I used to very politely say that if there is free will then it's in all sorts of boring places, like whether you're going to pick up this or that fork as you begin your meal. There really is none: It's all biology.
Robert SapolskyRead
We have this amazing ability to turn on the exactly same stress response worrying about a mortgage that a zebra does when it's sprinting away from a lion.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Our stress responses can be similar regardless of the situation, whether it's a life-threatening event or everyday worries.
This quote highlights the paradoxical nature of human stress responses. Just as a zebra's body reacts to a predator, our bodies can trigger the same stress mechanisms in response to mundane concerns like financial burdens, indicating that our perceptions of stress can heavily influence our physiological reactions.
Themes
StressResponseMortgageWorryZebraLion
In practice
Example use cases
In a presentation about stress management, you might use this quote to illustrate how our worries can trigger strong physiological responses.
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Yes, genes are important for understanding our behavior. Incredibly important - after all, they code for every protein pertinent to brain function, endocrinology, etc., etc. But the regulation of genes is often more interesting than the genes themselves, and it's the environment that regulates genes.
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I expected social rank to be the determining factor in health, and in some ways that's true. But far more important is what sort of society that rank occurs in. Being low ranking in a benevolent troop is a hell of a lot better for your blood pressure than being low ranking in an aggressive troop.
Robert SapolskyRead
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