Chapter 30 Legless: A Guide for Educators

The line at the newsagent was long, much longer than I expected.What should I do?It's a good idea to look around and absorb all kinds of readable information.Newspapers with rock bands and binge-drinking trends, magazine covers with women who are obviously too hot, calorie-free candies, cigarettes...the last one caught my attention.Each pack of cigarettes has a black frame with "beautiful" verses written inside, such as "Smoking causes early death", "Each pack of cigarettes shortens your life by eleven minutes" and so on.The wall of cigarettes was full of these funny words, dozens of black frames next to each other.I coughed dryly, what's going on?Although there are "death information" in front of them, there are still many customers who buy newspapers and add a pack of cartons that shorten their lives by eleven minutes.The wall of cigarettes stinks of death, but they buy without hesitation.There was also a girl whose parents I guess had explained to her thousands of times that smoking is bad for your health.And she's not alone, many young people are turning a blind eye to those health messages.Despite the risks, they still smoke, drink excessively, and use drugs.Oh, and I shouldn't just be talking about young people, adults too are letting their risky behaviors go, dismissing science, medicine, and other warnings.The promotion of information did not work, why?I stared at the wall of death and thought.

Maybe pedagogy and psychology should try to start from an evolutionary perspective, maybe the rational study of risky behavior is not enough.It seems that we still have to explore the ancient laws of human behavior, so what is it like? "Sir, hurry up, please!" shouted the customer standing behind me. "Excuse me!" Only then did I realize that it was my turn. In the battle against risky behaviour, rational messaging loses.Someone said in a lecture: "Did you know that binge drinking can damage countless brain cells." The reason why you lose is because there are motivations that are stronger than reason, such as being in a group, that is, identifying a group that you can fit into , convinced that I could be a part of it.People can and will join groups such as a club, association, political party, family, community, group of like-minded people, and so on.People are constantly busy identifying themselves with a group, even though they may not be aware of it. One of the reasons social networks like Facebook are successful is that they allow people to join groups of one sort or another.Become a member with one click of the mouse.After that, people will want to know more about other members of this group, what they usually do, and what kind of things they don't do.This last point is what I want to talk about now, which is the great interest of the group to which one belongs.But don't get too hasty, let's put on the glasses of evolution before we get to the point.Collective motivation is not trivial to figure out, it has important biological roots; after that we can move on.

Studies have shown that for hundreds of thousands of years, our ancestors lived in groups, with an average of one hundred to two hundred members in each group.At this point, social life is already playing out in these groups, life and death, finding a mate, making allies, raising and educating children, entertaining, and of course, not necessarily in that exact order.In addition to this, there will be other groups around, the so-called strangers.These groups are likely to be avoided for a variety of reasons, such as the possibility of contracting diseases.Members of a group carry the same bacteria and parasites through frequent contact with each other, thus, the group forms its own immune system.Other groups may carry other parasites, which are best avoided while hunting or looking for food.With that in mind, it's important to be able to identify who is in a group, who is and who isn't?People will use different signals to make this recognition possible, such as headgear, clothing and so on.In addition, behaviors with certain characteristics are also important, such as the way of greeting each other, the choice of words when speaking, what you eat on weekdays, and so on.

This prompts people to learn and imitate those group characteristics from an early age, and to do what others do.This mechanism, which has contributed to the survival of our ancestors for hundreds of thousands of years, is deeply embedded in our genes.Even today, people still behave in accordance with their group, but the situation has become quite complicated.Because those small groups with only one or two hundred people in the past have now merged into a huge group through the Internet and TV. In this common group, there are also countless small groups, such as clubs, associations, like-minded people, etc. Wait.To this day, the will to be loyal to the small group continues to surface.Another point is that people are less willing to accept the behavior of a group they don't want to belong to, such as different political views, "lower" last names.

Now it's time to get to the point.This typical human trait, which has been passed down for hundreds of thousands of years, can be used in education to resist those risky behaviors.Don't tell your dear son or daughter that smoking is bad for your lungs, that binge drinking is bad for your liver, that cocaine is bad for your brain, but emphasize that only one person or another does these things, and make sure that your Sons and daughters absolutely want nothing to do with this or that person.Those guys could be full of snot all day, they could be rap lovers, they could be natural "losers"... your kids will think, if those people smoke or take other risks, then I won't go Get involved with those things.And just like that, the craziness blows away because your child doesn't want to be pushed into that strange group.

what did you say?Do you think this is just a naive speculation?Only someone who's stood too long in the Darwinian sun thinks so?I'm afraid I'm going to deny your statement, this is not what I imagined.Research experiments have repeatedly proved that this method is very effective. The researchers divided students who went to the school cafeteria to read an article about politics and popular culture, or an article linking eating junk food to playing online games.Then, the students' meals in the cafeteria were recorded truthfully. As a result, the second group ate significantly healthier than the first group because they didn't want to have anything to do with those who played online games.

Educators, from parents to teachers to educators, can learn a lot through Darwin's glasses.Evolutionary psychology and biology can still find a place outside the scope of pure science, and provide a certain space for practical operation. I paid for the newspaper and wished the lady behind the counter a nice weekend.Just when I was about to leave, the customer behind me surprised me with something he bought.In addition to the science magazine La Dawn, he also ordered Marlboro. I turned and whispered in his ear, "Only the uneducated smoke." He ended up trading the cigarettes for a pack of gum.Ha, it's all Darwin's fault!