Claire's Big Adventure

I recently went on a vacation and I took Claire with me. You may remember about Claire – she is what I call my inner cave girl and she is in charge of my instincts. Normally, I don’t give her much thought…she does her job and I go about my business. But this trip was an all-inclusive cruise, and I thought things might feel more “primitive.” I guessed that social interactions would be less complicated if the exchange of money was removed from the mix. I imagined a week of simple living: being isolated on a boat in-route to some equally isolated islands, and that it would be fun to get a glimpse at things from a cave girl's perspective. But I could not have been more wrong. 

The ship was 17 stories tall. It had 3 floors of common dining, 3 public areas (one with two rock-climbing walls and a carousel,) 12 restaurants, 5 bars, 4 theaters, a casino, 5 pools, 6 hot tubs, a track, a gym, an ice skating rink, a few stores, and a professional photography studio. Like Claire might have, I was feeling completely out of my element. More importantly to my social experiment, the ship held 6,500 passengers and 2,000 crew – WAY more people than Claire would have encountered in her daily life as a cave-dweller. Her part of my head would have been able to keep track of 150 people max. But there was hope. We would be taking several on-land excursions where there would be far less people, so perhaps I could still get a glimpse of "life less complicated." I would continue to process my social encounters with Claire’s perspective in mind, but predictably, things got cloudier before they became clear.

            Our first on-land stop was a small boat excursion to an isolated lagoon. On our way, we passed a few celebrity homes, which were enthusiastically pointed out by our tour guide. The properties were impressive and garnered lots of oohs and ahhs, but I was looking forward to some relaxing beach time. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong beach. After about 20 minutes in what I thought was my lounger for the day, I was asked to leave. Turned out I was not a VIP and that strip of sand was reserved especially for the privileged few. I was completely surprised and enormously embarrassed. I even teared up a little as I gathered my things. Why should I feel bad? It was an honest mistake! But after processing that event from Claire’s point of view, my reaction made more sense. Way back in her day, Claire’s tribe pooled their resources because their survival depended on it. If anyone didn’t share all they had hunted or gathered, the consequences could be serious. So humans developed a handy habit known as "cheater detection." When tribe members kept each other honest about what food they had to share, they had a better shot at surviving – but they also kept each other on more equal social footing. Since everyone contributed, everyone was important. So at a primitive level, I had been caught “cheating,” or behaving as if I was more important than someone else. So I instinctively, uncontrollably, felt ashamed. In that moment, Claire had taken over. But I was also sad because social stratification had found me, even on what could be considered a deserted island. I was hoping for equality and experienced the opposite. I needed WAY more rum punch.

             I learned another cave girl lesson at our next on-land excursion when I attempted to barter for a dress I liked. The seller told me it cost 18 dollars, but I only had 15. I asked if she’d take what I had and after a few moments she said, “Yes. I will take 3 dollars out of my purse so you can have this dress.” At first I thought she was just trying to guilt me into giving her the initial asking price and proceeded with the purchase, but later I realized there was more going on. The more resources a person has, be it money or clothes or food, the more power they have. From a prehistoric point of view, I had just descended from a luxury cruise liner and relieved a fellow human of some of her power. Claire’s perspective was beginning to be a bit of a downer. Feeling bad about yourself is not generally why people take a vacation, but I had one more chance to have a simple, positive, cave dweller interchange on this trip.

But it was not to be. There was more unequal distribution of resources on our third and final excursion. My fellow travelers and I attempted to use our credit cards at the local restaurants only to learn that the most recent hurricane had wiped-out their ability to process those cards. The locals needed cash, but we did not have enough. They were cut off from a technology that could help them survive. It did not seem fair. I thought of the incredible wealth I had floated past days earlier. With a fraction of their incomes, those celebrities could probably fix this issue. But even out here, on a group of isolated islands, stratification appeared to be ingrained in modern human culture. There were haves and have-nots -- and Claire did not approve. The only resources that mattered in her time were resources she could see. And with a tight-knit tribe, those resources were hard to hoard. Modern advancements like credit allow us to attain resources, sometimes without earning what we "own," and in turn exaggerate how much we are “contributing” to society. We can look like we are successful but could be up to our ears in debt. And why should we care what resources other people might have? Because evolutionarily speaking, we unconsciously want to know enough about the people around us to secure our safety. If someone else has enough resources of their own, there is less of a chance they will try and take ours. Modern cues of “success” have become clothing, cars, accessories, and the size of a home. But the ownership of these resources can all be faked, so our specialized cheater detection is harder to use. It's no wonder that we sometimes don't trust our neighbors. Thinking like Claire on my vacation had shown me one way modern advancements have actually set us humans back in terms of our ability to trust one other – and how Cavegirl Claire, at least in one respect, had had it pretty good.                                                                                      

References

Cosmides, L. & Tooby, J. (2008). Primer for Center for Evolutionary Psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara. https://www.cep.ucsb.edu/primer.html


Cummins, D. D. (1999). Cheater Detection is Modified by Social Rank. Evolution and Human Behavior 20: 229–248.


Francois, P., Fujiuarra, T. & van Ypersele, T. (2018). The origins of human prosociality: Cultural group selection in the workplace and laboratory. Science Advances - vol 4, no 9.



Waytz, A. (2017). The Psychology of Social Status. Scientific American. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/the-psychology-of-social/

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