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the module theory of the mind

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various modules that can take control of the mind and body for at least awhile

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if there are modules, this would help explain how the mind could operate effectively without there being a single unified self in control

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there are a number of command modules and they take turns running the show

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Douglas Kenrick

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Arizona State University

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"The Rational Mind" (2013)

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modular view of the mind

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when it comes to our social behavior, we are pretty much always under the influence of one of seven modules that Kenrick calls subselves

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subself

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suggests that there is a main self

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but this is not what Kenrick meant to convey by the term

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there's not a module that acts as controlling CEO

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these modules are all like cabinet secretaries

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the seven modules

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seven main kinds of challenges that our ancestors had to meet in order to get their genes into the next generation

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1. self-protection

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the ability to fend off harm

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2. mate attraction

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find someone with whom to mate

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3. mate retention

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protection, companionship, and further mating

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4. affiliation

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making friendships, cementing alliances

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5. kin care

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taking care of other people who share your genes

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6. status

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show you are someone who is worthy within your group

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7. disease avoidance

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stay away from people and things which may make you ill

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seeks to explain in evolutionary terms why

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is an explanation which attempts to explain the division of mental labor

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enables us to get a handle of looking at module models of the mind

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whichever module is most highly activated by information in the environment will tend to become dominant for a period of time

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is someone is running toward you waving a machete saying he is going to kill you, your self-protection module would become high active, dominant, and then controlling your behavior

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how much value is added when we talk in terms of modules

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we already know that fear makes people run away

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it enables us to talk of human behavior in a way that is more based on the physical reality of the brain

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what does it mean that one module is currently in charge

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experiment: created two advertisements of a museum with two different taglines

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1. "visited by over a million people each year"

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2. "stand out from the crowd"

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changed the appeal of the tagline by changing which module was in charge at that moment

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showed scenes from the movie "The Shining"

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more inclined to visit the museum when seeing the ad with the tagline "visited by over a million people each year"

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fear module is activated and there is safety in numbers

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showed scenes from a romantic movie "Before Sunrise"

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more inclined to visit the museum when seeing the ad with the tagline "stand out from the crowd"

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when we are in courtship mode, we are trying to stand out from other people

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afterwards showed ad to museum

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asked how inclined they would be to visit the museum

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one would think that which tagline one would be more influenced by would be a matter of one's personality, not the dominant mode they are in

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advertisers generally think this way, viewing different ads as appealing to different kind of people

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this experiment showed that it was more based on the subself that was dominant at the moment

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experiment: time-discounting rate

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inter-temporal utility function

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your willingness to forgo reward in the short term for greater reward in the future

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e.g. you can have 10 dollars today or 15 dollars in a month

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how you answer questions of this kind determine what your time-discount rate is

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economists have long said that people have different rates

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but they also have stated that a single person's time-discount rate will remain the same

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experiments have shown this to be otherwise

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Margo Wilson and Martin Daly

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showed picture of attractive women to men

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showed other men pictures of less attractive women, men, or cars

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the men who saw the pictures of attractive women were then more inclined to want their money immediately

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the mind module explanation is that when the courting module is activated, it wants to have all its resources there to attract the mate

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there doesn't seem to be anything conscious going on here, e.g. that they want to impress the picture

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it's just that their minds have the a specific mode activated

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but a mere picture of a women triggers this response

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reminds us that we were designed by natural selection for an environment that is different than the current environment

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throughout evolution, we didn't have cameras so if we saw an attractive, potential mate, then there was an attractive potential mate there, and our minds still react in this way

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experiment

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high school males

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filled out survey about career aspirations

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some filled it out in a room full of males

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some filled it out in a room with males and females

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more inclined to have higher career aspirations

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in particular making money was important

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it's doubtful that this was some kind of enduring change

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their minds were being prepared for a kind of self-advertisement

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they were preparing themselves if they got the chance to talk to the females in the room

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it doesn't seem to be conscious strategy as it was clear that the females were not going to see their surveys

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the participants were told not to talk to each other

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these two experiments were also performed on females

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the effect in question was not found in females

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in an evolutionary view of sexual psychology, there will be some differences between men and women