8/2/2019 Trivers article - GU Guardian

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e great scientist of the 20th century

youve probably never heard of

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n in the academic environment,ch is unusually accepting of mav-ks and eccentrics, Robert Triversds out. Unsurprisingly, he wouldomost boxes on your successfulntist list: he taught himself calcu-at 13, graduated from Harvard andaccepted for a PhD in Biology de-

e no formal training in the subject.wever, he is more than just a really

rt guy. His struggle with bipolarrder, regular use of cannabis andplete disregard for authority setapart from most of his peers.at,the fact that just a handful of his

neering articles helped found whole

s of research and established himrobably the most important evolu-ary biologist since Darwin.rivers originally came to Harvardudy Mathematics, but switched to

chology at the end of his rst year.quickly became very disappointedh the state of the eld back in the

60s, saying that he couldnt be-e that these people were pretend-o have a science when all they hada series of competing guesses forhuman beings develop ed. Disillu-ed, he majored in US History with

ntion of becoming a lawyer. Unfor-ately, his plans were thwarted by are mental breakdown and insteadanded a job as a writer and illus-or for a series of childrens science

ks. Fortunately, the books neverpublished - certain southern USgressmen did not approve of thetent which included sex educationh demoralising pictures of copulat-animals!), cultural relativism (ourure is not superior to others?!) and

evolution by natural selection. I saidfortunately, because instead of becom-ing an illustrator, Trivers became fasci-nated with evolutionary theory, wenton to complete his PhD and within thenext 10 years revolutionised the eld.

One of his most important contribu-tions was solving the dilemma that baf-ed biologists since Darwin. Namely, ifnatural selection is all about competi-tion for survival and reproduction, whydoes any animal (or human) ever helpanyone else? Why do we have altruismand altruists if helping someone putsyou at a disadvantage in this game oflife? Trivers showed that the solutionis simply If you scratch my back, I llscratch yours. Lets say you are someorganism (could be a human, could be

a bat, could even be some alien spe-cies). It might be a good idea for youto help some other organism, if thereis a reasonable expectation that they will repay the favor in the future. Itseems like a trivial point, but the bril-liance of Trivers insight was specifyingthe precise conditions under whichit might happen. You, the organism,need to: a) be able to recognise oth-ers (because otherwise, you would notknow who helped you and whom youhave helped); b) interact with someonemore than once (because if you onlysee each other once, there is no pointin being nice); and c) punish the bas-tards who do not return favours. Triv-ers called his ide a reciprocal altruism.It would be not be such a great idea,

without real-life examples, though.

ebest one is provided by the behaviorof vampire bats, who are really nicecreatures as it turns out, if you forgivetheir diet (mammal blood) that is. eycan only go on without food for abouttwo days, but are not guaranteed to

nd it every night. If a bat experiencesa couple of unlucky nights in a row itmight starve. However, the bats live ina colony and they are capable of regur-gitating some blood and sharing it withtheir less fortunate companions. Amaz-ingly, they only share blood with otherbats that have returned the favor in thepast and will not share again with a batthat freeloaded even once.e best testimony to the impact

of Trivers ideas is the fact that eSelsh Gene (the book that madeRichard Dawkins famous) is largelya restatement of Trivers theories forthe lay public, which Dawkins happilyadmitted. In fact, Trivers even wrotethe foreword to the original 1978 edi-tion.

Trivers nonconformism and radicalpolitical views helped him make manyenemies, especially among Harvardfaculty, but also a few friends. Amongthe latter were Noam Chomsky andHuey P. Newton - the founder of theBlack Panther Party, the revolution-ary, leftist African-American organiza-tion, famed for its militant advocacy ofthe black power movement in the 60sand 70s. e two met while Newtonenrolled to take a reading course fromTrivers, while in prison. Trivers evenjoined the Black Panthers in 1979, oneof the very few whites to do so, andNewton became a godfather to one ofhis daughters.

Robert Trivers has not publishedmuch in the last two decades, due to his

alleged mental problems, but he seemsto have overcome them in recent yearsand came back to work in what disap-pointed him so much in college times -psychology. His current research focus-es on evolution of self-deception - theidea he rst wrote about in the famed

foreword to e Selsh Gene in 1What is self-deception then? If detion is lying to others, self-decepis lying to oneself. Modern psychoshows that we do it all the time - of US college professors think theybetter than half their colleagues. Tand again, research demonstratespeople think they are smarter, fataller, prettier or stronger than really are. Why do we do it? Trithinks that the purpose of deceiourselves is to deceive others morciently. How could that be? Whenconsciously lie, we give away a numof cues - we speak slower, the pitcour voice is higher and we tend to bmore. But when we believe the lie selves, none of those are present

thus we are more likely to succeeour deception. For example, youimagine that when George W. Bdecided to invade Iraq, he did believe that he would nd weaponmass destruction there. I do not bethat anyone could have been cynenough to start that war without (but self-deceptively) believing thaweapons were there.

Trivers theory of self-deceptiostill in its infancy, but I am eagerlylowing his work to see what direcit will take. Knowing Trivers histobeing reliably correct I think he mjust be up to something.

If you wish to read more about Rert Trivers and his ideas about deception run down to your nea

bookstore and get his brand new bDeceit and Self-Deception: FooYourself the Better to Fool Others plished by Penguin.

He taught himselfcalculus at 13,graduated fromHarvard and was

accepted for a PhDin Biology despiteno formal trainingin the subject.

Robert Triver

photo: Wikimedia Common