Most of us are “irrationally” afraid of snakes…but few of us are afraid of mushrooms. Since both can be potentially fatal and both can be good eating, this is puzzling.
Most of us are “irrationally” afraid of snakes…but few of us are afraid of mushrooms. Since both can be potentially fatal and both can be good eating, this is puzzling.That’s from “Information, Evolution and Utility,” a paper by Jeroen Swinkels and Larry Samuelson about why natural selection shaped our preferences the way it did. In their story, Nature accepts that there are things that we can learn that she hasn’t had time to program into us (like which mushrooms are safe to eat.) So instead of giving us a complete set of instructions for how to behave in every situation, she gave us beliefs and the instinct to experiment and learn. Then she lets us choose.
But there are somethings she knows better than us . For example that snakes will likely kill us. So, forseeing that these beliefs she has given us can, and often do, go astray, she builds in backup measures to stop us from acting on them in contexts where she is confident that she knows best. Hence irrational fears.
I think there is wide open arbitrage opportunity in behavioral economics to import ideas from principal-agent theory to explain why Nature (the principal) has given us (the agent) certain preferences (incentives.)
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February 27, 2009 at 3:50 am
Chefs Swallow, Winemakers Spit « Cheap Talk
[…] evolutionary explanation of time-inconsistency and a preference for commitment, a’la Samuelson and Swinkels. Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Pity the CookWhy I Can’t Enjoy Top ChefWill […]
March 20, 2009 at 1:44 pm
supagold
I see this line of argument fairly often, concerning terrorism vs other hazards, for instance. It always seemed to me that the difference was intent. Dangers which are perceived as being comprised of harmful intent, and are also unpredictable. IE, the you can’t be sure when the snake will strike, but you have the idea it “wants” to. The same with terrorists. Relatively more probable events that we perceive as purely chance or that we have control over seem less dangerous. (Car crashes, mushrooms, etc.)
Given malevolent self-aware cars (see Maximum Overdrive) or mushrooms that could sense your presence and choose to emit a poisonous cloud of spores, and I’d bet we’d see the same reactions.
June 25, 2009 at 10:27 pm
Emotions as an Incentive Mechanism « Cheap Talk
[…] nature has concocted to get us to do her bidding. I am on record in this blog as being a fan of this methodology. But I also maintain a healthy skepticism and not just at the tendency to concoct […]
March 18, 2014 at 10:27 am
Isaac
A note from my mom: it’s cheaper to order the log tuhrogh Amazon and it comes from the same place. Good tip.It comes already pregnant (hee hee!) with mushrooms. You can see lots of places where they will grow from. You “shock” it by putting it in cold water for 24 hours, and then mushrooms will start to grow in the next few days. After harvesting them, you have to let it sit for about 6 weeks, soaking it a couple times in regular water, and then you can shock it again and make it produce more mushrooms. Supposedly it will produce mushrooms for years to come! We shall see!
April 22, 2014 at 7:07 am
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Back in school, I’m doing so much learning.
November 10, 2009 at 10:50 am
Guest Blogger: Jeroen Swinkels « Cheap Talk
[…] paper he wrote with Larry Samuelson on evolution and behavioral biases and I blogged about it here before. He’s got lots of ideas on lots of subjects so he is going to be a blogging natural. So […]
May 26, 2014 at 11:32 am
Mo
Why so puzzled? Only a small percentage of mushrooms are toxic, and only when consumed raw. They don’t jump up and bite you as you walk past them: if you leave them alone they leave you alone. You can always counteract the mushroom toxins with other chemicals or by throwing up. But good luck with antidotes to snake venom which can act very quickly to paralyze you. Perhaps you need a better analogy.
July 17, 2014 at 10:25 am
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