scholarly journals The Cynical Genius Illusion: Exploring and Debunking Lay Beliefs About Cynicism and Competence

2018 ◽  
Vol 45 (2) ◽  
pp. 254-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Stavrova ◽  
Daniel Ehlebracht
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Ability ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Academic Competency ◽  
Sociocultural Environment ◽  
Lay Beliefs ◽  
Negative Appraisal ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Low Levels

Cynicism refers to a negative appraisal of human nature—a belief that self-interest is the ultimate motive guiding human behavior. We explored laypersons’ beliefs about cynicism and competence and to what extent these beliefs correspond to reality. Four studies showed that laypeople tend to believe in cynical individuals’ cognitive superiority. A further three studies based on the data of about 200,000 individuals from 30 countries debunked these lay beliefs as illusionary by revealing that cynical (vs. less cynical) individuals generally do worse on cognitive ability and academic competency tasks. Cross-cultural analyses showed that competent individuals held contingent attitudes and endorsed cynicism only if it was warranted in a given sociocultural environment. Less competent individuals embraced cynicism unconditionally, suggesting that—at low levels of competence—holding a cynical worldview might represent an adaptive default strategy to avoid the potential costs of falling prey to others’ cunning.

The Non-normative Nature of Hobbesian Natural Law

2009 ◽  
Vol 22 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gary Herbert
Keyword(s):  
Civil Society ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Natural Law ◽  
Laws Of Nature ◽  
Normative Theory ◽  
Political Obligation ◽  
Natural Right ◽  
Normative Approach ◽  
Self Interest

AbstractIn this paper, I attempt to defend an older, non-normative approach to Hobbes's philosophy. I argue, against recent theories that maintain Hobbes's philosophy contains a normative theory of human behavior “which prescribes proper or morally permissible modes of action both within civil society and outside it”, that Hobbesian natural right and natural law are not normative postulates of a moral (normative) theory of political obligation but, rather, were considered by Hobbes to be, in the case of natural right, empirically verifiable hypotheses about human nature, and in the case of the laws of nature, nothing more than rationally consistent principles of natural self-interest, or the logic of natural right, based on the principles of Hobbes's physics and psychology.

scholarly journals La condición humana y el Estado en Hobbes

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Héctor Sierra Salas
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Natural Condition ◽  
State Theory ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Condition ◽  
Civil State ◽  
Political Work ◽  
The Human Condition

Sobre la condición humana en la teoría del Estado de Hobbes. La necesidad de comprender la condición humana como razón de ser del Estado, se hace evidente a los largo de la obra política de Hobbes. Por eso, cabe notar cómo, paralelamente en los libros Elementos del Derecho Natural y Político, De Civey el Leviatán, el pensador inglés dedica parte de su estudio a la explicación de la naturaleza humana, y a la dramática condición de los hombres que habitan en medio de una situación de guerra permanente, surgida a partir del dominiode las pasiones naturales sobre el comportamiento humano. Así mismo, hace ver que la legitimación del Estado Civil y la justificación de elementos como el Derecho, la Ley, la soberanía, entre otros, surge de la necesidad de garantizarla paz y la seguridad a los hombres, lo cual significa sacarlos de su estado natural.Palabras clave: Hobbes, estado de naturaleza, Estado Civil.AbstractThe Human Condition in Hobbes’ State Theory. The need to understand the human condition as reason of being of the State becomes evident throughout Hobbes’s political work. For this reason, it is important to note how in the books, The Elements of Law Natural and Politic, On the Citizen, and TheLeviathan, the English thinker dedicates part of his study to the explanation of human nature and to the dramatic condition of men who live in an environment of permanent war. This environment arises from the domain of natural passions that make up human behavior. Likewise, it is shown that the legitimacy of the Civil State and the justification of elements, such as rights, Law and sovereignty among others, arise from the need to guarantee peace and safety for humanbeings, which means removing them from their natural state.Key words: Hobbes, natural condition, Civil State.

The Tyranny of Idealistic Certitude and Imagined Utopias

2020 ◽  
pp. 63-104
Author(s):  
Daniel Chirot
Keyword(s):  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Mexican Revolution ◽  
Normal Human

This chapter argues that the more transformative the utopia, the more likely it was to meet inevitable, practical barriers. No utopia yet devised fully took into account the imperfections of normal human behavior. Rather than accepting the limitations of their utopian dreams, revolutionary leaders increasingly applied violence to reshape not only their societies but human nature itself. They died unrepentant, still certain they had been right. Within this backdrop, the chapter first turns to the confounding case of the Mexican Revolution of 1910–1920. This revolution had many of the elements that produced so much violence and repression in previous examples. Yet the Mexican Revolution never became as radical as these others because it did not formulate a coherent utopian ideal. After considering this seeming exception, the chapter turns to the examples of tyrannical certitude—revolutionary regimes willing and able to commit bloody excesses in order to bring about their imagined utopias.

Scientific History and Experimental History

2012 ◽  
Vol 43 (3) ◽  
pp. 443-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randolph Roth
Keyword(s):  
Social Sciences ◽  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Human Nature ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Natural Science ◽  
Evolutionary History ◽  
Natural Sciences ◽  
Natural Experiments ◽  
Comparative Analyses ◽  
Experimental History

The promise of scientific history and scientifically informed history is more modest today than it was in the nineteenth century, when a number of intellectuals hoped to transform history into a scientific mode of inquiry that would unite the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences, and reveal profound truths about human nature and destiny. But Edmund Russell in Evolutionary History and Jared Diamond and James A. Robinson in Natural Experiments of History demonstrate that historians can write interdisciplinary, comparative analyses using the strategies of nonexperimental natural science to search for deep patterns in human behavior and for correlates to those patterns that can lead to a better, though not infallible, understanding of historical causality.

scholarly journals ALTRUÍSMO E EGOÍSMO NA ECONOMIA E EM OUTRAS CIÊNCIAS SOCIAIS: EXPERIMENTOS E EVIDÊNCIAS EMPÍRICAS

2003 ◽  
Vol 29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marco Novarese
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Processes ◽  
Economic Models ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Economic Studies ◽  
Biological Selection

O artigo tem por objeto a análise da literatura (econômica e também psicológica e sociobiológica) que enfoca o altruísmo, entendido como negação de um comportamento puramente voltado ao próprio interesse. O comportamento egoísta geralmente tratado no âmbito dos tradicionais modelos econômicos é negado por meio de uma ampla série de observações empíricas e experimentais. Diferentes explicações têm avançado no sentido de justificar estes comportamentos. Uma idéia central é aquela de seleção cultural ou biológica que se conecta a vários temas: emoções, incerteza, racionalidade e processo cognitivo. O objetivo é fornecer ao leitor um survey das posições contemporâneas a respeito do confronto, e a possível integração, entre hipóteses de comportamentos egoísta e altruísta puros. Abstract This article analyses the literature on altruism produced in economics (and also in psychology and socio-biology). Altruism is generally regarded as behaviour alternative to self-interest pursuit. Selfish behaviour, as assumed by traditional economic models, is contested by a vast series of empirical and experimental observations. As a result, different accounts have been produced to explain altruistic behaviour. The idea of cultural or biological selection plays a key role among them, involving elements as various as emotions, uncertainty, rationality and cognitive processes. The aim of the article is to provide a survey of the current standings on the issue of which assumption, the selfishness or the altruistic treat of human behavior, is the most apposite to economic studies, and whether or not they can both stand together in the field.

scholarly journals “Economic man” in cross-cultural perspective: Behavioral experiments in 15 small-scale societies

2005 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 795-815 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joseph Henrich ◽  
Robert Boyd ◽  
Samuel Bowles ◽  
Colin Camerer ◽  
Ernst Fehr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Everyday Life ◽  
Cross Cultural ◽  
Canonical Model ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Behavioral Variability ◽  
Cultural Variation ◽  
Cultural Perspective ◽  
Behavioral Experiments ◽  
Self Interest ◽  
Experimental Games

Researchers from across the social sciences have found consistent deviations from the predictions of the canonical model of self-interest in hundreds of experiments from around the world. This research, however, cannot determine whether the uniformity results from universal patterns of human behavior or from the limited cultural variation available among the university students used in virtually all prior experimental work. To address this, we undertook a cross-cultural study of behavior in ultimatum, public goods, and dictator games in a range of small-scale societies exhibiting a wide variety of economic and cultural conditions. We found, first, that the canonical model – based on self-interest – fails in all of the societies studied. Second, our data reveal substantially more behavioral variability across social groups than has been found in previous research. Third, group-level differences in economic organization and the structure of social interactions explain a substantial portion of the behavioral variation across societies: the higher the degree of market integration and the higher the payoffs to cooperation in everyday life, the greater the level of prosociality expressed in experimental games. Fourth, the available individual-level economic and demographic variables do not consistently explain game behavior, either within or across groups. Fifth, in many cases experimental play appears to reflect the common interactional patterns of everyday life.

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