LIFESCI 15 Lecture Notes - Lecture 20: Colonoscopy, Fallacy, Natural Selection
Document Summary
Week 10 lecture 20- evolution & emotions: finding (& creating) happiness. A paradox: finding would make me happier, but rich people are not happier than poor people. Gross domestic product (gdp) per capita has increased consistently and dramatically but happiness stays the same, despite having more money (average home is twice as big, nicer cars, etc. ) Being rich doesn"t make us happy (once you"re above the amount of money needed to survive) Belief that if i had just a little bit more, i"ll be happy = popular anecdote. Why do our genes only care about improvement, rather than absolute levels of achievement: evolution is a relative game, the alleles that win are those that do better than the alternative alleles. They alter our behavior in ways beneficial for our genes. Happiness is a tool our genes use to induce us toward behaviors benefitting them, we imagine that achieving our goals will make us happy.
