Ten strangers inside each of us

Imagine the situation: you are in the park and someone throws you a Frisbee. You run it back. They throw it at you a few more times. Then they start to ignore you, the game continues without you. You have been expelled. It hurts you, even though it was a normal game with strangers. Why?

Dexter Diaz, a human rights lawyer, in The Ten Types of People: A New Look at Who We Are and Who We Can Be, explains it this way: “The Exile has awakened in you. Primitive people found that their chances of survival depended directly on belonging to a group. Any exile was extremely dangerous.” We still react extremely primitively to many things, like our distant ancestors.

Diaz turned to evolutionary psychology to identify 10 basic types of human behavior. These types correspond to the responses that we evolved to solve common problems. These mental models “drive the most important decisions in life.”

Inside each of us lives 10 strangers. They wake up at one time or another, and we don’t even realize it. Each of them has their own abilities that allow them to take control of a particular situation, following the instincts of survival, prolongation and preservation of the family. Here are the main abilities and characteristics of these personalities.

• Kindred. Strives to put the interests of their children and family members above others.
• Pain Keeper. Gives the ability to feel someone else’s pain and compassion, thus protecting against emotional overstrain.
• Exile. Detects our need to be part of a group, suffers when excluded from the team.
• Dread Tamer. Helps to cope with the fear of death.
• The contemplative. Knows how to appreciate beauty and includes an impulsive craving for destruction when beauty is not available.
• Aggressor. Able to use aggression defensively or as a tool to control others.
• Tribalist/Chief. Able to be a leader and form groups.
• Nurse. Able to take care of others, but if necessary, can refuse them.
• Actor. Shows a tendency to ostentatious behavior due to a desire to be the center of attention, to receive love or power.
• Rescuer. inclined towards altruism.

Diaz talks about psychological experiments that show how these types react differently to different situations. One study included Arizona municipal court judges. After being conditioned to think about death, the sentences became nine times harsher. They activated the Dread Tamer, a mechanism by which the thought of death makes us more strict and adamant in actions and decisions.

Another experiment showed that young people gave twice as much money to charity in the presence of an attractive girl. This is how the actor behaved.

Diaz confirms his theory with data obtained from the study of the brain using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). According to these studies, we gaze longer at beautiful faces (Contemplator) and avert our eyes from ugliness or images of trauma (Pain Keeper).

MRI also answers the question about the nature of altruism. It turns out that it is human nature to interact and help others, even when it does not bring obvious benefits and does not affect personal interests. Experiments show that the brain activity of participants in the Prisoner’s Dilemma game (a simple test of cooperativeness) differs significantly depending on whether they are playing against a human or against a computer.

The savior within us is always happy to help another person. “Economic theory starts from the image of a rational selfish individual, but this does not correspond to the actual data,” says Diaz. Our brains actually work differently. More often we are ruled by the Savior, and not by the desire to gain.”

One of the goals of the book is to show that even in the most difficult situations, a different type of behavior can be activated. All of us, of course, are capable of aggression. In some cases, as with the child soldiers described in the book, we can be influenced so strongly that we overcome our natural reluctance to hurt and kill and begin to enjoy it. However, the Aggressor is only one of the evolutionary tools available to man, and not the only way to adapt. Other types may activate instead, such as Nurse or Pain Keeper. Diaz describes the following thought experiment to illustrate how different types are activated in an emergency.

Imagine a school shooting. You are faced with a choice: save your child or a whole class of others? Most people take a millisecond to make a decision. There’s nothing you can do. This is the power of the Kindred.