Geoffrey Miller Quote

Ecologists have long understood that the typical interaction between any two individuals or species is neither competition nor cooperation, but neutralism. Neutralism means apathy: the animals just ignore each other. If their paths threaten to cross, they get out of each other’s way. Anything else usually takes too much energy. Being nasty has costs, and being nice has costs, and animals evolve to avoid costs whenever possible. […] If we were typical animals, our attitudes to others would be dominated not by hate, exploitation, spite, competitiveness, or treachery, but by indifference. And so they are.

Geoffrey Miller

Ecologists have long understood that the typical interaction between any two individuals or species is neither competition nor cooperation, but neutralism. Neutralism means apathy: the animals just ignore each other. If their paths threaten to cross, they get out of each other’s way. Anything else usually takes too much energy. Being nasty has costs, and being nice has costs, and animals evolve to avoid costs whenever possible. […] If we were typical animals, our attitudes to others would be dominated not by hate, exploitation, spite, competitiveness, or treachery, but by indifference. And so they are.

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About Geoffrey Miller

Geoffrey Miller may refer to:

Geoff Miller (born 1952), English cricketer
Geoff Miller (diplomat) (born 193?), former Australian public servant and diplomat
Geoff Miller (priest) (born 1956), archdeacon of Northumberland
Geoff Miller (public servant) (1942–2014), former Australian public servant
Geoff Miller (publisher) (1936–2011), American co-founder, editor, and publisher of Los Angeles Magazine
Geoffrey Miller (cricketer, born 1937), former English cricketer
Geoffrey Miller (psychologist) (born 1965), evolutionary psychologist
Geoffrey P. Miller, American professor of law, see List of law clerks of the Supreme Court of the United States
Geoffrey D. Miller (born 1949), US Army general