:Analogies for Sustainable Development/90% Chimp, 10% Bee, 100% Human

Overview

The metaphor of humans as "90% Chimp and 10% Bee" was introduced by social psychologist, Jonathan Haidt, in his 2012 book The Righteous Mind. Neuroscientist and moral philosopher, Joshua Greene, is his 2013 Moral Tribes critically added the important caveat that ultimately, humans are "100% Human". These metaphors highlight the genetic baggage we carry as primates, our hive-like groupish cultural adaptations, and the uniquely transcendent human power of abstract reasoning as an elaboration our evolving capacity for culture.

Analogy Map

Human genetic baggage	primate behaviors
Human groupishness	Hive-mind behavior of bees
Human uniqueness	No non-human analog

Discussion

Quote Bank

Haidt (2012)^[1]:

“The human lineage may have started off acting very much like chimps, but by the time our ancestors started walking out of Africa, they had become at least a little bit like bees.”

Greene (2013)^[2]:

“Which part of us believes that we should maximize global happiness? This is neither chimp nor bee. This metamoral ideal is a distinctively human invention, a product of abstract reasoning.”

Tomasello et al (2005)^[3]:

“Human children’s skills of shared intentionality develop gradually during the first 14 months of life as two ontogenetic pathways intertwine: (1) the general ape line of understanding others as animate, goal-directed, and intentional agents; and (2) a species-unique motivation to share emotions, experience, and activities with other persons. The developmentaloutcome is children’s ability to construct dialogic cognitive representations, which enable them to participate in earnest in the collectivity that is human cognition.”

Further Resources

References

↑ Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York, NY, USA: Pantheon Books.
↑ Greene, J. (2013). Moral Tribes. Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them. New York, NY, USA: The Penguin Press.
↑ Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 675-735.

Analogies for Sustainable Development

[1] Haidt, J. (2012). The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. New York, NY, USA: Pantheon Books.

[2] Greene, J. (2013). Moral Tribes. Emotion, Reason and the Gap Between Us and Them. New York, NY, USA: The Penguin Press.

[3] Tomasello, M., Carpenter, M., Call, J., Behne, T., & Moll, H. (2005). Understanding and sharing intentions: The origins of cultural cognition. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 28, 675-735.

[1]

[2]

[3]