3 ms·

That's the defintion for Psychological manipulation, not manipulation such as the physical grooming. Manipulation is changing other's behavior, especially agai

• chongli 10y ago
  But if the change in behaviour results in reproductive success, can it really be argued that it is against the being's self-interest?
  • epicureanideal 10y ago
    Yes. It may be good for the species, but very bad for the individual monkey that loses the fight.
    • chongli 10y ago
      Species and individual are human classifications; they have no ultimate biological significance. If I reproduce successfully, then my genes benefit by becoming more common. If I die before reproducing successfully but manage to assist those who are closely related to me in reproduction, I still score a partial victory by having my genes become more common. The only way in which I truly lose is when my whole tribe gets wiped out.
      • reddytowns 10y ago
        Just by being more common in the short term doesn't mean success in the long term, though. It's funny to even try and think what success means, given that success only has meaning in the future. I sometimes think of life as a very long proposed logical proof where each step depends on a a step later then it by one tick of the clock. And as time goes by it's continually reduced, a step at time, and eventually we will come to reveal its basis, somewhere out in the future, which is probably is logical false, and will unravel the original proposition, like it never existed in the first place (ie we all die in the end). Maybe that's all we are, anyway, pieces of a logical computation, which trying to determine something, some solution to a problem that was proposed at the beginning of life on this planet...