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
The stress response is incredibly ancient evolutionarily. Fish, birds and reptiles secrete the same stress hormones we do, yet their metabolism doesn't get messed up the way it does in people and other primates.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The stress response is a primitive survival mechanism shared among various species without the negative metabolic consequences seen in humans.
Robert Sapolsky highlights the evolutionary origins of the stress response, indicating that it is a fundamental survival mechanism that exists across many species, including fish, birds, and reptiles. Unlike humans and other primates, these animals do not exhibit the same detrimental effects on metabolism from stress, suggesting a difference in how stress impacts different organisms, reflecting both the adaptability of life and the specific vulnerabilities of human physiology.
Themes
StressHormonesEvolutionMetabolismSpecies
In practice
Example use cases
In a lecture about human health, one might quote Sapolsky to explain the impacts of stress.
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My adolescent rebellions took the form of, if anything, passive aggressively doing what was asked of me but doing it ten times more than what was asked of me, so that eventually they'd have to beg me to stop.
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When humans invented material inequality, they came up with a way of subjugating the low-ranking like nothing ever seen before in the primate world.
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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.
Robert SapolskyRead
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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