Why do lazy people exist?
September 19, 2013 11:54 AM Subscribe
From the point of view of evolution why are there lazy people? Shouldn't they have lost out to busy people?
My personal guess is that evolution has taught us to sit down and take a break once we have enough food. Any thoughts?
My personal guess is that evolution has taught us to sit down and take a break once we have enough food. Any thoughts?
This post was deleted for the following reason: This is pretty chatfilterish as posed; if you're serious, might tighten up your definitions and try again? -- LobsterMitten
Because in our society you can survive and procreate even if you're lazy.
See also: myopia. Would have gotten you killed by saber toothed tigers in the past, but now not such a big deal.
posted by craven_morhead at 11:57 AM on September 19, 2013
See also: myopia. Would have gotten you killed by saber toothed tigers in the past, but now not such a big deal.
posted by craven_morhead at 11:57 AM on September 19, 2013
Are you assuming this is a hereditary thing and not a social trait? It seems like you're assuming this is evolutionary biology and not social psychology.
posted by mikeh at 11:58 AM on September 19, 2013 [2 favorites]
posted by mikeh at 11:58 AM on September 19, 2013 [2 favorites]
This seems like an iffy question for AskMe, but on the off-chance that it stands: doesn't your question assume that there's a genetic basis (or some other hereditary trait) for busyness or laziness? Do we have any reason to believe that this is the case?
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:58 AM on September 19, 2013
posted by Johnny Assay at 11:58 AM on September 19, 2013
I think that it would help to define 'lazy'. In some cases, what appears to be laziness is actually a person's passive resistance to feeling oppressed or imposed upon.
posted by skye.dancer at 11:59 AM on September 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
posted by skye.dancer at 11:59 AM on September 19, 2013 [1 favorite]
In a way, lazy people have already lost out to busy people. How many successful people are lazy? Conversely, how many lazy people are successful?
And, as has been said above, the bare minimum for a human to survive and procreate is actually pretty low, so even lazy people will keep surviving.
posted by Geppp at 12:02 PM on September 19, 2013
And, as has been said above, the bare minimum for a human to survive and procreate is actually pretty low, so even lazy people will keep surviving.
posted by Geppp at 12:02 PM on September 19, 2013
To elaborate: if you look at laziness as a behavior, rather than an immutable personality trait, you will get a much different answer to your question. E.g. "Lazy people exist because society often requires that we tackle to-do items on other people's lists rather than items on our own."
posted by skye.dancer at 12:03 PM on September 19, 2013
posted by skye.dancer at 12:03 PM on September 19, 2013
Even if it's genetic, laziness will not necessarily impact your ability to find a mate and reproduce. It may even be a sign of fitness: "look, I'm so effective at surviving that I only need to work a little bit, then I can relax." Look at the idle rich, for example.
posted by kindall at 12:04 PM on September 19, 2013
posted by kindall at 12:04 PM on September 19, 2013
I think you're going to have to narrow down your definition of lazy for this question to yield any good arguments here.
To win in the evolutionary game, you just need to ideally have loads of offspring, that's it-- if someone being lazy isn't harming those odds, then they're in the game.
posted by Static Vagabond at 12:04 PM on September 19, 2013
To win in the evolutionary game, you just need to ideally have loads of offspring, that's it-- if someone being lazy isn't harming those odds, then they're in the game.
posted by Static Vagabond at 12:04 PM on September 19, 2013
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 11:56 AM on September 19, 2013 [1 favorite]