Please distribute to others who may be interested...
You are hereby invited to a seminar in our twelfth
interdisciplinary series on Evolution,
Complexity and Cognition
(ECCO 2017-2018)
Time: Friday, December1, 14h-16h
Place: room D.1.07, VUB Campus
Etterbeek, Pleinlaan 2, 1050 Brussels
Social Systems
Programming:
Behavioral and
Emotional Mechanisms Co-opted for Social Control
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group, Vrije
Universiteit Brussel
*Department of Anthropology, University of
Alberta
Abstract: Social systems can be defined as autopoietic
networks of distinctions and rules that specify which actions should
be performed under which conditions. Social systems have an enormous
power over human individuals, as they can "program" them to
sacrifice resources, happiness, loved ones and even themselves to the
perpetuation of the system-as exemplified by religious celibacy,
honor killings and suicide bombings. Such overriding of the biological
instincts of survival and procreation demands powerful control
mechanisms. The present paper surveys the most important neural,
behavioral and emotional mechanisms that have been co-opted for social
control. Basic conditioning happens through rewarding or reinforcement
of socially sanctioned actions. Its power is extended by the
conformist transmission of narratives that promise as yet virtual
rewards. Deviation from the norms is suppressed through negative
emotions: fear of punishment and ostracism, guilt about wrongful
thoughts or actions, shame about personal deficiencies, and disgust
for pollutions of the "pure" social order. Insecurity, cognitive
dissonance and jostling for status in social hierarchies make
individuals particularly susceptible to avoid such negative
reinforcements. Through these suppressive mechanisms, social systems
commonly impede individual emancipation, self-actualization and
societal progress.
Reference:
Social Systems Programming I: neural and behavioral control
mechanisms
https://www.academia.edu/34865997/Social_Systems_Programming_I_neural_and_behavioral_control_mechanisms
Social Systems Programming II: emotional and structural control
mechanisms
https://www.academia.edu/35155123/Social_Systems_Programming_II_emotional_and_structural_control_mechanisms
(both submitted to Systems Research and Behavioral Science)
Upcoming Seminars
December
8th
Francois Taddei
Towards a learning planet
December
15th
Mareno de Kort
The Idealists: developing an idea factory
December
22th
Kris Verburgh
The fourth industrial revolution and health: the second biotech
age
--
Francis Heylighen
Evolution, Complexity and Cognition group
Free University of Brussels
http://pespmc1.vub.ac.be/HEYL.html
