The Willpower Paradox: Why we evolved to have less willpower than we need.

By: Geoff Alexander

Five hundred thousand years ago there was a particularly ambitious twenty one year old member of an ancient species of human (Homo Heidelbergenesis) named Grug who decided to build a primitive dwelling in a tree out of large sticks to reduce his risk of being attacked by certain predators at night. His tribe remained content in their cave. Grug proceeded to erect his dwelling even though he had no experience in building tree houses. His plan ultimately failed when he neglected to build appropriate walls, fell out of his tree house in his sleep and broke his leg. One month later, the tribe decided to change location to follow the seasonal movements of their prey. Unfortunately for Grug, he suffered an early death when he found he could not keep up. For hunter gatherers, who did not have access to basic medicine, and for whom merely staying alive was a fulltime job, a setback like a broken leg would often be fatal. Consequently Grug did not pass on his genes or his relatively high willpower to any offspring. However, some of his lazier fellow hunter gatherers, more often guided by instinct and habit than creative planning, did just this.This book presents a theory that a willpower deficit can be explained, in large part, as an evolved survival mechanism. Less willpower would have reduced the self created dangers resulting from errors and oversights in creative planning by hunter gatherers with limited education and awareness of the world. As the modern human brain has evolved little from the time of hunter gatherers, this willpower deficit is presumed to have been retained.A high degree of willpower, whilst useful today, would have entailed a relatively high degree of risk for hunter gatherers. Indeed, those with too high a willpower may have had a lower chance of survival. Compared to modern humans they would have suffered, in many cases, greater consequences when their plans went wrong. Because of their limited mental capability, they would have also had a lower capacity to understand or appreciate risks and possible flaws in their plans. An evolved willpower deficit is a logical safety mechanism to restrict creative ambition to a basic level.Flowing from the logic of this powerful evolutionary theory, the latter part of the book discusses a unique basis for strengthening human willpower.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1481051458
• ISBN13: 9781481051453
• Release Date: November 2012
• Publisher: CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform
• Weight: 0.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.0" x 0.1" x 6.0"