What Happy Companies Know: How the New Science of Happiness Can Change Your Company for the Better

Chapter 4. Scarcity Behavior in the Modern Tribe

Because of the ongoing function of the brain’s fear and emotional centers, direct and distinct parallels exist between our behavior and that of our ancestors. To know and understand these dynamics provides powerful insights into the worst and best of human nature, especially within the corporate culture, for the simple reason that humanity’s inherited bio-evolutionary predispositions and traits express themselves predominately in a social context. By nature (the brain) and necessity (humanity’s physical deficiencies), modern humans became more and more social creatures. We survived not because of strength of numbers, but because of strength of social cohesion. Herd animals, schools of fish, and ...