Socionics and Evolution

This article, while never mentioning socionics, shows how something like socionics might have arisen through evolutionary forces. Conclusion with ties to socionics at bottom.

Specialization between species

Each species in the natural world occupies its own biological niche defined by how the species as a unit interacts with other species and with natural processes in its environment. Each species has a set of "survival strategies" that it invariably relies on to ensure its own survival and reproduction. For example, dogs form packs, dandelions use wind to spread their seeds, and cacti store water in their trunks for extended periods of time to survive droughts. These traits are shared by all members of the species.

Specialization within species

Specialization can also occur within a species — not just between species. Gender is the most basic form of intra-species specialization, but additional kinds are possible as well (among animals, at least). Ants are a perfect example of extreme specialization, with one colony typically containing several different "castes" — a queen or queens, drones whose only function is mating, nurses, workers, and soldiers. Different castes of ants even have different body structures.

Many other animal species have less obvious specialization of functions — for example, dogs, rats, beavers, and primates (including humans). Animals of these species all share the same body structure (aside from gender differences) but occupy different behavioral niches based on their varying physical and psychological traits. These species have complex group interaction and rely on teamwork to survive. The more a species relies on teamwork to survive, the greater the degree of specialization among its individuals. Members of such species often divide up into guards, explorers, hunters, warriors, nurses, helpers, workers, etc. — sometimes temporarily, sometimes permanently.

Mechanisms for cooperation

If a species relies on cooperation for survival, then individual members of the species must have an internal mechanism or set of mechanisms that motivates them to seek out other members of their species for cooperation and interaction. There must be a psychological need for interaction and cooperation that produces positive emotions when filled and negative emotions when unfulfilled. Most people, for example, quickly lose their emotional equilibrium after just a day or two without human interaction, and dogs become sullen and depressed if they are left alone for long.

Strategies for social survival

Not only do social animals have to adapt to their physical environment, but they also must adapt to the society they are a part of, and to specific members of that society. For example, if one baboon in a pack of baboons is highly aggressive, this will affect the behavior of the other baboons, who will have to find a way to interact with him that requires the least possible effort on their part. Social animals are constantly adapting to changes in group structure and changing roles around them.

Competition and Cooperation

While members of a society have inborn tendencies to seek out certain niches instead of others depending on their individual physiological and psychological traits, the actual behavioral niches that individuals occupy also depend on the niches of those around them. If one's "most desired" niche is taken by someone else, competition arises, and the individual that is more determined and/or has the most resources to hold that niche wins. This competition can take both visible and invisible forms. The "loser" then either finds a different behavioral strategy in the group or distances himself from the group in hopes of finding a different group of the society where he can occupy his chosen niche.

Cooperation without competition flourishes where individuals pursue different niches and gain benefits from each others' niches. For example, if one individual is very aggressive, he might form a partnership with another individual that is not at all aggressive but who likes to reap the benefits of being around aggressive individuals — much like hyenas benefit from lions' hunting skills. This "helper" would also need to bring benefit to the aggressive partner, perhaps by offering useful "advice," by copying the other's actions in critical situations, or by befriending those offended by his partner so that they do not rebel against him. Thus, symbiotic relationships form based on nonconflicting, mutually beneficial niches.

Such symbiotic cooperation can be situational or more or less permanent, depending on how natural and desirable these niches are for the partners involved. The more "natural" a niche is for an individual, the less internal effort it takes to fulfill his chosen role and the more satisfaction he gains from his role in the group. If an individual has been forced by circumstances to occupy a less natural niche, he will switch to a more desirable niche as soon as circumstances permit. If two or more individuals have "found themselves" in their respective niches, and these niches are mutually beneficial, their cooperation and friendship might continue indefinitely, increasing each others' chances for success within the community and for survival in the environment.

Group specialization

Within complex animal societies, group specialization is also common, in addition to individual specialization. For example, a society might have groups of hunters, groups of explorers, groups of caretakers, groups of guards, etc. It might seem that there would be intense competition in such groups, with many individuals competing for the same niches. In actuality, because these groups have a specific mission, demand for traits related to that mission is great enough to allow many individuals to occupy very similar niches without too much competition. However, competition resumes when group members return to society, the group dissolves, and members must coexist under normal conditions.

When specialized groups are formed, not everyone in the group must necessarily be a hunter, guard, caretaker, explorer, etc. "at heart." In fact, for the group to cooperate effectively, some individuals must occupy roles that are auxiliary to the main task that the group performs. For example, in human scientific communities there are many people who are not themselves scientists, yet they enjoy being part of the community and fulfilling various auxiliary needs of the community — technical assistance, help planning and conducting experiments and studies, secretaries, editors, work crews for field studies, etc. etc. Without them there would be no one to hold the community together. A group specialization like "scientific research" allows for a large variety of niches for people who like being a part of science, even if they personally do not write papers and dissertations. The same holds true of all other group specializations of any scale, such as "warfare," "organized crime," "raising children," "publishing," "politics," and "group leisure."

Concentrations of survival strategies

Nature tends to maintain a "dynamic equilibrium" of opposing behavior strategies within communities of social animals. A high concentration of one behavioral trait naturally creates a high demand for opposing or complementary traits. For example, if too many members of a group are aggressive and dominant, the group falls apart and individuals have less chances of survival, thus having fewer chances to pass on their aggressive genes. Also, if an individual with traits complementary to aggressive individuals were to join the group, he would reap enormous rewards and have more chances for reproduction, thus ensuring that in the future the percentage of aggressive individuals decreases to a more sustainable level.

The same is true of other behavioral strategies. In human societies, if everyone around lies and steals, an honest person would quickly gain a great advantage by being the only one to instill trust in those around him. Likewise, if everyone around is trusting and honest, a cheater can come in and deceiving everyone around him for his own benefit. The phenomenon of how opposing survival strategies exist side by side in animal communities and the mathematics behind them that preserves their balance have been studied by Richard Dawkins and other evolutionists.

Factors that inhibit the formation of harmonious sub-groups in societies

It might seem that the obvious survival advantages of harmonious partnerships based on complementary niches would bring about societies where each individual has his "perfect pair" and his small cohesive group that fits harmoniously into the greater community structure. However, we find this neither in the natural world nor in human societies. Why not?

First, the forces of nature keep interfering and disrupting the equilibrium. For example, if just one member of a small cohesive group is killed or maimed, the system of cooperation of the entire group falls apart, and its other members must either find a replacement or adopt new behavioral niches that might be less natural for them.

Secondly, various needs of individuals are continually being activated and deactivated. The need that is most dominant at the moment tends to determine individuals' choice of partnerships. For example, a stable productive partnership that formed as individuals were searching for food or exploring territory might well fall apart when group members begin thinking about reproduction.

Conclusion

The forces discussed above ensure that societies of social animals remain in a constant state of flux, with elements of both competition and cooperation, with a multitude of both "harmonious" and "forced" partnerships, and with individuals occupying many different niches in different groups — some more natural, others less so. This evolutionary perspective provides little hope of ever eradicating competitiveness or any other "negative" behavior traits in human societies. However, even within such imperfect societies separate individuals may be able to "get away with" feeling satisfied with their overall situation, experiencing fulfilling relationships, and realizing their desires to a great extent. To experience this one must, among other things, manage to consistently find satisfying behavioral niches and cooperative partnerships where one's natural traits are in demand.

An evolutionary view on socionics

The basic idea of socionics is the concept of differentiation of the psyche — or innate differences in the way information is perceived and processed and in the behavioral niches individuals are motivated to pursue. It is believed that this differentiation takes on certain structures, and that these structures interact in different ways with one another, producing intertype relations. I believe that these fundamental concepts are well supported by evolution, as the above article shows. In addition, this evolutionary view shows that neither type behavior nor intertype relations can be very rigid, since natural forces are continuously mixing things up and disrupting equilibrium. Types with rigid perceptual abilities and behavioral niches would become helpless in non-ideal situations, which would be detrimental to individuals' survival. Rigid relationships between types would limit societies' ability to react flexibly to changes in the outside world. Thus, an evolutionary view on socionics shows that while types and intertype relations almost certainly exist, they must be flexible enough to ensure individual and community survival under unstable conditions.