Why did reason evolve in human beings when it didn’t for other animals?
This becomes particularly interesting when we consider that few decisions are actually made using our pre-frontal cortex. As the saying goes, reason helps to get people to conclusions while emotions drive decisions.
One fascinating theory is that reason evolved to enable us to explain our behavior to others around us in our social groups. In a highly interdependent social species, the ability to explain/rationalize decisions became a valuable asset.
So, it follows that reason developed as our internal legal and PR function.
I’ve been thinking about this since I read this in Rory Sutherland’s excellent book, Alchemy, two weeks ago. Yesterday’s post was inspired by the book as well.. and I suspect there’ll be many more in the coming wees.
