Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose

Our instincts – for food, sex or territorial protection evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations and pollution.

We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects – from confectionery to pornography to atomic weapons – that gratify these gut instincts with often dangerous results.

Animal biologists coined the term ‘supernormal stimuli‘ to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things.

Deirdre Barrett, author of the new book “Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose” says the first step is to understand what’s happening to us.

Instincts and urges honed for hundreds of thousands of years to keep us alive in a world of scarcity are being subverted in the modern era of plenty. People are bombarded by food that they crave, tempted by seductive images, and urged to buy products designed to appeal to specific wants, regardless of need.

Harvard University describes “Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose” as an examination in the history of research into supernormal stimuli, describing early behavioral experiments on birds and fish. In one, birds whose eggs were lightly speckled fell off as they tried to incubate ridiculously large, boldly polka-dotted fakes. In another, red-bellied male fish fought off artificial red-painted lures even when they didn’t look much like fish.

These outsized prods to normal instincts are called “supernormal stimuli,” and Barrett believes they’re present in our world today, sometimes quite intentionally, prodding us to buy and consume and do.

It’s an easy sell, in many cases, because the stimuli give us a push to do things we’re already inclined toward.

Pornography, she said, subverts instincts intended for mating with people. Stuffed animals, dolls, and cartoon characters manipulate people’s preprogrammed affinity for childlike “cuteness.” She also looks at obesity, war, business, television, and even intellectual pursuits.

Though supernormal stimuli are not universally related to problems, Barrett said many of the episodes in her book do fall into that category.

Understanding ourselves and the reasons we feel as we do, Barrett said, is the first step in overriding our instincts, in our being able to resist the siren song of the Big Mac.

Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses.

She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilisation.

“Supernormal Stimuli” goes hand in hand with Martin Lindstrom’s “Buyology: How Everything We Believe About Why We Buy is Wrong“, another excellent book in the same subject.

Deirdre Barrett is an author and an assistant clinical professor of psychology at Harvard Medical School. She is known for her research on dreams, hypnosis, and imagery, has written on evolutionary psychology and is the author of several books, including ‘Waistland: The (R)Evolutionary Science Behind Our Weight and Fitness Crisis‘.