularly valuable."
Doesn't this sum up a big part of what Epstein et al were up to, exchanging information about powerful peers and their movements?
On reading the title I remembered when my grandparents used to say “be careful what you write” when sending letters to family in East Germany/ Lithuania because they thought letters were intercepted in the communist regimes. How far have we come. It’s even scarier now with our current technology.
I literally have to do this when I email my former PhD students who are now back in China. I just take it for granted that everything I write is going to be monitored, and I don't want to accidentally get them in trouble because I phrase something stupidly. One of them however is much more relaxed in the other direction, and I hope one day to be able to ask him where his confidence comes from…!
Much of this also seems to go back to Richard Posner’s thesis in 1967 that “gossip” can be good and adaptive for social groups.
These monkey experiments may just show that humans evolved for gossip, as gossip is informative about who to trust, who to turn to for help, etc (but of course taken to extremes or cruel extents are counterproductive).
Small potatoes, but aspiring Smart Potatoes will use "reluctance" or "compunction"--not "reticence" (please!).