The Elephant in the Brain

Why it’s on the list: Simler and Hanson’s argument that most human behaviour is signalling we are not conscious of — that self-deception is functional because a motive you cannot see is one you cannot be caught holding. Applied in turn to conversation, charity, education, medicine and religion.

Where I heard about it

• Replies to @SpencrGreenberg — named in the thread answering “What non-fiction book taught you the most about how the world (or how humanity or society) really works?”, June 2025. Full list: A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet).

Connections

• Robin Hanson — co-author.
• Incentives — the book’s method is to ask what behaviour is actually optimising for.
• Language of Discourse — conversation treated as a status display rather than an information exchange.
• Behave — Sapolsky’s biological account of the same question, named in the same thread.
• A question for you — What non-fiction… (tweet) — the thread this recommendation came from.