In yesterday’s episode of the newly launched course Yin and Yang in Human Nature, I pulled together a theme about human nature from my earlier programs: among the many sides of human nature, there is an AB opposition. One side of AB is “order”; the other is “chaos.”
This tension between order and chaos shows up in personality too. Some people lean toward embracing chaos, while others lean toward embracing order. The former are like hunters: they hunt in open forests, making them “Chaos Explorers”; the latter are like farmers: they cultivate the land in enclosed villages, making them “Order Keepers.”
Whether someone tends to be a Chaos Explorer or an Order Keeper is shaped by many internal and external factors, including forces at the genetic level.
As I mentioned in the program, our tendency toward risk-taking is driven mainly by the dopamine system. People who are less sensitive to dopamine become more eager to chase stimulation, living dangerously enough to lick blood off the tip of a knife, just to get their brains to release a little more dopamine and give them more pleasure.
So, what genes are related to a person’s sensitivity to dopamine? Scientists have found that a gene called DRD4 is one of the key genes responsible for regulating dopamine metabolism. Carriers of different versions of the DRD4 gene differ in their sensitivity to dopamine. In particular, people carrying the DRD4-7R variant are usually more energetic and have a stronger appetite for adventure and exploration.
Clearly, people carrying this DRD4-7R gene are more inclined to become hunters. They are born Chaos Explorers.
One study compared the distance traveled by Jewish populations in their migrations with the proportion carrying the DRD4-7R gene. It found that among Jews who had migrated farther from the original Jewish homeland (for example, Jews now living in Rome and Germany), the proportion carrying DRD4-7R was higher than among Jews who had not migrated as far (for example, Jews now living in Ethiopia and Yemen). It seems that DRD4-7R really may be one of the forces driving people to explore the unknown world.
But does this show that Chaos Explorers with DRD4-7R have a greater survival advantage than other people?
Of course not. Most people with or without DRD4-7R are doing just fine today. Each group has its own strengths, along with weaknesses that come with those strengths. Every blessing has a trouble hiding behind it.
In fact, DRD4-7R is a double-edged sword. While it gives Chaos Explorers a spirit of adventure, it also makes them more likely to develop attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and more likely to let impulsiveness plunge their lives into all kinds of chaos. People without DRD4-7R, meanwhile, are often better able to build stable, orderly lives, but they may also lack some of the flexibility needed to deal with chaos.
To echo the point made in the program, the relationship between Chaos Explorers and Order Keepers is not like the light and dark sides of the Force. It is yin and yang—the taijitu.
References:
1.Population Migration and the Variation of Dopamine D4 Receptor (DRD4) Allele Frequencies Around the Globe, Evolution and Human Behavior 20 (1999): 309–24.
2.Mlodinow, L. (2018). Elastic: Flexible Thinking in a Time of Change. Pantheon.
Note
- These articles in the “New Insights in Psychology” series were short popular-science pieces and casual essays written to accompany material related to Zhichao Wei: New Insights in Psychology (Xinli Xinzhi Ke). They were published on the now-closed platform Fantuan, and the original link no longer exists.
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