---
product_id: 248352568
title: "The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life"
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---

# The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life

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## Description

desertcart.com: The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life: 9780197551950: Simler, Kevin, Hanson, Robin: Books

Review: You won't look at the world in the same way again. - If this book didn't make you uncomfortable, you didn't understand it. It's a really wonderful and eye-opening book. Simler and Hanson ask you to consider that evolutionary hold-overs motivate even your most selfless acts. The Elephant in the Brain (because it's about a big thing in our brain that we don't acknowledge) argues that many of our actions are motivated by a desire to cultivate allies and mates and, to cultivate effectively, humans have learned to lie others and ourselves. We've learned to fool ourselves into thinking we're pretty great because that makes it easier to fool others into thinking we're pretty great. Our brains evolved succeed in a social setting. You can argue their explanation is an incomplete understanding of human behavior. The Elephant in the Brain isn't meant to be a handbook of the human brain, able to explain every single thing people do. It's meant to highlight a part of our thinking we willfully ignore. One of the authors is an economist, but the book also draws heavily on psychological and evolutionary research. Indeed, the selfishness argument that's at the heart of the book isn't an economic one (as one reviewer erroneously claims), but an evolutionary one. Appreciate how hard Simler and Hanson's argument is to show. "You're secretly lying to yourself!" is by definition something people will not be upfront about. Much of the book applies this self-deception/selfishness theory to different areas such as art, education, donations, and body language and concentrates on the contradictions. There's a disconnect between what we claim and what we see. The "elephant in the brain" fills the gap. To get a feel for how they make their argument, consider their chapter on donations. We typically think of donations as acts of pure selflessness--motivated by a "warm glow" from helping others--but Simler and Hanson point to some contradictions. -We typically do not do research on the organizations we donate to. -We are more often motivated by individual stories rather than statistics on effectiveness. -We rarely keep quiet about our donations and most donations are not anonymous. Even "anonymous" donations aren't kept quiet. If charity was all about helping others and nothing more, we'd be more careful about where the money goes and wouldn't be so concerned with advertising our benevolence. Charity, Simler and Hanson argue, is an advertisement: a way to show off to others so we can signal success and get allies. Don't make the mistake in thinking that this a conscious concern; it's more of an explanation as to why the glow is warmer for some acts of charity rather than others. Telling people about our donations feels better than keeping quiet. Helping a person we can identify feels better than helping statistical abstractions that represent people. Our ancestors who were apt at visible giving in a way that felt genuine were more likely to proliferate because they had more allies and better mates. Natural selection made us charitable, but in a weird way. To their credit, Simler and Hanson don't think humans are terrible people or donations shouldn't occur. They acknowledge multiple times that these hidden motives can have wonderful results. We should just be aware of how easily we can fool ourselves.
Review: This Book is All About Me - This book is all about me, or you if you choose to read it. The authors use data from various studies and surveys of large groups, as well as interesting historical anecdotes to make the case for individual decisions that appear to be in the group interest, but are often in one’s own interest. Not that that is a bad thing; self-interest drives the economy and enables us to survive. Much of this self-interest is evolutionary and sometimes evolution lags behind our increasingly complex society. Accordingly we make decisions that are intended to maintain or enhance our survival and pleasure, but are in fact harmful to our well-being. Becoming aware of such internal conflicts is one of the benefits I got from reading The Elephant in the Brain. I also became aware of how others appeal to our self-interest while actually, sometimes unconsciously, pursuing their own self-interests. This revelation is going to result in my writing to my Senators and Congressional Representatives about some of the current legislation being discussed in Washington. This is a well written, easy read. I’d call it a non-fiction page turner.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #67,235 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #6 in Cognitive Psychology (Books) #878 in Motivational Self-Help (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.4 out of 5 stars 1,668 Reviews |

## Images

![The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/610t9atnRWL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ You won't look at the world in the same way again.
*by D***G on July 9, 2018*

If this book didn't make you uncomfortable, you didn't understand it. It's a really wonderful and eye-opening book. Simler and Hanson ask you to consider that evolutionary hold-overs motivate even your most selfless acts. The Elephant in the Brain (because it's about a big thing in our brain that we don't acknowledge) argues that many of our actions are motivated by a desire to cultivate allies and mates and, to cultivate effectively, humans have learned to lie others and ourselves. We've learned to fool ourselves into thinking we're pretty great because that makes it easier to fool others into thinking we're pretty great. Our brains evolved succeed in a social setting. You can argue their explanation is an incomplete understanding of human behavior. The Elephant in the Brain isn't meant to be a handbook of the human brain, able to explain every single thing people do. It's meant to highlight a part of our thinking we willfully ignore. One of the authors is an economist, but the book also draws heavily on psychological and evolutionary research. Indeed, the selfishness argument that's at the heart of the book isn't an economic one (as one reviewer erroneously claims), but an evolutionary one. Appreciate how hard Simler and Hanson's argument is to show. "You're secretly lying to yourself!" is by definition something people will not be upfront about. Much of the book applies this self-deception/selfishness theory to different areas such as art, education, donations, and body language and concentrates on the contradictions. There's a disconnect between what we claim and what we see. The "elephant in the brain" fills the gap. To get a feel for how they make their argument, consider their chapter on donations. We typically think of donations as acts of pure selflessness--motivated by a "warm glow" from helping others--but Simler and Hanson point to some contradictions. -We typically do not do research on the organizations we donate to. -We are more often motivated by individual stories rather than statistics on effectiveness. -We rarely keep quiet about our donations and most donations are not anonymous. Even "anonymous" donations aren't kept quiet. If charity was all about helping others and nothing more, we'd be more careful about where the money goes and wouldn't be so concerned with advertising our benevolence. Charity, Simler and Hanson argue, is an advertisement: a way to show off to others so we can signal success and get allies. Don't make the mistake in thinking that this a conscious concern; it's more of an explanation as to why the glow is warmer for some acts of charity rather than others. Telling people about our donations feels better than keeping quiet. Helping a person we can identify feels better than helping statistical abstractions that represent people. Our ancestors who were apt at visible giving in a way that felt genuine were more likely to proliferate because they had more allies and better mates. Natural selection made us charitable, but in a weird way. To their credit, Simler and Hanson don't think humans are terrible people or donations shouldn't occur. They acknowledge multiple times that these hidden motives can have wonderful results. We should just be aware of how easily we can fool ourselves.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ This Book is All About Me
*by M***N on May 14, 2021*

This book is all about me, or you if you choose to read it. The authors use data from various studies and surveys of large groups, as well as interesting historical anecdotes to make the case for individual decisions that appear to be in the group interest, but are often in one’s own interest. Not that that is a bad thing; self-interest drives the economy and enables us to survive. Much of this self-interest is evolutionary and sometimes evolution lags behind our increasingly complex society. Accordingly we make decisions that are intended to maintain or enhance our survival and pleasure, but are in fact harmful to our well-being. Becoming aware of such internal conflicts is one of the benefits I got from reading The Elephant in the Brain. I also became aware of how others appeal to our self-interest while actually, sometimes unconsciously, pursuing their own self-interests. This revelation is going to result in my writing to my Senators and Congressional Representatives about some of the current legislation being discussed in Washington. This is a well written, easy read. I’d call it a non-fiction page turner.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Must read for fans of evolutionary psychology
*by J***R on October 15, 2018*

Really good overview and interesting compilation of studies and research on social biology and modern society. Why we do what we do and how we could be more genuine about the whys and effective in the how’s. Loved it. Wish some of its conclusions would have offered deeper view from evolutionary psychological perspective and included the opportunities and challenges presented by modern tech in revealing the elephant and leading us perhaps to a much more examined life. For example, what is the purpose of life and where do we go from here.

## Frequently Bought Together

- The Elephant in the Brain: Hidden Motives in Everyday Life
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*Last updated: 2026-02-12*