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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Elephant in the Brain | 2/2 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Elephant_in_the_Brain | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T08:53:30.672062+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Politics === On the face of it, the reason that people participate in politics is to improve the world in some way. However, most of us engage in politics in a way which is emotional, poorly informed relative to the strength of claims that we make, and we are generally unwilling to compromise on political issues. These facts are better explained if politics is a way of signalling affiliation to a 'tribe' of like-minded people than as a way of actually trying to improve the world.
== Reception == Writing in The Wall Street Journal, Matthew Hutson called the book 'refreshingly frank' and 'penetrating'. In a mostly negative review for The New Yorker, journalist and novelist John Lanchester praised the section on education, but criticized the book for 'taking an argument that has worthwhile applications and extending it further than it usefully goes '. He also claimed that the emphasis on hidden motives undermined human achievements generated by those motives, such as 'writing symphonies, curing diseases, building cathedrals, searching into the deepest mysteries of time and space and so on'. Hanson responded to these criticisms on his blog. A review for Publishers Weekly called the book a 'fascinating and accessible introduction to an important subject' In the New York Intelligencer, Park MacDougald gave the book a mixed review calling it ' interesting, occasionally enlightening, and sometimes a little slapdash'. MacDougald particularly criticized the book's reliance on social psychology research in light of the replication crisis in that field. Kelly Jane Torrance in the National Review recommended the book, saying that it makes the 'best argument yet that we’re not even aware of much of what motivates us'. Computer scientist Scott Aaronson praised the work on his blog, calling it a 'masterpiece' and 'Robin [Hanson]'s finest work so far'.
== See also == Effective altruism which is discussed in the book as an alternative set of norms surrounding charitable giving. The Case Against Education, a book by Bryan Caplan which makes a similar case to The Elephant in the Brain that education is mostly about signalling intelligence, conformity and conscientiousness RAND Health Insurance Experiment, an experiment discussed in the chapter on medicine
== References ==