Behave: The Biology of Humans at Our Best and Worst

ALSO BY ROBERT M. SAPOLSKY Monkeyluv and Other Essays on Our Lives as Animals A Primate’s Memoir The Trouble with Testosterone and Other Essays on the Biology of the Human Predicament Why Zebras Don’t Get Ulcers: A Guide to Stress, Stress-Related Diseases, and Coping Stress, the Aging Brain, and the Mechanisms of Neuron Death PENGUIN PRESS An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC 375 Hudson Street New York, New York 10014 penguin.com Copyright © 2017 by Robert M. Sapolsky Penguin supports copyright. Copyright fuels creativity, encourages diverse voices, promotes free speech, and creates a vibrant culture. Thank you for buying an authorized edition of this book and for complying with copyright laws by not reproducing, scanning, or distributing any part of it in any form without permission. You are supporting writers and allowing Penguin to continue to publish books for every reader. Illustration credits appear here. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Sapolsky, Robert M., author. Title: Behave: the biology of humans at our best and worst / Robert M. Sapolsky. Description: New York: Penguin Press, 2017. Identifiers: LCCN 2016056755 (print) | LCCN 2017006806 (ebook) | ISBN 9781594205071 (hardback) | ISBN 9780735222786 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Neurophysiology. | Neurobiology. | Animal behavior. | BISAC: SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Biology / General. | SOCIAL SCIENCE / Criminology. | SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Neuroscience. Classification: LCC QP351 .S27 2017 (print) | LCC QP351 (ebook) | DDC 612.8–dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2016056755 Interior Illustrations by Tanya Maiboroda here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here Version_1 To Mel Konner, who taught me. To John Newton, who inspired me. To Lisa, who saved me. Contents Also by Robert M. Sapolsky Title Page Copyright Dedication INTRODUCTION One THE BEHAVIOR Two ONE SECOND BEFORE Three SECONDS TO MINUTES BEFORE Four HOURS TO DAYS BEFORE Five DAYS TO MONTHS BEFORE Six ADOLESCENCE; OR, DUDE, WHERE’S MY FRONTAL CORTEX? Seven BACK TO THE CRIB, BACK TO THE WOMB Eight BACK TO WHEN YOU WERE JUST A FERTILIZED EGG Nine CENTURIES TO MILLENNIA BEFORE Ten THE EVOLUTION OF BEHAVIOR Eleven US VERSUS THEM Twelve HIERARCHY, OBEDIENCE, AND RESISTANCE Thirteen MORALITY AND DOING THE RIGHT THING, ONCE YOU’VE FIGURED OUT WHAT THAT IS Fourteen FEELING SOMEONE’S PAIN, UNDERSTANDING SOMEONE’S PAIN, ALLEVIATING SOMEONE’S PAIN Fifteen METAPHORS WE KILL BY Sixteen BIOLOGY, THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM, AND (OH, WHY NOT?) FREE WILL Seventeen WAR AND PEACE EPILOGUE Acknowledgments Appendix 1: Neuroscience 101 Appendix 2: The Basics of Endocrinology Appendix 3: Protein Basics Glossary of Abbreviations Notes Illustration Credits Index About the Author Introduction T he fantasy always runs like this: A team of us has fought our way into his secret bunker. Okay, it’s a fantasy, let’s go whole hog. I’ve single- handedly neutralized his elite guard and have burst into his bunker, my Browning machine gun at the ready. He lunges for his Luger; I knock it out of his hand. He lunges for the cyanide pill he keeps to commit suicide rather than be captured. I knock that out of his hand as well. He snarls in rage, attacks with otherworldly strength. We grapple; I manage to gain the upper hand and pin him down and handcuff him. “Adolf Hitler,” I announce, “I arrest you for crimes against humanity.” And this is where the medal-of-honor version of the fantasy ends and the imagery darkens. What would I do with Hitler? The viscera become so raw that I switch to passive voice in my mind, to get some distance. What should be done with Hitler? It’s easy to imagine, once I allow myself. Sever his spine at the neck, leave him paralyzed but with sensation. Take out his eyes with a blunt instrument. Puncture his eardrums, rip out his tongue. Keep him alive, tube-fed, on a respirator. Immobile, unable to speak, to see, to hear, only able to feel. Then inject him with something that will give him a cancer that festers and pustulates in every corner of his body, that will grow and grow until every one of his cells shrieks with agony, till every moment feels like an infinity spent in the fires of hell. That’s what should be done with Hitler. That’s what I would want done to Hitler. That’s what I would do to Hitler. — I’ve had versions of this fantasy since I was a kid. Still do at times. And when I really immerse myself in it, my heart rate quickens, I flush, my fists clench. All those plans for Hitler, the most evil person in history, the soul most deserving of punishment. But there is a big problem. I don’t believe in souls or evil, think that the word “wicked” is most pertinent to a musical, and doubt that punishment should be relevant to criminal justice. But there’s a problem with that, in turn —I sure feel like some people should be put to death, yet I oppose the death penalty. I’ve enjoyed plenty of violent, schlocky movies, despite being in favor of strict gun control. And I sure had fun when, at some kid’s birthday party and against various unformed principles in my mind, I played laser tag, shooting at strangers from hiding places (fun, that is, until some pimply kid zapped me, like, a million times and then snickered at me, which made me feel insecure and unmanly). Yet at the same time, I know most of the lyrics to “Down by the Riverside” (“ain’t gonna study war no more”) plus when you’re supposed to clap your hands. In other words, I have a confused array of feelings and thoughts about violence, aggression, and competition. Just like most humans. To preach from an obvious soapbox, our species has problems with violence. We have the means to create thousands of mushroom clouds; shower heads and subway ventilation systems have carried poison gas, letters have carried anthrax, passenger planes have become weapons; mass rapes can constitute a military strategy; bombs go off in markets, schoolchildren with guns massacre other children; there are neighborhoods where everyone from pizza delivery guys to firefighters fears for their safety. And there are the subtler versions of violence—say, a childhood of growing up abused, or the effects on a minority people when the symbols of the majority shout domination and menace. We are always shadowed by the threat of other humans harming us. If that were solely the way things are, violence would be an easy problem to approach intellectually. AIDS—unambiguously bad news—eradicate. Alzheimer’s disease—same thing. Schizophrenia, cancer, malnutrition, flesh- eating bacteria, global warming, comets hitting earth—ditto. The problem, though, is that violence doesn’t go on that list. Sometimes we have no problem with it at all. This is a central point of this book—we don’t hate violence. We hate and fear the wrong kind of violence, violence in the wrong context. Because violence in the right context is different. We pay good money to watch it in a