The valence-sharing mechanism accounts for the effectiveness of television advertising that makes no rational sense. An ad shows happy laughing young beautiful people on a beach, enjoying Pedro’s Tortilla Chips, with no logical connection. Show the ad 100 times and the positive valence of happy laughing young beautiful beach people transfers over to Pedro’s Tortilla Chips. Then next time you’re in the store you reach for Pedro’s without knowing why.
Portions of the social purpose of the ”like/admire” system could be replaced by rational negotiation. If we were soulless, we would note who is particularly good to affiliate with, and then agree with them that you will help each other as needed. But that assumes the existence of language, which is possibly no more than 50,000 years old. The like/admire system is much older than that: my dogs love me, and are loyal and obedient. Or, to be precise, they act out an emotion toward me that looks homologous to the human like/admire feeling.
Quite right.
The valence-sharing mechanism accounts for the effectiveness of television advertising that makes no rational sense. An ad shows happy laughing young beautiful people on a beach, enjoying Pedro’s Tortilla Chips, with no logical connection. Show the ad 100 times and the positive valence of happy laughing young beautiful beach people transfers over to Pedro’s Tortilla Chips. Then next time you’re in the store you reach for Pedro’s without knowing why.
Portions of the social purpose of the ”like/admire” system could be replaced by rational negotiation. If we were soulless, we would note who is particularly good to affiliate with, and then agree with them that you will help each other as needed. But that assumes the existence of language, which is possibly no more than 50,000 years old. The like/admire system is much older than that: my dogs love me, and are loyal and obedient. Or, to be precise, they act out an emotion toward me that looks homologous to the human like/admire feeling.