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The myth of human nature (70)

The problem with "human nature" statements

"All people are inherently good/selfish/bad..." - a phrase that we have all heard, with multiple variations, many times in our life. While it might be comforting to be able to so easily generalize the world, such statements are rarely true by themselves. Believing in them however is costly; it makes change hard and can make us miss huge opportunities (think of how many "Nobody would pay for that" resulted in companies skipping on big profits). Let's discus this and find out why it is very difficult to say any factual statement about the whole population.

Our environment shapes what we do

The answer partly lies in our environment. People are not perfect, rational, thinking machines. We instead live in the real world and we interact with it with all of our 5 senses. Think for example, about food - rarely do we decide on how much we like a plate based on its nutritional values or even how much our taste buds get stimulated. Researchers (see Brian Wansink’s work) have found that our mood at the time, the colour and size of the plate, our perceived environment and how others have expressed themselves over it have all a big effect - almost equal to the actual taste.

The same applies to hiring actually. We tend to trust our instincts and favour people who made a good first impression through their CVs or interview. According to Kahneman & Tversky, we retroactively like to explain away our choices but ultimately our external environment and noisy decision making always have an effect on our decision making.

We differ from each other

Even accounting for the environment, there are still factors that influence our behaviour over any generalization. These factors are often due to personality, upbringing or culture but ultimately make us think differently and prioritize things in a unique way.

There are myriads examples to showcase the highly personalized nature of mankind. Nice examples can be found in the field of job searching:

  • How do we pick a job? Contrary to what most economists would think, it is not the provided material conditions like salary, breaks, holidays and benefits. In fact, often industries that naturally inspire people can get away with relatively modest offerings. Fashion, formula 1, sports, video game developers, graphic designers ... all cool jobs, but not much more to show for it - while boring jobs (like finance and engineering) have to offer a lot more to get talent.
  • Where do we choose to live? One would think that we pick our homes based on how close we are to our loved ones and our work. But in fact, weighing it all, we often act otherwise. The incentives put to people do influence their decisions. Do they feel safe at a neighborhood?  What is the prestige associated with living there? I have even heard people wanting to live far from work so they can get a bigger commuting bonus - definitely not what I would pick!

What this means for real world decisions

People are unique among other animals - it is even hard to come up with rules that generalize our behaviour. We act differently according to our environment, values and motivation. Each one of us decides differently, and while there are rules that describe an average person, this might be prone to change. Next time you want to tackle a problem that involves human decisions, like management or marketing, I challenge you to truly consider your audience's perspective and not rely on (even data based) assumptions!

TL;DR: Human behaviour isn’t hardwired; it’s responsive, messy, and shaped by the world around us.


 

Comments

  1. HipthiSeptember 23, 2025 at 12:31 PM

    I couldn't agree more..
    Everything is so vague and changes all the time .
    People need to cope with these changes in order to survive.
    Modern reality too,imposes its rules..
    I think this is a process necessary in modern society ...

    ReplyDelete

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