But how do we know humans are acting on an actual selfless decision and not instinctual behaviour? There is some evidence that, in some situations at least, our body/instinct can act first and we just end up rationalizing that we wanted to perform those actions to ourselves, as we are performing them. But that’s a bit of a thought experiment, the truth is, it’s very hard to know. And we can show empathy in very abstracted situations as well, where instinct is probably less of a factor.
Interesting! That sounds a bit like the experiment Roger Sperry did, where multiple pls brains were split and one of the half’s just kept on rationalize everything the other half did even if it didn’t make sense to it.
But how do we know humans are acting on an actual selfless decision and not instinctual behaviour? There is some evidence that, in some situations at least, our body/instinct can act first and we just end up rationalizing that we wanted to perform those actions to ourselves, as we are performing them. But that’s a bit of a thought experiment, the truth is, it’s very hard to know. And we can show empathy in very abstracted situations as well, where instinct is probably less of a factor.
Interesting! That sounds a bit like the experiment Roger Sperry did, where multiple pls brains were split and one of the half’s just kept on rationalize everything the other half did even if it didn’t make sense to it.
Something similar happens all the time to me. My mood drops first and my brain looks for a shitty thing to focus on as a reason for the drop