loretta breuning

status games slides

Transcript

1. Loretta G. Breuning PhD
   Inner Mammal Institute
   innermammalinstitute.org
   by Loretta Breuning, PhD
   Rowman Littlefield
   Status Games
   Why We Play and How to Stop
   

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2. Sept. 8
   Rowman Littlefield
   SBN-10 : 1538144190
   ISBN-13 : 978-1538144190
   

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3. People care about status because
   animals care about status
   

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4. human cortex
   animal brain
   We’ve inherited the limbic
   brain that motivates this
   

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5. Your mammal brain rewards
   you with a drip of serotonin
   when you raise your status
   

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6. Serotonin
   is not
   aggression.
   It’s the calm
   sense that
   “ I will get
   the banana ”
   

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7. Serotonin is soon metabolized,
   so you have to keep seeking the
   one-up position to keep feeling it
   

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8. The good feeling motivates you
   to repeat behaviors that
   raise your status
   

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9. I’m not saying we should
   think this way, but we do
   

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10. Natural selection built a brain
    that makes social comparisons
    to promote its own survival
    

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11. It rewards you with serotonin
    when you gain
    a position of strength
    

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12. It alarms you with cortisol when
    you see a potential threat to
    your relative position
    

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13. You don’t think this in words
    because the animal brain
    cannot process language
    

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14. These facts were revealed by a century
    of research on mammalian social
    behavior, but now they are taboo
    

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15. It’s easy to see the mammalian
    urge for status in others,
    especially those you don’t like
    

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16. It’s easy to see the one-up impulse
    throughout human history
    

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17. It’s hard to see it in yourself, your
    friends, and cute furry creatures
    

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18. But getting real about
    these feelings gives you
    power over them
    

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19. Neurons connect when serotonin flows,
    so whatever raised your status in the past
    wired you to expect good feelings from that
    

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20. We all see the world through the
    lens of our old neural pathways
    

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21. We all keep striving to stimulate
    serotonin and avoid cortisol in
    ways that worked before
    

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22. We all create one-down feelings
    and one-up feelings despite our
    best intentions
    

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23. We all keep making social
    comparisons because it’s a core
    mammalian survival impulse
    

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24. What’s a
    big-brained
    mammal
    to do?
    

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25. Status Games
    shows you healthy ways to give your
    inner mammal what it needs to feel good
    

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26. It helps you put yourself up
    without putting others down
    

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27. It helps you spark serotonin
    without junk status
    

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28. It helps you manage the
    cortisol of one-down moments
    

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29. Repetition will build new
    pathways so it feels normal
    

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30. You will always be a
    mammal among mammals
    

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31. You have
    power over
    your brain
    but not
    the brains
    of others
    

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32. You can wire yourself to
    enjoy nature’s serotonin
    

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33. You’ll be glad you did!
    

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34. Your questions are invited:
    Loretta@InnerMammalInstitute.org
    

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