Has Evolution Embedded Post-Hypnotic Suggestions into Our Behavior?

Evolution has hidden post-hypnotic suggestions in your behavior.  You may think you're the absolute master of your emotions, but that whole "consciousness" thing is just a thin scraping of self-awareness over a huge network of evolved drives and compulsions.  If you can honestly say you're not affected by your subconscious wiring then we're flattered, because we didn't think many Buddhas read this site.

Some excellent experiments in behavioral research were conducted by Professor Susan Mineka in the eighties. She worked with monkeys and videotapes, and unlike most recorded work featuring monkeys from the eighties, hers did not feature skateboards, wacky escapes from inept hitmen or even a single harebrained scheme to raise funds for the local youth center.  It was about fear.

Wild monkeys are deathly afraid of snakes - to the point where they'll starve to death rather than reach across even a fake snake to get food.  Since learning this fear by experience is a literally short-lived solution, this fear was thought to be hereditary. Monkeys born in captivity exhibited no such fear, however, which seemed to hole the hereditary idea - until Mineka got together some primates for the ultimate horror movie.

By showing some monkeys footage of a wild monkey utterly terrified of snakes, she triggered the same hysterical responses in those who had never seen the object of fear, would never see it and were never going to be at any risk from it.  We can't comment on whether the Department of Homeland Security read this research.  Further, attempts to trigger a fear of flowers by showing fake footage of a monkey scared of plants failed. It seemed that the "snakes suck" wiring was always there, but until it was externally triggered it never manifested.

The same research also showed how to combat these phobic trip-switches:  by showing them a monkey that wasn't scared of snakes, even if that was a fake monkey, the terror-reaction was strongly reduced.  Which technically means you could make a child immune to letting them watch Chuck Norris movies when young.  Because all these phobic-factors seem as applicable to humans as they are to other primates, with applications in child-rearing and anxiety management.  They weren't just doing this research because somebody wanted the job "monkey frightener."

Posted by Luke McKinney.

Genes affect phobias http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/ridley03/ridley_p5.html
Anxiety Disorder research http://www.loc.gov/loc/brain/emotion/Mineka.html

Comments

[ummm]

How the fuck is this new? The research is from the 80's.

[ummm]

How is this new? The research is from the 80's.

[Captain Awful]

Monkeys =/= Humans; We had a common ancestor, but the post-hypnotic behavior could have been developed after the split in evolutionary paths.

[johnnyb]

I wanted the job 'monkey frightener.'

[Jilly]

But what about pirate monkeys? They're not afraid of anything!

Sadly I have to agree with 'ummmm' - where is the 'new' in this Luke McKinney? I love your articles and the science you reveal to us - whether it's old or new - but 'ummm' is right. Luke you've failed to convey to us where the 'newness' is in this research. Who is working on it now? What are the new developments?

But regardless, thanks for bringing this information to light.

[Lhyzzs]

To those asking why this is considered new, research papers go through extensive peer review processes before they are released to the public. The findings aren't new, but their release to the non-scientific community is.

I know this because I am Head Monkey Frightener at Los Alamos.

[Jonathan Ainsley Bain]

How do you get a monkey to appear to be afraid of flowers in a convincing manner?

There are subtle cues in communication - body language for eg - which easily may be construed wrongly by the monkey - so it sees the fear reaction not actually as the result of the flower, but perhaps of those 'weird non-hairy monkeys trying to frighten the hell out of us again.'

Serious behaviour research should always be purely observational, not contrived, because you do not always know all the factors involved.

[Jack Butler]

Always enjoy your intelligence and humor. My impression is the Buddha did not claim to be unaffected by emotion and other signals from atavistic complexes. Among other things he said to people, Look, when I die, I'm going to be really dead. Just like everybody else.

What he did was point out that those signals are only the crudest sort of immediate reports, and that, if one is allowed the time to bring them into play, reason and detachment provide far superior accuracy. It is not possible to develop reason and detachment without discipline and meditation, which is where the lazy founder.

In the terms of this posting, he would be a monkey who exhibited no fear--doesn't mean he didn't feel it, I point out, and also point out that he was a real monkey, not a fake one on a video--thus reducing others' anxiety.

No need to attach woo-woo "spirituality" to all this unless you wish to. Pretty matter of fact stuff, really.

[Perth]

Mate contrary to the haters that appear early on in the comments, I actually loved this article. Light on and a great insight to this stuff. We live in a day and age where Governments every where are actually using this stuff on people on a massive scale. ie Swine Flu Hysteria in Australia, where I hail from. No One has actually died yet its been classified a Global Pandemic on a par with, real pandemics like the Bubonic Plague that historically killed a ton of people.

[Nick Reynolds]

On the monkeys . . . It's the Zombie Monkey's who have no fear. The Pirate Monkey's overcome their fear and still act. They are much braver because they had to choose. ;)

[Mikhail Sergeovich]

Is it impossible to imagine that homosapiens-sapiens is the only primate, mammal, or even animal that can communicate through "speech"? Why must one assume that this response was instinctive, or triggered by a "post-hypnotic suggestion" put in place by eons of evolution? Besides, how do you hypnotize a monkey? I can't even get one to cease flinging poo long enough to even begin to bring it into a brainwave phase that would be open to such suggestions being introduced to the subconscious mind. ;)