Evolutionary Psychology
Status, kin, coalitions, signaling — the ancestral OS underneath every modern org chart.
What ancestral instinct is being triggered?
Canonical thinkers
- Robert Trivers
- David Buss
- Robin Dunbar
- E.O. Wilson
Seed concepts
- status
- kin selection
- reciprocal altruism
- mate selection
- coalition
- dominance
- prestige
- costly signaling
- reputation
- tribal
- in-group
- out-group
- cheater detection
- fairness
- disgust
- threat detection
- evolutionary
Underlined seeds link to their full glossary entry. Plain seeds are pending a definition page.
Typed connections
Full graph →How this layer reinforces, counteracts, or depends on the rest of the system.
- Explains·LayerThis layer explains Human Needs & Meaning
SDT's needs map onto ancestral fitness signals: autonomy = agency, relatedness = coalition, competence = status.
- Explains·HBEThis layer explains Tribalism
In-group preference is an ancestral coalition-detection adaptation, not a modern pathology.
Elements in this layer
36 HBEsWe accept vague, general statements as personally meaningful.
Game theory adjusted for how humans actually play — including fairness, reciprocity, and limited reasoning.
Federal oversight intended to protect tribal assets creates friction that devalues the land.
Being visibly busy signals importance regardless of actual output.
Deliberate, sustained effort to damage someone's reputation.
Employers screen by school name, rewarding admission rather than developed skill.
Signals whose value depends on being expensive to fake.
Ranking systems trained on engagement amplify outrage, fear, and tribal content.
A social preference for equitable outcomes, even at personal cost.
Quantitative measures of model behavior across groups.
Managers measured by team size grow teams beyond need.
Tribal identity markers reward in-group loyalty over coalition-building.
We extend more trust, benefit of the doubt, and rope to 'our people.'
Distaste for unequal payoffs — including when we'd benefit.
People sacrifice payoff to punish unfair distributions — even unfairness that benefits them produces guilt-style discomfort.
Perceived fairness of outcomes, process, and treatment.
Behavior that benefits genetic relatives at cost to oneself.
Status tiers and points push consumption beyond actual need.
We see 'them' as more uniform than 'us.'
Neurochemistry of trust, bonding, and in-group loyalty.
Cooperation between unrelated agents when future reciprocity is likely.
Stored social capital from prior behavior.
Teams under-reporting AI capability to protect comp or status.
Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, Fairness — drivers of social brain response.
Preferences that depend on others' outcomes — fairness, reciprocity, altruism, inequity aversion.
Position in a hierarchy is a primary driver of behavior.
Much of human behavior is positioning for status.
Preference for what already exists, simply because it exists.
Brain weights existing state heavily.
Threats to status trigger the same neural alarm as physical threats.
AI doesn't just replace tasks — it threatens identities.
Strong in-group loyalty paired with out-group skepticism.
Demand rises with price because the price itself signals status.
Design rules without knowing where you'll land under them.
Draws us together
Work together for the whole