Written by Hyunjae O. (KIS '22)
━━ Nov 19th, 2020 ━━
We were often taught that many hierarchical structures were socially constructed instead of having a biological basis. However, recently, a controversial professor Peterson wrote in his bestselling book, 12 Rules for Life, that hierarchies are more based on biology than society. He says that the same neuron structures that affect humans are also existing in Lobsters which diverged from humans in an evolutionary perspective a third of a billion years ago. How much of this statement is true? Are social hierarchies neurologically built into us? If so, how much?
When male lobsters are in mating season, they fight with each other in order to impress the females. When scientists observed the behavior of lobsters after they had won, the behavior of the winner and the loser seemed to differ substantially. Male lobsters who won the fight flex their body and are more likely to get into fights with other lobsters. Male lobsters that had lost the fight crunched over and were less likely to fight with other lobsters.
This behavior in many ways is similar to the behavior of human beings. When we think of men that are “popular” or “higher up in the dominance hierarchy,'' they have their shoulders back, chin up, and ready to take on the challenges of the world. However, men who tend to be less popular or “lower down in the dominance hierarchy,” they have their shoulders hunched over, heads facing down, and easily intimidated by others. The reason that there is this overarching similarity between lobsters and humans is because of a chemical called serotonin.
Serotonin has many functions. It is often called the “Happy Chemical” because it contributes to the happiness of individuals. Serotonin is released when lobsters move up the dominance hierarchy and the same thing goes for humans. Serotonin increases the confidence of individual lobsters and humans. Hence, humans and lobsters flex their bodies when their brain releases serotonin. This signals to others that you are “higher up the social hierarchy” which attracts females and sends other males a message that the individual isn’t afraid to fight. The exact opposite occurs when there is a lack of serotonin. A lack of serotonin reduces the confidence and the mood of the individual making them hunch over, protecting their soft parts such as the stomach. This is why humans tend to hunch their backs when they are depressed: it is a primordial response to block potential threats. This type of behavior signals to others that the individual is not a threat and females wouldn’t be attracted to the individual.
Interestingly, when both lobsters and humans are given antidepressants (which contain serotonin), this “lower down in the dominance hierarchy” behavior can be fixed. The Artificial serotonin that is released to the brain through the antidepressant has the same effect as natural serotonin. This is why human antidepressants can be used on lobsters and still have the same effect.
So what is the conclusion? The conclusion is not that humans are the same as lobsters or that all types of hierarchies are justified because it is rooted in neuroscience. The point of this article is that the capacity for forming hierarchies was in existence for over 350 to 700 million years. It is so old that 60 million years ago, there weren’t even trees. To suggest that the human instinct to sort themselves into hierarchies is merely a social construct in an overly simplistic way of viewing the world and needs revision. There is a purpose for hierarchies, often very useful. We want a hierarchy of competence in our societies. We want the best doctors, the best engineers, the best teachers, and the best people to move up the hierarchies of their particular domain so that more people can be influenced by them and that society would be impacted in a positive direction.
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Credits:
D., Friederici Angela, et al. “Hierarchy Processing in Human Neurobiology: How Specific Is It?” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 18 Nov. 2019, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2018.0391.
Hilgetag Claus C. and Goulas Alexandros, et al. “'Hierarchy' in the Organization of Brain Networks.” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B, 24 Feb. 2020, royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0319.
Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on a National Neural Circuitry Database. “Overview of Neuroscience Research: A Closer Look at the Neural Hierarchy.” Mapping the Brain and Its Functions: Integrating Enabling Technologies into Neuroscience Research., U.S. National Library of Medicine, 1 Jan. 1991, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK234389/.
Munuera, Jérôme, et al. “Shared Neural Coding for Social Hierarchy and Reward Value in Primate Amygdala.” Nature News, Nature Publishing Group, 19 Feb. 2018, www.nature.com/articles/s41593-018-0082-8.
Funkhouser, Jake A, et al. “Social Network and Dominance Hierarchy Analyses at Chimpanzee Sanctuary Northwest.” PloS One, Public Library of Science, 14 Feb. 2018, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5812591/.
Leonor Gonçalves Research Associate in Neuroscience. “Psychologist Jordan Peterson Says Lobsters Help to Explain Why Human Hierarchies Exist – Do They?” The Conversation, 14 May 2019, theconversation.com/psychologist-jordan-peterson-says-lobsters-help-to-explain-why-human-hierarchies-exist-do-they-90489.
Watanabe, Noriya, and Miyuki Yamamoto. “Neural Mechanisms of Social Dominance.” Frontiers in Neuroscience, Frontiers Media S.A., 17 June 2015, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4469834/.
Peterson, Jordan. “Beyond Empiricism.” Google µµ¼, Google, 1982, books.google.co.kr/books?id=bZioQ3X6cQcC&lpg=PA107&ots=FGPTmBAqSX&dq=jordan%2Bpeterson%2Blobsters&lr&pg=PP4#v=onepage&q=jordan%20peterson%20lobsters&f=false.
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