Survivalist paradox: people do stupid things to pre-empt worse harm

Berlin (dpa) –  People who gnaw like beavers on fingernails, idle when given work to do or “ghost” friends and dates can come across as skittish, lazy to the point of being sackable, or obnoxiously narcissistic. But such self-vandalism could well be rooted in survival instincts. So says psychologist Charlie Heriot-Maitland, who in his newly-published "Controlled Explosions in Mental Health" seeks to explain why people seemingly cannot help but engage in reputation-damaging “small harms" and "self-sabotaging." “Someone may procrastinate starting a project, causing themselves harm, but trying to prevent a higher-stakes harm of failure or rejection,” publisher Taylor & Francis says in a press release promoting the book. According to Heriot-Maitland, a possible explanation lies in how human instinct leans more towards self-preservation than it does to rolling the dice on success or failure – particularly when the outcome depends on the whims and moods of others as much as it does on the merits of one’s own efforts. “Our brain would rather we were the arbiter of our own downfall than risk being floored by something external. It would rather we were well-rehearsed in receiving internally-created hostility than risk being unprepared for it from others,” Heriot-Maitland says. “Our brain is a survival machine. It is programmed not to optimize our happiness and well-being, but to keep us alive,” the psychologist says. Deep down, people do not like surprises and want to sidestep being caught on the hop. The following information is not intended for publication dpa spr arw

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