As written previously, the way humans function may not always be what people would love to have. The extraordinarily complex and beautiful systems that make up human beings are first of all there to ensure that the species can survive.

It seems that nature determined that one way of doing so is by assisting individuals through a desire to survive. It also serves us, knowing that life has a beginning and an end. Another way nature contributed to human evolution was by giving humans the gift of imagination and thus creativity.

However, it also means that imagination has become part of the way danger is being assessed. It also seems to be how memory and experience have been expanded over the centuries. They contribute to our habit of monitoring the environment.

A very basic consequence is that we’ve developed an automatic ability to determine within just a few seconds if another person is someone we’ll trust, appreciate, or find easy to work with. It’s part of the monitoring human beings do constantly.

However, trusting in that ability regularly is overrated whenever believing in the result.

We forget that it is a system that is there to serve us in case of danger and must do it within seconds. It’s a system we need to trust, but not one we must believe in.

Actually, it is a system that has almost become dangerous in our current experience of life and our global environment.

That system relied on physical differences. Where the logic probably connected physical differences with a shade we saw. That is assuming that it could be the well-known sable tooth tiger or someone from a tribe one didn’t know. Similarities on the other hand helped us recognize family members, friends, colleagues, etc.

Evolution has not yet enabled a useful change in our monitoring or alarm signaling.

And it probably never will. At least, if we don’t acknowledge how it impacts us individually.

By noticing how and why we react to people like we do, we can learn to change our reactions.

But we assume that it is only about being more open, more inviting, or more empathic. It keeps us subject to the prejudices resulting from our own experiences. It also keeps transgenerational teaching alive, one we have been subject to just like previous generations.