How many instincts do humans have?
I do not believe we know the answer, nor can we expect a precise one. However, Human Universals research provides good evidence that there are hundreds. The best known is our instinct to smile. Even babies born blind do it. The most consequential may be our instinct to learn and use language and the prevelance of aggression in young males.Research on twins separated early in life has yielded some truly startling coincidences that suggest more instincts than we realize. But the important thing to remember in all this is that instincts, however many we have, are mediated by culture and individual experience. Disentangling those at the individual level is difficult and not especially useful.
Is art a human instinct?
an instinct? possibly. first, i find it interesting that "art" has occured in nature, in "primitive" animals as well. such as some forms of multi-cellular bacteria in the artic will use sand to create casings to protect themselves, but they will pick out only certain types of sand, such as all white, or black and white and make some pretty cool designs with them. There are also bowerbirds who make elaborate nests out of unique things they find in nature, and implement colors in a variety of ways. this makes one wonder exactly what art is... yes, I do believe that art is an instinct, but not just in humans. it is a way to express our darker sides, a way to prevent mental illness from taking over in some, and also a way to communicate to others new ideas or dreams or ways of life. there are all sorts of reasons why art is important to our cultures.
What are the basic instincts of humans?
The most primal instinct is to survive. This is the basic instinct of all organisms.This has been the major driving force that caused life forms to multiply and flourish.To survive we need food and water. So we forge for the same. Before we were hunter gatherers, now we cultivate or buy our food. But the driving force is the same.The next basic instinct is love, hate and fear. (the primal emotions.) Since we try to survive, we want our loved ones to survive too. We figure out that even our children would love to survive AND because sex feels good, we reproduce!Fear is also a very basic instinct that has helped us enormously. Think about what would have happened to the rat species, if they were not afraid of cats!
Is sex for humans instinctive?
It's not as simple as that. Take pandas for example. In nature, adolescent pandas watch older pandas having sex and learn the appropriate mating and reproducing behaviors that way. The sex drive, or libido, is instinctive, but not the details of the physical act. This presented a problem in zoos. Animals raised in captivity had no idea how to mate. The zookeepers came up with the idea of introducing "panda porn" to teach the adolescent pandas what they were supposed to do by showing them video of mating adults. It was pretty successful. I'm not going to comment on humans except to say that the answers are equally (if not considerably more) complex. There are whole courses on this in college and people who spend their lives studying it from an academic perspective.
Human instinct experiment?
What do you think would be the outcome of an experiment in which a human infant is placed in a habitat that simulates the conditions that the first Homo Sapiens evolved in? Provided that the infant is kept alive by the scientists conducting the experiment, do you think that the human would learn to sustain himself and keep himself alive, without external support? Do you think the ancient instincts imbedded in the brain stem that allowed the first humans to survive are still functional and are prominent enough to keep a modern human alive in a natural setting? Or do you think these instincts have withered away over the millennia, and we are now completely dependent on our modern machines, technology, agriculture, irrigation, etc... for our own survival as a species?
Is your first instinct usually right?
Like when you think someone likes you or is going to ask you out? I always have a gut feeling adn it usually turns out right. So do you guys get this too? Thanks :)
Your thoughts please: do humans have instincts?
I was in a parenting class a few weeks ago and among other things the instructer nonchallantly stated this. I am an intelligent person with eyes wide open to the world, a realist, but her statement still ponders my mind. Is she right? Or just right "now" So...animal instincts are behavioral traits animals are born with and human behaviors must be learned then profected over time (not inherited?) So humans are not born with instincts but must learn them? Hmm. I'm not sure I agree, being a new mom i totally believe in mothers intuition and the natually abilitys to care (keep alive n strong) my offspring. I just dont think we (humans as a race) have been around long enough yet. Why would some mental behaviors be "instinctually" inherited but not physical instincts? Can humans evolve to have natually behavior instincts like animals do? I would hope so. Humans use what 10% of our brains? ..how many % do animals use of their brain capacity?