further. Long ago, some curious high experience-seeker must have
opened it and then enjoyed the reward of finding out that it was
moist, sweet, and tart (and don’t get me started on passion fruit).
Sensation-seeking may well have led to the kind of risk-
taking that helped humans travel, adapt to, and survive in new
environments. Hunters willing to take greater risks may have
gained greater rewards. For example, bigger game means a risk of
danger and a risk of not having any dinner, but if you get the
animal, you can feed the tribe for weeks. No guts, no glory – they
say.
While there may be advantages to this type of experience-
seeking, there is also a down side. The manchineel tree is a pretty
lime green tree that can grow up to 50 feet tall with tempting green
fruit. Found in the Florida Everglades, Central America, and in the
Caribbean, it bears a sweet fruit nicknamed “the apple of death”
that blisters the mouth and closes the throat when eaten. Coming
in contact with any part of the tree can be fatal, whether you
breathe in its sawdust or get squirted with noxious sap.^14 If your
novelty-seeking draws you to this fruit, it could very well be your
last new experience.
Finding the right balance is difficult. Take too many risks
and you may be dead before you have a chance to spread your genes
by having children. Remain overly cautious and you might have
a hard time getting what you need (including kids). Life requires
a bit of risk-taking to be successful and evolution favored humans
who took at least some risks, but not too many. The question is how
is this influenced biologically and does it have something to do with
what is good for us?
Evolutionary psychologists say that humans tend to be
drawn toward things that are good for us and fear things that
could be dangerous. This might explain why some people have
what seems like an innate fear of spiders or snakes (they can be
deadly), and many people crave particular foods that have nutrients
which the person may lack (called specific hunger).
Scientists have even discovered some biological systems
that back up this claim. Specialized systems in the brain have
evolved to reward some behaviors with pleasure while associating
others with pain.^15 It’s like a biological traffic light. Potentially
rewarding things get the green light and we want to approach
them. Things that could be punishing or that won’t bring
a reward get the red light and we want to avoid them. This is called37 / Born to Be WildDownloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. Access paid by the UCSF Library, on 11 Nov 2019 at 14:20:40, subject to the Cambridge