In developed countries, we have less to fear from infectious parasites, but much more to fear from infectious memes. So, instead of opening our bodies to ambient germs, we open our minds to ambient culture, to determine if we can stay sane throughout the onslaught. When you see teenagers and young adults posting their interests in music, books, and film on their MySpace websites, consider the costly signaling principles at work. If they have exposed themselves to a lot of death metal, Chuck Palahniuk, and David Lynch, and they are still sane enough to sustain a reasonable conversation through email or instant messaging, they have credibly proven their openness and psychosis-resistance
I find it rather hard to believe that an unconscious social mechanism for showcasing resilience to infectious diseases would control our responses to memetic influences. Sure, they propagate in an analogous manner, but the actual mechanisms are completely different, and demonstrating resilience against foreign memes to show reproductive fitness doesn’t sound like something humans would have done in the ancestral environment. It strikes me as implausible that our unconscious would associate them.
An obvious point, and one he already addressed in one of the paragraphs I specifically quoted, with the examples of frequently ill people, pregnant women, disease/parasite priming, and age-dependent Openness/immunity correlations.
He notes a correlation between xenophobia and self rated disease susceptibility, and an increase in xenophobia in the first trimester of pregnancy, but contact with outsiders is actually associated with increased risk of disease. If the body of research he’s drawing on has indicated a general decrease in openness under these conditions, including metrics he’s referenced earlier such as interest in science fiction or indie music, then he hasn’t made that clear.
I find it rather hard to believe that an unconscious social mechanism for showcasing resilience to infectious diseases would control our responses to memetic influences. Sure, they propagate in an analogous manner, but the actual mechanisms are completely different, and demonstrating resilience against foreign memes to show reproductive fitness doesn’t sound like something humans would have done in the ancestral environment. It strikes me as implausible that our unconscious would associate them.
An obvious point, and one he already addressed in one of the paragraphs I specifically quoted, with the examples of frequently ill people, pregnant women, disease/parasite priming, and age-dependent Openness/immunity correlations.
He notes a correlation between xenophobia and self rated disease susceptibility, and an increase in xenophobia in the first trimester of pregnancy, but contact with outsiders is actually associated with increased risk of disease. If the body of research he’s drawing on has indicated a general decrease in openness under these conditions, including metrics he’s referenced earlier such as interest in science fiction or indie music, then he hasn’t made that clear.