The Oldest Social Science

Behavioral Science, the study of human behavior and bias (aka Behavioral Economics), is a growth industry. It’s arrival into the popular consciousness is, in large part, a result of the breakthrough popularity of books by a handful of forward-thinking economists and psychologists, such as:

• Richard Thaler — Nudge, regarding choice architecture, and Misbehaving, a history of the study and codification of non-rational human behavior
• Daniel Kahneman — Thinking Fast & Slow, the two-system brain theory
• Daniel Pink — Drive and To Sell is Human, regarding the science of motivation
• Robert Cialdini — Influence, the psychology of success, Pre-Suasion, the timing and priming of influence

Thanks to these and other giants in the field, behavioral science is now accepted, not only as equal in intellectually validity to that of classical economics, but also seen as best practice in designing and running organizations and governments.

However, common knowledge of behavioral science is a lot more deeply ingrained than its recent popularity may have you believing. We’ve always been aware of our instinctual shortcomings, even if we only now are honing-in on a formal taxonomy. We’ve been sharing that knowledge, culturally, ever since the creation of language. Before we had scientific studies and books focused on the subject, we learned of our inherent biases through a wide variety of idioms, sayings and proverbs. These little packages of wisdom have been handed down through the generations as beacons of light, illuminating the darkness and mystery of our minds. In some cases, so powerful is the insight into the human condition, it has remained unchanged for thousands of years.

Case in point, for millennia society has been warning people of the trap of being self-centered and ego-driven.

• The Sumerians, citizens of our first great human civilization, warned each other that “A palace will fall of its own accord.”
• In ancient Greece, during the time of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the wisdom of the Oracle, people were encouraged to “Know thyself.”
• For the Jews, Christians & Muslims in the audience, the old testament teaches that “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.”

Each of these, at least in part, is communicating the value of recognizing and pushing back against our inherent ego-centric biases and/or warning of the damage that will come if they remain unchecked. In other words, we’ve known for a long time that human beings are born “looking out for #1” and, in order grow as individuals and build harmony within a society, we have developed these sayings to help teach the values of humility and selflessness.

That’s what this series is about. All those idioms and sayings that carry the wisdom and insight of behavioral science but were around long before we ever thought to call it behavioral science. In fact, I would argue that Behavioral Science is the world’s oldest social science.

Many of these sayings will read as cliché and obvious. Others will be novel and quaint. Some profound and others pedestrian. But all carry seeds of insight. By filtering them through the lens of behavioral science, through toady’s canon of accepted biases and heuristics, perhaps we can shed some ancient light on a subject that is having a moment. Maybe we’ll also come to a newfound appreciation for the intelligence and wisdom of those who came before us.

Personally, I like to group the canon of behavioral science biases and heuristics into four categories:

• Limited Attention
• Framing
• Availability
• Thinking Harder

This is not a perfect way to group our various perceived irrationalities, but it’s pretty good and does a great deal to simplify our (or at least my) understanding of them. A deep dive into these four categories is a series for another day, for now just know that they will be used as an organizing principal here.

Enjoy!

[Full Disclosure: While the insights discussed here will be largely true of human beings in general, this is written by an American and you should definitely expect a bias towards Americans and American culture, especially in the cases of more contemporary sayings. Also, this is not an exhaustive study, nor is it scientifically rigorous. I’m hoping these posts provide fertile ground for healthy debate, but I’m certain it won’t be long before each imperfection is uncovered, and I am proven to be wholly incompetent (after all, we are on the internet). There. You have been warned.]