Science Friction_ Where the Known Meets the Unknown - Michael Shermer [74]
There are certain basic facts about human nature that emerge with even casual observation: we are a hierarchical social primate species, relatively avaricious, self-serving, and desirous of possessions, and one of the most sexual of all primates, where males are more openly and intensely obsessed with obtaining sexual unions and equally preoccupied with protecting those unions from violation by other males. It doesn’t take Darwin, or even modern evolutionary psychology, to be cognizant of these facts. Organized religion figured them out millennia ago, and they emerge in such lists of immoral behaviors as the seven deadly sins: pride, envy, gluttony, lust, anger, greed, and sloth; followed by their moral antonyms: humility, kindness, abstinence, chastity, patience, liberality, and diligence (and, for good measure, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity, along with the cardinal virtues of fortitude, justice, temperance, and prudence). This is one reason for the need for strict discipline on board overcrowded ships, regulated by hierarchy and status.
The evolutionary foundation for the mutineer’s heightened state of emotions is borne out in modern neuroscience, which shows that the attachment bonds between men and women are powerful forms of chemical addiction, especially in the early stages of a relationship. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter substance secreted in the brain that, according to Helen Fisher in her book Why We Love, produces “extremely focused attention, as well as unwavering motivation and goal-directed behaviors.” Dopamine is elevated in the brains of animals intensely bonded to another individual, and in humans “elevated concentrations of dopamine in the brain produce exhilaration, as well as many of the other feelings that lovers report—including increased energy, hyperactivity, sleeplessness, loss of appetite, trembling, a pounding heart, accelerated breathing, and sometimes mania, anxiety, or fear.” Attachments this strong are literally addictive, stimulating the same region of the brain that is active in drug addictions. A related brain chemical, norepinephrine, is also associated with bonding and attachment, and it too produces “exhilaration, excessive energy, sleeplessness, and loss of appetite.” Another hormone, oxytocin, is also associated with attachment. In her book The Oxytocin Factor, Kerstin Uvnäs Moberg shows that oxytocin is a hormone secreted into the blood by the pituitary during sex, particularly orgasm, and plays a role in pair-bonding, an evolutionary adaptation for long-term care of helpless infants. In women it stimulates contractions at birth, lactation, and mental bonding with the infant. In both women and men it increases during sex and surges at orgasm, possibly playing a role in pair-bonding—monogamous species secrete more oxytocin during sex than polygamous species.
Figure 8.4. The women of Otaheiti
Fisher also conducted brain scans (functional magnetic resonance image, or fMRI) of subjects in love, discovering that a structure buried deep in the brain (meaning it is evolutionarily ancient) called the caudate nucleus becomes extremely active when subjects gaze at the face of their lovers. Interestingly, the caudate nucleus is part of the brain’s reward system. “The caudate helps us detect and perceive a reward, discriminate between rewards, prefer a particular reward, anticipate a reward, and expect a reward. It produces motivation to acquire a reward and plans specific movements to obtain a reward.” And, most interestingly, Fisher’s fMRI experiments found heightened activity in the ventral tegmental area of the brain, which is a center for dopamine-making cells, the same dopamine that surges during heightened attachment.
Now, it is too simple to conclude that the mutiny on the Bounty happened because Christian and