[b]Robert M. Sapolsky
Genes are rarely about inevitability, especially when it comes to humans, the brain, or behavior. They’re about vulnerability, propensities, tendencies.[/b]
Imagine then what that makes memes.
We live well enough to have the luxury to get ourselves sick from purely social, psychological stress.
On the other hand, sick is sick.
The brain is heavily influenced by genes. But from birth through young adulthood, the part of the human brain that most defines us (frontal cortex) is less a product of the genes with which you started life than of what life has thrown at you. Because it is the least constrained by genes and most sculpted by experience. This must be so, to be the supremely complex social species that we are. Ironically, it seems that the genetic program of human brain development has evolved to, as much as possible, free the frontal cortext from genes.
Note to Satyr: Uh-oh.
In other words, the default state is to trust, and what the amygdala does is learn vigilance and distrust.
ASAP as it were.
Testosterone makes people cocky, egocentric, and narcissistic.
Men in particular.
if you’re stressed like a normal mammal in an acute physical crisis, the stress response is lifesaving. But if instead you chronically activate the stress response for reasons of psychological stress, your health suffers.
Cue the postmodern world.