For myself, if I look at myself and ask “why did I put so-and-so down” what I don’t find is “oh, I want to put people down”, I find “oh, I thought that if I did that it would make me look better in comparison” or something like that, where a deeper value is being served: making myself look good.
If there’s an audience “making myself look good” seems to be a plausible end. If there’s however no audience and I don’t have any reason that my friends considers people who cause him pain to look good, I fail to see how that would be an end for the strategy and the impulse is still there in some situations.
It’s seems to me like a strategy that’s completely maladaptive in a 1-on-1 context with a person with whom I want to relate as friends.
Humans are social creatures. We often assume there is an audience even when there isn’t one. Even if there isn’t one, there’s still the audience of me observing myself and making judgments about how good I look to myself.
You’re right that this seems to be a maladaptive strategy, but it’s also worth remembering that humans are bounded agents. I mean, humans seem to actually do the thing I’ve described, and a reasonable explanation is that they are short sighted in policy planning.
If there’s an audience “making myself look good” seems to be a plausible end. If there’s however no audience and I don’t have any reason that my friends considers people who cause him pain to look good, I fail to see how that would be an end for the strategy and the impulse is still there in some situations.
It’s seems to me like a strategy that’s completely maladaptive in a 1-on-1 context with a person with whom I want to relate as friends.
Humans are social creatures. We often assume there is an audience even when there isn’t one. Even if there isn’t one, there’s still the audience of me observing myself and making judgments about how good I look to myself.
You’re right that this seems to be a maladaptive strategy, but it’s also worth remembering that humans are bounded agents. I mean, humans seem to actually do the thing I’ve described, and a reasonable explanation is that they are short sighted in policy planning.