Best copy
Humans are different from other animals in the fastidiousness with which we copy others. Says Rob Henderson:
High-fidelity imitation is unique to humans.
If a chimpanzee views a person perform a series of superfluous actions, along with one single necessary action, in order to obtain a piece of food, the chimpanzee will skip the superfluous action, and perform only the necessary one.
In contrast, children will copy every single action, including the unnecessary ones.
In these studies, chimps are behaving more rationally than humans. There is no wasted motion to obtain the reward.
But the human ability to over-imitate is a key reason why humans have survived and outcompeted other species.
More than just the copying itself, from whom we copy also matters. As social creatures, we figure out who our leaders are, and we try to copy from them. We can see this from time to time in how popular it becomes to copy the actions of people who are, well, popular.
People try to emulate the mundane behaviors of the successful, for instance by trying to copy the morning routines or diets of prominent individuals. Marketers acknowledge this when they have celebrities endorse products.
At the same time, it’s important to know where the limits are. For instance, the newly elected Republican congressman from New York, George Santos, carried away in copying Donald Trump. He puffed up his résumé in a fashion similar to Trump’s inflated biographies. He told open, brazen lies about his entire past which anyone could discover to be untrue with a bit of effort—much like Trump!
Uh. Where was I?
As Henderson tells us, we should be cautious in the people we copy. High achievers can afford to use counter-signaling—demonstrating they’re so successful that they don’t have to care what others think. Thus, we can observe very wealthy people who no longer dress in expensive fineries to show off their wealth, but instead try to look something like hobos. (This was a thematic running gag in the Ben Stiller movie Zoolander, where the fashion designer character played by Will Ferrel has models dressing exactly like bums, hobos, and prostitutes.)
More Henderson:
An example from Ogilvy Vice Chairman Rory Sutherland: If you’re a top executive, turning up to work on a bicycle is a high-status activity because it was a choice and not a necessity. But if you work at Pizza Hut, turning up on a bike means you can’t afford a car.
As with so much else in life, perhaps the main lesson is not to overdo it. Don’t start out by trying to copy the best in your field, but rather someone who is a bit better and more experienced, rather than the world champion. Besides, you are probably too far removed from the world’s greatest to be able to see the actual details in order to copy them accurately anyway.
But still: George Santos. Yeesh!
Believe it’s Jessie Johnson. UK poet.
So, chimps more rational than humans in their mimicking of behavior? Well, one cheer for evolution.
Perhaps more school children should be sent on field trips to the local zoo to spend a little time in the primate section, instead of spending so much time in the zoos of pop culture and social media.
Speaking of *field* trips, apparently the DHHS in my home state has decided to ban the term "*field* worker" in its agency's communications, due to the term's "implications for the descendants of Black and Brown enslaved individuals."
Though "...the widespread use of this term is not intended to be harmful, we cannot ignore the impact its use has on our employees." Apparently,"...staff and stakeholders have raised concerns" about the term's connotations, which are supposedly racist in the opinion of some.
Ditto USC's School of Social Work, removing the term from its curriculum to help "reject white supremacy". Its Field Education Department is now the Practicum Education Department. "We have decided to remove the world 'field' from our curriculum and practice and replace it with 'practicum'."
Now, I'm all in on the rejection of white supremacy. However...
Said the new PED: "Language is powerful, and phrases such as 'going into the field' or field work may have connotations for descendants of slavery and immigration workers that are not benign."
So, field trips for the kids are probably out. But practicum excursions, maybe.
As a practical matter, I agree that language is a powerful thing. As long as it's expressed in words that allow one to know exactly what the hell is being talked about. And as another practical matter, it may be there are more than a few adults in need of a trip to the zoo, if they can find the time to decamp the ones they work and live in for a little while.
This, from a guy who spent no small amount of time sweating in the tobacco and hay fields of his youth, never in his wildest dreams imaging the people whom he sometimes broke sweat with and who didn't look like him would be in danger of being 'triggered' by the words 'field' or 'work'. Work didn't scare them any more than it did him. And the work to be done was in the fields. That was it, and that was all, for all of us.
Of course, that may be because it's only been of late that he's known the word trigger to refer to anything much more than something one squeezed when aiming at a squirrel. Or the name of a horse. Which he's watching rip the bed covers off of Bob Hope as he types this, just for a little needed comic relief. For any unfamiliar, he'd be happy to say the name of that old movie. But it might trigger something untoward.