All you need is to suppose some humans can develop abstract thinking (AT) and some can’t. It doesn’t matter what the mechnanism is, or even if there is one or if it’s purely random. And suppose there is variation in how much people invest in social skills (SS) - again, it doesn’t matter what the source of the variation is.
Then the theory predicts that people who invest in SS a lot, don’t have time left for anything else, and in particular for AT. And so there is a selection effect such that the people who we see investing in AT, have smaller investments in SS than average.
Thank you for expanding your first comment. I think I got it. Vassar isn’t saying that seeking physiological comfort trains AT, only that training AT doesn’t train SS and vice versa.
It doesn’t matter what the incentive is.
All you need is to suppose some humans can develop abstract thinking (AT) and some can’t. It doesn’t matter what the mechnanism is, or even if there is one or if it’s purely random. And suppose there is variation in how much people invest in social skills (SS) - again, it doesn’t matter what the source of the variation is.
Then the theory predicts that people who invest in SS a lot, don’t have time left for anything else, and in particular for AT. And so there is a selection effect such that the people who we see investing in AT, have smaller investments in SS than average.
Thank you for expanding your first comment. I think I got it. Vassar isn’t saying that seeking physiological comfort trains AT, only that training AT doesn’t train SS and vice versa.