{"id":74730,"date":"2022-08-04T21:23:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-05T01:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=74730"},"modified":"2022-08-08T12:10:20","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:10:20","slug":"hidden-motives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/hidden-motives\/","title":{"rendered":"Hidden Motives: Recognizing the Elephant in the Brain"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>How can you determine the true motives behind behaviors? How can you become less selfish and purer in your own motives?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In <em>The Elephant in the Brain<\/em>, Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson argue that human behavior is driven by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/human-motives\/\">selfish motives<\/a> hidden behind altruistic pretexts. They call these selfish motives the \u201celephant in the brain.\u201d If we learn to recognize these \u201celephants,\u201d we can improve our individual behaviors and our social institutions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Continue reading for some tips on recognizing hidden motives in yourself and others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Recognizing Hidden Motives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If hidden motives really are as prevalent as Simler and Hanson say, we might be left with a bleak picture of humanity. The authors themselves acknowledge that we might not be happy to hear their insights\u2014few of us want to admit when we\u2019re driven by selfishness and other \u201cbad\u201d motives. Perhaps worse is the thought that our valued social institutions are based on selfish deception.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But, there\u2019s a silver lining to learning about the elephant: Once we recognize it, we can do something about it. Here are a few ideas about how taming the elephant lets us &#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>&#8230; become less selfish and less self-deceived<\/strong>. For example, a researcher who honestly acknowledges that her work is driven in part by a desire to advance her career and win acclaim will be more likely to resist the temptation to doctor her results in order to get published. That\u2019s because she\u2019ll be able to choose between her (no longer) hidden desire for self-advancement and her altruistic desire to further scientific knowledge.<ul><li>(Shortform note: According to stoicism popularizer Ryan Holiday, unchecked selfish motives can actually get in the way of your career. In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/ego-is-the-enemy\"><em>Ego Is the Enemy<\/em><\/a>, Holiday argues that aiming for recognition causes you to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/app\/book\/ego-is-the-enemy#aim-to-em-do-em-something-rather-than-em-be-em-someone\">compromise your values<\/a>\u2014instead, he suggests focusing on accomplishing things that will make a difference to your profession or to the world at large.)<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>&#8230; accept our selfishness and transform it<\/strong> into<strong> <\/strong><em>enlightened self-interest<\/em> by deliberately helping others in order to advance ourselves. For example, businesses with strong charitable cultures might enjoy better sales and customer loyalty\u2014but only if their charitable engagement is genuine and effective. When businesses are honest about their desire to make money, it\u2019s easier to see how helping others can actually advance this selfish goal.&nbsp;<ul><li>(Shortform note: We tend to think of selfishness and selflessness as opposites, but according to Adam Grant, they are independent motivations, meaning that you can be selfish and selfless at the same time. In fact, in Give and Take, Grant argues that balancing these two motivations is crucial to your happiness and mental health.)<\/li><\/ul><\/li><li><strong>&#8230; design better institutions. <\/strong>The authors point out that we can\u2019t change our social systems until we understand the hidden motives that drive them. For example, if we want to reform the penal system, we first need to recognize how unspoken motives (like the desire to have criminals suffer) are at odds with our stated goals (to rehabilitate offenders or to remove them from society for everyone\u2019s safety).&nbsp;<ul><li>(Shortform note: For example, being aware of our true motives might help reduce what Daniel Kahneman, Olivier Sibony, and Cass R. Sunstein call noise\u2014unwanted variances in judgment that reduce the quality and consistency of our social systems. In Noise, the authors argue that the variances result in part from differences in opinion and perspective from one judger to the next. For example, if a group of judges says<em> <\/em>they believe in rehabilitation\u2014but some of them have hidden vengeance or punishment motivations\u2014then as a whole, their sentencing decisions will be noisy.)<\/li><\/ul><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"h-exercise-spot-your-own-elephants\"><strong>Exercise: Spot Your Own Elephants<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Simler and Hanson argue that many of our actions are driven by selfish motives hidden behind altruistic facades. They say these motives\u2014and our tendency to hide them\u2014are built into the human brain, which means none of us are immune. With that in mind, see if you can identify some of your own elephants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Describe a time when you did or said something that you presented as selfless but was in fact selfish. Keep in mind that at the time, you<em> <\/em>may have genuinely thought your action <em>was<\/em> selfless.<\/li><li>What was the <em>real <\/em>motivation behind your action? Why wouldn\u2019t you have wanted to admit this motivation to others or yourself?<\/li><li>If you face the same situation again, now armed with this awareness, do you think you will act differently? How so?<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How can you determine the true motives behind behaviors? How can you become less selfish and purer in your own motives? In The Elephant in the Brain, Kevin Simler and Robin Hanson argue that human behavior is driven by selfish motives hidden behind altruistic pretexts. They call these selfish motives the \u201celephant in the brain.\u201d If we learn to recognize these \u201celephants,\u201d we can improve our individual behaviors and our social institutions. Continue reading for some tips on recognizing hidden motives in yourself and others.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":74733,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,43,24],"tags":[708],"class_list":["post-74730","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-self-improvement","category-society","tag-the-elephant-in-the-brain","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hidden Motives: Recognizing the Elephant in the Brain - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Elephant in the Brain says that behavior is driven by selfish motives hidden behind altruistic pretexts. 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