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A comment on Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise.

Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by ClayFerguson on Friday December 04, 2015 @10:44PM (#10680727)
This makes perfect sense. There's a huge evolutionary advantage in calling attention to a bad actor (someone behaving in a way not advantageous to the tribe), because that person will either change, or be expelled from the group, or killed, which helps the group. However praising someone just makes them feel good, and is not a real motivator. Humans evolved to be violent and critical, because the tribes that didn't have that attribute got killed off, conquered, or died of starvation during hard times.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by yanowitz on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:03PM (#10680778)
Humans evolved meeting their survival needs collectively (in hunter-gatherer times). Language development aided this cooperative mode of production. So too would criticism and praise.

I've found reductionist social Darwinism lacks explanatory for these phenomena.

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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by ZenoArrow on Saturday December 05, 2015 @06:52AM (#10681631)
> "Humans evolved to be violent and critical, because the tribes that didn't have that attribute got killed off, conquered, or died of starvation during hard times."

Why are you so sure that it was competition and not cooperation that ensured the strength of a tribe?

Or to put it another way, could cooperation, even cooperation with those you dislike, also lead to a materially successful tribe?

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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by danharaj on Friday December 04, 2015 @10:46PM (#10680737)
Every time someone armchairs evolutionary psychology on the Internet my brainstem tries to curl in on itself.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by mei0Iesh on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:01PM (#10680773)
This makes perfect sense. There's a huge evolutionary advantage in calling attention to a bad actor (someone behaving in a way not advantageous to the tribe), because that person will either change, or be expelled from the group, or downvoted until their comment disappears, which helps the group.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by throwaway999888 on Saturday December 05, 2015 @11:45AM (#10682389)
> This makes perfect sense.

Just-so stories have that trait.

"There's a huge evolutionary advantage in calling attention to good actors (someone behaving a way which is advantegeous to the tribe), because that person will have that behaviour reinforced, and the social proof will motivate others to follow suite. This helps the group."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Just-so_story

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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by danharaj on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:06PM (#10680788)
Making sense is not enough to be scientific. You can make up a plausible evolutionary cause for virtually any behavior. It's almost impossible to test those hypotheses. It's exasperating to even try to hold a conversation when the opening is something as reductionist and anti-scientific as the grandparent post.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by mei0Iesh on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:42PM (#10680902)
... I don't think you caught what I did there.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by _up on Saturday December 05, 2015 @03:59AM (#10681344)
I think the future of popularity voting algorithms will have to include blame. I wan't to be able to blame and plonk someone who inserts Native Ads in my News Stream. Voting Algorithms are currently doing the opposite. Reputable News Outlets can shift blame to anonymous voters for pushing Ads.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by intjk on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:29PM (#10680870)
Oh now, it can be fun to think about. :) Can't blame a pal for wanting to share.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by vezzy-fnord on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:01PM (#10680771)
It stands to reason that the brain structures we have without deliberate practice are not some reflection of our social context, but a neutral state of the human brain, what with your aptly demonstrating the phenomenon being discussed even in light of professing awareness of an alleged "hierarchical society based on relations of dominance".
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by throwaway999888 on Saturday December 05, 2015 @11:50AM (#10682408)
I guess having a negative reaction and voicing it is "assigning blame". That seems watered out though.

And being aware of some dynamic is totally different from being free or above its influence.

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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by danharaj on Friday December 04, 2015 @11:17PM (#10680831)
Expressing exasperation isn't assigning blame.
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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by rvense on Saturday December 05, 2015 @08:21AM (#10681795)
I think of this:

http://www.craigflint.com/graphics/illustrations/justsoeleph...

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Re:Human Brains Are Wired to Blame Rather Than Praise by vlehto on Saturday December 05, 2015 @06:43AM (#10681612)
Is that consistent with armchairing any unproven theory?
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