THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

The evolutionary basis of hypocrisy……..

It’s a universal trait, and the symmetry that this presents in terms of people ( like me for example) who think of others of being hypocrites, being hypocrites themselves in doing so is rather satisfying don’t you, dear reader, agree?

So why this behavior pattern is so universally adopted? Is it like, for example, the need to believe in some higher being, merely a side effect of intelligence? Some sort of cognitive interference pattern caused by the reflexive nature of our consciousness? Or, on the other hand, does it confer some evolutionary or survival benefit?
I have often heard it suggested by politicians and by business men ( sorry, persons) that hypocrisy can be used for the ‘common good’. In conflict situations the ability to think/say one thing and yet do another is a definite survival strategy and certainly the ecology of business is extremely analogous to that of nature ( Yes, I know, it is part of nature ) and of course, in business it is not necessarily the most open, honest and ethical that survive. One could say that that mimicry and camouflage are both simple forms of hypocrisy and that the hypocrisy that humans exhibit is simply a more complex form of these traits. If this is the case (as seems likely to me) then we should accept that it is as much a survival strategy as caring for each other or indeed, in some circumstances deliberately not caring!