Us, big brained.

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I have chosen to investigate the human personality and the factors that influence it for my English summative. While I used the fictional novel "The Picture of Dorian Gray" by Oscar Wilde to see how other people could possibly influence personality, I also read a slightly less fun and less exasperating novel to see what else our personality could be influenced by.

Sapiens written Yuval Noah Harari was actually quite fun and interesting to read. Most of the book didn't have anything to do with my topic, but there were some parts that had connections with how the human mind has developed. What I gathered after reading sapiens was that our personalities could be influenced in some ways by evolution.

According to this book, we are smart. Our scientific name is Homo sapiens -- Homo meaning man, and sapiens meaning wise. So we are the Wise Man. Strange, right? Sometimes, I don't think that is quite true. However, according to this book, what is true is the fact that we have a more complex society, language, and more enhanced cognitive abilities than any other species on Earth.

This book discussed how we as a species have evolved into one that really values social ties. Way back when Neanderthals stilled roamed the Earth and we were far from the top of the food chain, where we lie now, we were vulnerable to everything around us. We had much larger brains than any other living being, but having a big brain didn't really mean much when fighting a giant gorilla or something. Having such large mind really took a toll on our body. As a result, we were physically weaker than other animals and even our extremely close cousins like the Neanderthals. Instead of relying on force and strength to survive, because there is no way we would have survived if we tried that, Homo sapiens valued being able to communicate with each other in order to warn about danger and create plans to defend ourselves. We developed our language to be able to convey much more information in less words, and we were able to connect and articulate meaning and intent. With this, we were able to plan and carry out complex actions such as avoiding predators and hunting prey.

We are also able to bond with and transmit large amounts of information regarding human relationships. A big theory, and there have been studies to prove it, is that the reason our language is so complex is because of gossip, believe it or not. The reasoning behind this is that we needed different ways to say the same thing, and needed to mean different things when saying only one phrase. Our ability to transmit information from one person to another was something that was needed for survival back then, and carries on today when we gossip about who cheated on who, or how today you should evade someone because their outfit is ugly enough to burn your retinas. Gossip also helped us cooperate with each other, something that was needed way back then since it was pretty impossible for a single human being to survive all on their own.

The need to convey information now seems pretty much like an instinct, as even newborn babies know to cry when something is wrong or when they need something. Interacting with others and our environment is a big part of our personality, and from this book, it seems that a big factor in that is the evolution of our species.

What I have realized after reading this book as well as The Picture of Dorian Gray is that our personalities are so not unique. We are all affected by the people around us -- my opinions are probably the same as millions of other peoples, my passions are shared among too many people to count, the way I talk and act based on how I see other people act and talk in certain settings, and now I learn that it seems at least part of our personality is influenced by a universal factor that affects all human beings -- evolution.

Excuse me while I go have an existential crisis.

Until next time,

A Little Fall of Rain