Hm. I know that the biological term may not be quite right here (although the brain is biological, scaling this idea up may be problematic) but I have wondered if certain psychological traits are not epigenetic: that is, it isn’t that you are some strange mutant if you express terminal value X strongly and someone else expresses it weakly. Rather, that our brain structures lead to a certain common set of shared values but that different environmental conditions lead to those values being expressed in a stronger or weaker sense.
So, for instance, if “status” (however that cashes out here) is highly important instrumentally in ones younger years, the brain develops that into a terminal value. If “intelligence” (again, cashing that out will be important) is highly important instrumentally in younger years, than it develops into a terminal value. It isn’t that anyone else is a horrible mutant, we probably all share values, but those values may conflict and so it may matter which traits we express more strongly. Of course, if it is anything like an epigentic phenomenon then there may be some very complicated factors to consider.
Possible falsifiers for this: if environment, particularly social environment (although evolution is dumb and it could be some mechanism that just correlates highly) in formative years does not correlate highly with terminal values later in life. If people actually do seem to share a set of values with relatively equal strength. If terminal values are often modified strongly after the majority of brain development has ceased. If some terminal values do not correlate with some instrumental value, but nevertheless vary strongly between individuals.
As a kid, my parents gave me a TON of trouble for exhibiting routine low-status behaviour (chewing on my shirt, refusing to wear a shirt, wearing stained shirts, showering once or twice a week, getting all sorts of dirty, eating food with the wrong fork...), and my mom specifically taught me a fair amount of etiquette (correct fork, how to set a table for a 3-course meal, so on)
So, I’m anecdotally evidence against your theory :)
I upvoted it because the minimum we’d get without running a study would be anecdotal evidence.
I’m not sure that there is a close link between “status” and “behaving.” Most of the kids I knew who I would call “status-seeking” were not particularly well behaved: often the opposite. Most of the things you are talking about seem to fall into “good behavior” rather than “status.”
Additionally… well, we’d probably need to track a whole lot of factors to figure out which ones, based on your environment, would be selected for. And currently, I have no theory as to which timeframes would be the most important to look at, which would make such a search more difficult.
Good behaviour on your part would get your parents higher status with their peers, bad behaviour (for certain values of ‘bad’) would get you higher status with your peers.
Hm. I know that the biological term may not be quite right here (although the brain is biological, scaling this idea up may be problematic) but I have wondered if certain psychological traits are not epigenetic: that is, it isn’t that you are some strange mutant if you express terminal value X strongly and someone else expresses it weakly. Rather, that our brain structures lead to a certain common set of shared values but that different environmental conditions lead to those values being expressed in a stronger or weaker sense.
So, for instance, if “status” (however that cashes out here) is highly important instrumentally in ones younger years, the brain develops that into a terminal value. If “intelligence” (again, cashing that out will be important) is highly important instrumentally in younger years, than it develops into a terminal value. It isn’t that anyone else is a horrible mutant, we probably all share values, but those values may conflict and so it may matter which traits we express more strongly. Of course, if it is anything like an epigentic phenomenon then there may be some very complicated factors to consider.
Possible falsifiers for this: if environment, particularly social environment (although evolution is dumb and it could be some mechanism that just correlates highly) in formative years does not correlate highly with terminal values later in life. If people actually do seem to share a set of values with relatively equal strength. If terminal values are often modified strongly after the majority of brain development has ceased. If some terminal values do not correlate with some instrumental value, but nevertheless vary strongly between individuals.
As a kid, my parents gave me a TON of trouble for exhibiting routine low-status behaviour (chewing on my shirt, refusing to wear a shirt, wearing stained shirts, showering once or twice a week, getting all sorts of dirty, eating food with the wrong fork...), and my mom specifically taught me a fair amount of etiquette (correct fork, how to set a table for a 3-course meal, so on)
So, I’m anecdotally evidence against your theory :)
I upvoted it because the minimum we’d get without running a study would be anecdotal evidence.
I’m not sure that there is a close link between “status” and “behaving.” Most of the kids I knew who I would call “status-seeking” were not particularly well behaved: often the opposite. Most of the things you are talking about seem to fall into “good behavior” rather than “status.”
Additionally… well, we’d probably need to track a whole lot of factors to figure out which ones, based on your environment, would be selected for. And currently, I have no theory as to which timeframes would be the most important to look at, which would make such a search more difficult.
There may be important differences between avoiding low status and seeking high status.
Definitely. These are the sorts of things that would need to be evaluated if my very rough sketch were to be turned into an actual theory of values.
Good behaviour on your part would get your parents higher status with their peers, bad behaviour (for certain values of ‘bad’) would get you higher status with your peers.