The Animal In Us
It all begins with an idea.
Summary
How close to animals are we when it comes to taking risks, playing games in life, and bluffing our way though situations? Let’s consider how animals behave to get what they want and compare it to us humans.
The Animal In Us
Here’s an interesting thing to ponder on. If we, as humans, are essentially animals, do we act like animals do when it comes to risk and game play? The answer is, yes, because animals, just like humans, don’t always act in a rational and predictable way. Yet, animals are still acting on instinct rather than calculating risks.
If you watch enough wildlife shows on tv you’ll soon see that animals do things we don’t expect. They work as a team, different species help out other species if it’s mutually beneficial, and sometimes they even appear to sacrifice themselves and do some down right crazy things. So just like humans then!
Evolution and risk
The fact is, Animals have learned over time what works and what doesn’t. They know who their predators are and they have figured out some ways to outsmart them. If we watch penguins at the shoreline about to jump in and catch some fish for their lunch, we see the dilemma they have regarding being hungry and also knowing there are seals in that water who are viewing them as lunch. The penguins have worked out a few different strategies overtime and interestingly different groups of penguins will undertake different approaches. They may all jump in the water at the same time, knowing in a large group their individual odds of being eaten by a seal are small. Sometimes the penguins stand on the shore for a very longtime, getting hungrier, until one penguin can stand it no longer and jumps in first. This is an endurance test, as the ones who can last out the longest will be the safest. Lastly, they may collectively choose a volunteer to jump into the water and test it out for seals. It could be random, or it could be that they choose the most disposal member of the group, but someone has to go and this poor penguin gets pushed in.
Back it up or bluff?
Where we do differ from the animals is in the art of bluffing. Animals do take risks, but they do so with the confidence that they have what it takes to back it up. Animals who put on a display of force for their opponents or possible predators, do so with the strength to follow through on this threat if they have to. Often they don’t have to and the threat is enough, but animals aren’t usually thinking about bluffing. We, on the other hand are bluffing all the time and many people go through life and get very far by doing just that. We take calculated risks, whereas animals are acting on instincts and their evolutionary lessons that have taught their genes how to behave in certain situations. And this is where we get the upper hand. We can learn a lot from the behaviour of animals, but we can always manipulate this information and use it to suit our situations. And when it comes to playing games, we can bluff much better than a penguin!