Invisible Rivals

1. Humans possess a dual nature: both cooperative and selfish.

Selfishness and prosociality don’t define us, but are intrinsic elements of what makes a person a person.

Beyond binaries. Human nature is not a simple choice between good or bad, cooperative or competitive. Instead, we are a complex intertwining of both, a reality often overlooked in philosophical debates that caricature us as either purely altruistic (Rousseau's "noble savage") or inherently selfish (Hobbes's "war of all against all"). This reductionist thinking, whether from early evolutionary biology or modern cultural theories, misleads us into creating policies that address phantoms rather than the nuanced reality of human behavior.

A spectrum of behavior. Consider figures like George Price, who pathologically pursued altruism to his own detriment, versus Dan Price, who built a public persona of fairness while allegedly engaging in misconduct. These extremes highlight that human behavior exists on a spectrum, influenced by both innate drives and environmental opportunities. Ignoring either the "good" or "bad" parts of our nature leads to significant societal problems, as our understanding of human nature directly impacts how we conceptualize and solve global challenges like inequality and mental health.

Realistic expectations. To address pressing issues, we need realistic expectations about ourselves and others. Believing people are fundamentally cooperative can lead to complacency, allowing those in power to exploit systems under the guise of shared goals. Conversely, assuming universal selfishness can lead to resignation. The truth is that we are "animals capable of cooperation," and recognizing this distinction is the first step toward building societies that account for our flaws and promote genuine collaboration.

2. Invisible rivalry is our unique form of hidden competition.

Humans, more than other known organisms, can cooperate until we imagine a way to compete, exploit, or coerce, and almost always rely on language to do so.

Language as invisibility. While animals exhibit tactical deception, humans possess a unique and dangerous tool: language. This allows us to influence others, mask our intentions, and hide our true identities, effectively granting us a "Ring of Gyges" that makes our self-serving motives invisible. This capacity for hidden manipulation is what defines "invisible rivalry," a pervasive form of competition that underpins many social interactions.

Beyond overt aggression. Our evolutionary journey didn't eliminate selfishness; it merely refined it. As societies became more complex and overt aggression became less viable, humans developed sophisticated ways to pursue self-interest covertly. This shift from "reactive aggression" (brutish dominance) to "proactive aggression" (planned manipulation) means that the most successful individuals are often those best at appearing cooperative while subtly exploiting the system for personal gain.

The Machiavellian advantage. Invisible rivals are intelligent exploiters who follow rules only as long as it benefits them, then subvert cooperative practices when opportunity arises. They "fake it till they make it," or, like a cancer, "until they break it." This Machiavellian intelligence, while extreme in psychopaths, exists to some degree in everyone, allowing us to strategize our way up social hierarchies and often rewarding those most adept at hidden competition.

3. Exploitation is an ancient, universal evolutionary principle.

If a system can be exploited, it will be.

Cancer as a metaphor. The persistence of cancer throughout complex life forms serves as a stark biological metaphor for exploitation. Just as a rogue cell betrays the cooperative body for its own uncontrolled reproduction, eventually killing the host, so too do individuals exploit cooperative social systems. This "free-rider syndrome" is a fundamental evolutionary principle, demonstrating that short-term selfish gains often override long-term collective well-being.

Beyond human societies. Exploitation is not unique to humans; it's a universal feature of the natural world.

• Pine trees evolve chemical defenses against beetles, leading to an arms race.
• Cuckoos mimic host eggs to trick other birds into raising their young.
• Sunfish males mimic females to gain access to mating territories.
  These examples illustrate a constant coevolutionary arms race between deceivers and detectors, where strategies for exploitation are met with countermeasures, only for new forms of deception to emerge.

The enduring challenge. Our history, from ancient hunter-gatherer groups to modern industrialized nations, is replete with examples of exploitation. Whether it's gerontocracies, patriarchal systems, or modern corporate greed, the underlying principle remains: where there's an opportunity to take more than one's share, someone will. This enduring challenge means that while we can develop defenses, complete elimination of exploitation is unlikely, requiring continuous vigilance and adaptation.

4. Human cooperation evolved through kinship, reciprocity, and reputation.

Individuals who can help each other and can remember who has helped them will be at a huge advantage in the game of natural selection over those who fend entirely for themselves.

Foundations of cooperation. Early biological models struggled to explain cooperation beyond direct genetic relatives. However, key theories emerged to clarify how cooperation could evolve even among non-kin:

• Kin Selection: Favoring relatives (sharing genes) increases inclusive fitness.
• Reciprocal Altruism: Helping others with the expectation of future return creates mutually beneficial relationships.
• Reputation: Helping those with good reputations (indirect reciprocity) encourages widespread cooperation, as people avoid those known to be selfish.

The power of language. Language dramatically amplified these cooperative mechanisms. It allowed for:

• Gossip: Efficiently spreading information about others' trustworthiness.
• Reputation building: Individuals could advertise themselves as good partners.
• Social selection: Choosing partners based on perceived reliability, leading to a "biological market" where individuals compete to be seen as cooperative.

Self-domestication. This interplay of cooperation mechanisms led to a form of "self-domestication," where humans inadvertently selected for prosocial traits. We became "supercooperators" capable of complex social structures, but this also created new avenues for subtle exploitation. The ability to communicate effectively, while fostering trust, simultaneously enabled more sophisticated forms of hidden rivalry.

5. We are driven to maximize various forms of capital.

We are all, anthropologically speaking, capitalists.

Beyond economic wealth. The concept of "capital" extends far beyond mere money. Anthropologically, humans are driven to maximize various forms of capital, a fundamental evolutionary impulse essential for survival and reproduction. This drive is why invisible rivalry is so potent, as it allows individuals to gain capital covertly.

Three forms of capital:

• Resource Capital: Tangible wealth like money, land, or assets. This directly influences reproductive success, as seen in polygyny thresholds where wealthier individuals can support more offspring.
• Social Capital: Reputation, relational wealth, and social connections. This is crucial for forming alliances, securing partners, and ensuring the success of one's children, often inherited across generations.
• Embodied Capital: Physical skills, knowledge, and personal attributes. This determines an individual's ability to acquire resources, attract mates, and contribute to society, often requiring significant investment in education and training.

The capitalist impulse. This inherent drive to accumulate capital means that even seemingly altruistic acts can be interpreted as strategic investments in another form of capital. For example, a billionaire's charitable donation might be a trade of resource capital for social capital (reputation). True altruism, therefore, requires a demonstrable sacrifice of capital without receiving another form in return, a difficult act in a world where capital maximization is a pervasive force.

6. Societies develop cultural immune systems against exploitation.

Societies can therefore be said to have cultural immune systems.

Norms as defense mechanisms. Just as biological organisms develop immune systems to fight off rogue cells (like cancer), human societies evolve "cultural immune systems" to combat exploitation and maintain cohesion. These systems manifest as social norms, rituals, and beliefs that regulate behavior and deter free-riding. Examples include:

• Adultery norms: Ensuring paternity certainty and maintaining social order.
• Partible paternity: Distributing paternal investment in high-risk environments.
• Gift-giving rules: Enforcing reciprocity and social bonds.

Punishment and enforcement. Punishment is a universal tool for maintaining norms, inflicting costs on those who violate social contracts. These costs can target different forms of capital:

• Physical harm: Affecting embodied capital.
• Fines/payments: Reducing resource capital.
• Ostracism/reputational damage: Hurting social capital.
  However, the effectiveness of punishment depends on detection, and invisible rivals excel at evading it.

The ongoing arms race. The cultural immune system is not static; it's engaged in a coevolutionary arms race with exploitation. As societies develop new norms and enforcement mechanisms, exploiters devise novel ways to circumvent them. This means that while norms are essential for social functioning, they are constantly under threat from those who specialize in finding loopholes and hiding their self-serving actions.

7. Large societies amplify opportunities for invisible rivalry.

The modern world gives psychopaths the anonymity that translates to opportunity.

Anonymity's double edge. While small-scale societies often enforce norms through direct observation and immediate social consequences, large, complex societies offer a crucial advantage to invisible rivals: anonymity. It's harder to track who is truly contributing versus who is free-riding when interactions are fleeting and social networks are vast. This anonymity creates abundant opportunities for hidden exploitation.

The problem of opportunity. If people are presented with a chance to cheat without being caught, many will. This is evident in studies where individuals behave more selfishly when their actions are private, or when they can pay a small cost to avoid being seen as selfish. The sheer scale and complexity of modern institutions—from global financial markets to large charities—provide fertile ground for individuals to exploit systems without detection.

Institutional facades. Institutions themselves can become vehicles for invisible rivalry. Organizations, even those founded with altruistic intentions, can develop exploitative practices if powerful individuals within them prioritize capital maximization. A good reputation can provide a cover for misconduct, allowing "social crypsis" where entities appear benevolent while engaging in questionable practices, as seen in cases like St. Jude Hospital's fundraising or companies' greenwashing.

8. Humans excel at rationalizing self-serving behaviors.

It seems that creating the impression, to yourself and others, that you believe in fairness gives you the cognitive tools necessary for acting unfairly.

Fairness as a yardstick. Humans don't possess an innate, unwavering preference for fairness; rather, fairness acts as a "yardstick" against which we measure our own and others' behaviors. This allows for significant flexibility in our moral judgments, particularly when self-interest is at stake. We are not merely "rational men" but "rationalizing men," adept at justifying our actions to ourselves and others.

Moral licensing. This rationalizing ability is evident in "moral licensing," where past moral behavior or even the mere expression of moral views can give individuals permission to act less ethically later. For example, expressing egalitarian views might precede biased hiring decisions, or imagining a charitable donation might lead to a luxury purchase. This suggests that our internal moral compass can be overridden by self-deception.

Market distortions. Market forces further complicate ethical decision-making. Studies show that individuals are more willing to engage in unethical acts (like trading animal lives for money) when operating within a market context, as the collective nature of the transaction diffuses individual guilt. This "market effect" allows otherwise unethical behaviors to become normalized, as seen in the historical actions of Swiss banks or the modern cocaine trade, where systemic issues obscure individual culpability.

9. Conformity and prestige biases make us vulnerable to autocracy.

If personable, attractive, and deceptive people like psychopaths and narcissists use their social abilities to become successful, and we in turn become drawn by their prestige, we have the ingredients for being tempted to follow a dangerous leader.

The allure of the crowd. Humans possess evolved biases that make us susceptible to group influence. We tend to conform to the beliefs and norms of the majority, and we are drawn to imitate individuals perceived as prestigious—successful, attractive, or charismatic. While these biases facilitate cultural transmission and social cohesion, they also create vulnerabilities to manipulation and autocratic rule.

Autocracy's basin of attraction. This susceptibility means that open societies are constantly pulled towards autocracy. Charismatic leaders, like Adolf Hitler or Donald Trump, can exploit these biases to consolidate power, creating a sense of shared identity and an external enemy. By mastering the "biases of conformity and prestige," they can make their will appear to embody the collective will, stifling dissent and eroding individual freedoms.

The cost of complacency. The rise of figures who refuse to admit defeat or who control narratives through media ownership highlights this danger. When a society becomes complacent about its vulnerabilities, it risks devolving into a state where trust becomes irrelevant because personal freedoms are eliminated. Recognizing this inherent pull towards centralized power is crucial for designing safeguards that protect democratic principles and individual agency.

10. Unchecked invisible rivalry fuels pervasive inequality.

The 'average' billionaire has gained roughly $1.7 million for every $1 of new wealth earned by a person in the bottom 90 percent.

The contracting circle. Despite philosophical arguments for expanding our circle of moral duty, economic trends suggest the opposite: inequality is increasing globally, and our circles of concern often contract as we age and focus on personal and familial capital accumulation. This "social myopia" means that as some individuals climb the social ladder, they become less inclined to support broader societal well-being, leading to a "culture of inequality."

Multifaceted impacts. Inequality is not limited to financial disparities; it translates into profound differences in health, education, and life expectancy.

• Malnutrition: Both undernourishment and obesity disproportionately affect the poorest, leading to chronic health issues and intergenerational suffering.
• Life expectancy: A stark correlation exists between wealth/education and lifespan, as seen in London's varying life expectancies across Tube stops.
• Social corrosion: High inequality is linked to lower public trust, increased aggression, and the scapegoating of vulnerable groups.

Scrounging writ large. The dynamics of inequality mirror "scrounging" behaviors observed in the animal kingdom, where some individuals gain resources by exploiting the efforts of others. In human societies, this translates to dominant groups adopting strategies to sustain power, often through the effective use of intelligence, language, and institutional control. The transfer of resource capital across generations, rather than its production, is a primary driver of this widening gap.

11. Discerning trust and structural interventions are key to a better future.

The truth may not make us free, but it should improve our efficiency.

Beyond blind trust. In a world where invisible rivalry is rampant, blind trust is dangerous, and complete distrust leads to despotism. The optimal state is one where individuals can place trust discerningly. While humans are only slightly better than chance at lie detection, perceived credibility heavily influences who we believe. This highlights the need for intellectual tools to assess information and motivations.

Education as a defense. Arming ourselves intellectually is paramount. This involves:

• Critical thinking: Questioning information sources and understanding underlying agendas.
• Ethical education: Learning why ethical behavior is essential for societal endurance.
• Self-knowledge: Introspecting on our own capacity for invisible rivalry and self-deception.
• Asking "Who benefits?": A crucial question to uncover hidden motives in any communication.

Structural solutions. Individual discernment must be complemented by structural interventions that account for the inevitability of free-riding.

• Adaptive policy: Acknowledge that a percentage of people will always cheat (e.g., in welfare or climate pledges) and design policies that can function despite this.
• Exposure over punishment: Focus on detecting and exposing free-riders to damage their social capital, rather than relying solely on punitive measures.
• Bottom-up approaches: Consult local communities and indigenous populations when designing policies, as their knowledge and norms are crucial for effective, sustainable solutions.

Last updated: August 17, 2025