Human instincts theory can explain why we have racial behavioral differences

My “Human Instincts” theory can explain why Russia- Ukraine War has happened. This video validates humans have instinctive behaviors.

By Stephen P. M. Cheng

My “Human Instincts'' theory posits a theoretical framework for why the Russia- Ukraine War happened. The theoretical underpinnings of this theory is that humans react using their instinctive behaviors, which are similar to basic instincts in animals. Animals possess basic instincts; for example, a young cat will learn how to effectively catch mice after merely a few attempts as a survival mechanism that is ingrained within their brain. Although there is no definitive explanation for instinct; I posit it merely constitutes memory transmitted genetically from one generation to the next in the form of "old experience." A young cat has the instinct of ‘mice catching’ but has no instinct in circus tricks because its ancestors have no experience in circus tricks.

At present we do not know how this is done because nature has many secrets that are still unknown to us. Humans who are a part of the animal genome do not know how our memory is recorded, which is why it is plausible that humans also have instinctive behaviors similar to other animals. Other examples include how German Shepherds will instinctively bark at a stranger while small Peking dogs will instinctively wag their tail. Therefore, animals’ whose ancestors originated in different environments resulted in animals exhibiting different basic instincts that are ingrained from birth.

My hypothesis is that humans possess instinctive behaviors akin to animals’ basic instincts? To prove or disprove this hypothesis, I conducted a systematic literature review to assess whether humans exhibited different instinctive behaviors from their ancestors’ historically living in different environments. The first example will be Westerners and Easterners. The US consists of 50 constituent states. Before 1776, they were all separate entities. Eventually they joined together and became the United States of America. My hypothesis is that because of self-discipline aligned with Western philosophy the people within the United States were able to successfully come together despite their differences in regard to the North and South to forge a unified approach toward coexistence.

In contrast, in Middle East countries such as Libya and Samaria, the country is divided into many small entities with each entity acting like a country of its own. They fight with each other and these ongoing tensions that continue to cause great suffering to people living in this region. These ongoing civil wars in these countries have resulted in a large number of refugees migrating to Europe. Why is there such a profound difference? My hypothesis is that this disparity is caused by people's diversity in instinctive behaviors.

My hypothesis posits that Westerners’ instinctively consider economics as the most important factor in joining or separating a country as opposed to Easterners who consider the notion of “not to be ruled by some higher authority” as the most important factor in joining or separating a country. The reason is because the ancient Easterner people were shaped in their desert environment to establish a ranking system. Everyone wanted to be on top. This is their instinctive behavior.

If a portion of the country is separated from the country, the portion separated can get rid of controlling from the top and they are on the top. Therefore, Eastern countries in my opinion have historically been divided into smaller ones until there is a war where the stronger entity conquers the smaller ones’. My hypothesis posits that there is a difference between Western culture and Eastern culture in regard to their instinctive behavior in joining or separating from a country.

People of Eastern European countries are referred to as Easterners because they were conquered twice by people from northern Asia. The first is in the second century, where there was a war between China and the Northern nomads called Xiongnu, in which Xiongnu was defeated. The Chinese army chased them north with a group of Xiongnu people fleeing all the way to Eastern Europe. These people subsequently conquered a large part of Eastern Europe and established the Kingdom of Hungary, which eventually attempted to conquer France. Later they were defeated and stayed in Hungary. The second time Eastern Europe was conquered was by the Mongolian Empire in the 12-13 Century. Therefore people of Eastern Europe are Easterners.

The hypothesis is that Westerners and Easterners possess different instinctive behavior when considering joining or separating a country. This emanates from their ancestors’ different living environments. How can different living environments shape different human behaviors? The following explains how. Humans are group-oriented animals. To make the group successful, each member needs to contribute to the group and does nothing that will harm the group. In the early days of mankind's group living, two methods were established to achieve this goal. 1. A controlling governance system (people call it authoritarianism) was formulated to ensure each member made his/her fair share of contribution to the group and did no harm to the group. 2. A self-discipline governance system (people call it democracy) was devised that each member voluntarily made his or her fair contribution to the group and did no harm to the group.

It depended on the environment where ancient people lived that enabled people to choose which governance system was more suitable. In the desert environment of the Middle East and Northern China (Gobi desert where the Yellow River passes through), people chose the controlling governance system. In the cold weather environment of North-western Europe, people selected the self-discipline governance system. The rationale is pretty obvious. In ancient times, the desert environment required people to determine a skillful leader to guide the group to hunt in the desert. Any mistake, such as missing a waterhole, could mean death for the group. By watching the sun, moon, and stars, the leader knew exactly where the waterholes were located and where to hunt for animals. Members needed to learn this skill from the bottom. Therefore, a ranking system was created. Members with sophisticated skills were higher in the ranking and could give orders to members of lower-ranking or punishments for making mistakes. In a way, it was similar to the ranking system in a Chinese Kungfu club. Group members were very loyal to the group and respected the group leader's skills; because without the group, they could not survive. In this manner, the controlling governance system (authoritarianism) originated.

The desert people were used to this controlling governance environment for more than six thousand years. Unfortunately, when the controlling power is relaxed in the present environment, they may get into trouble. We will touch more on this feature when we talk about the desert people's desire to adapt to a democratic society.

In ancient times in the cold weather environment of North-western Europe, people were facing a common enemy: the cold weather because it could kill. A cold blizzard suddenly arrived. Any unlucky person, who was unable to return to a shelter, could face death. Therefore, to maintain the population, people regarded life as extremely precious; they did all they could to preserve it. Considering life as precious probably influenced many proactive behaviors, such as social justice, fairness to reduce disputes, foster peace, etc. People needed to form groups for hunting. However, nobody could claim that he/she could deal with the cold weather enemy better than others. In turn, each member of the group was considered equal.

The group needed to create a governance system to operate efficiently. They selected a member as the leader. If his/her performance failed to meet expectations, members could select another person as a leader. Because everyone was considered equal, each member's personal preferences were highly respected, as long as the performance of the entire group was not impacted. That was how democracy and human rights likely originated. Food was not a problem after humans invented hunting tools. The way they hunt was similar to Westerners engaging in rodeos currently. Members must be brave. Each member must act unselfishly. Otherwise, others would not be willing to form a group with him or her. That was the only way people could do with the selfish member because each member was considered to be equal. When everyone was considered to be equal, no one had the authority to discipline others.

Therefore democracy is a self-discipline governance system. One needs to self-discipline oneself to only do things that are beneficial to the group. The selfish member could not survive by himself in the cold environment. Gradually those selfish persons were eliminated or the more intelligent ones were able to adjust their behaviors. In essence, the remaining members were very self-disciplined, so Westerners today are more self-disciplined than other races.

Likewise, blacks and South-East Asians' ancestors lived in the hot settings of Africa and South East Asia. Here people did not need to compete with nature. People could survive by hunting and gathering in a resource-rich environment. Because of this condition, the area became overcrowded. Individual or small group fighting to compete for resources became common. Here basically individuals or small family groups survived by themselves. They did not need to form larger groups.

Later about five thousand years ago or even early, the desert people started to migrate to other parts of the world. They had the advantage of a group fighting force. They drove away local people consisting of smaller groups, but they still kept their preferred governance system. The desert people from Northern China (Gobi desert where the Yellow River passes through) started to move out. They migrated to China, Korea, Japan, Mongol, Vietnam, Northern Europe (Russia and Northern Europe were conquered by Mongols in history). The desert people from the Sahara desert migrated to the Middle East, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Italy, the Indian continent, and as far east as southeast Asian countries like Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. These places all have controlling governance systems (authoritarianism).

The cold weather people's migration took place much later, in the 15-16 century, after the invention of gun powder. So we have the self-disciplined (democracy) governance system countries in North-western Europe and North America.

In history, the controlling governance system was more successful. China and Egypt have five thousand years of history while countries of Western Europe have only a few hundred years of history. Westerners were emulating the desert people's governance system at first because they were more successful. Westerners copied the Greek monarch governance system so that they could build countries. They also adapted the Christianity religion because its teaching was close to their genetic thinking. As Westerners became more successful in the 16-17 hundred, they transitioned to the democratic system.

Those ancient experiences and skills can be passed down from generation to generation to our modern people. All in all, there are many genetic racial behavioral differences between the desert people, hot weather people, and the cold weather people. From our above discussion we can conclude Westerners instinctively consider economics as the most important factor in joining or separating a country while Easterners instinctively consider “not to be ruled by some higher authority”. These are different instinctive behaviors that can be compared to German Sheppard dogs will instinctively bark at a stranger while small Peking dogs will instinctively wag its tail. This shows our ancient ancestors’ behaviors were shaped by their different living environments and passed down genetically to our modern people. This discussion shows humans do exhibit different instinctive behaviors from their ancestors’ different living environments and validates humans do have instinctive behaviors.

As aforementioned, my hypothesis is that Westerners instinctively consider economics as the most important factor in joining or separating a country while Easterners instinctively consider “not to be ruled by some higher authority”. Now I want to use this “human instincts” theory to talk about the recent Russia-Ukraine war. On October 22, 1962, during the Cuban Missile Crisis, President John F. Kennedy notified Americans about the presence of missiles in Cuba and explained his decision to use military force if necessary to neutralize this perceived threat to U.S. national security. Fortunately, disaster was avoided when the U.S. agreed to Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s offer to remove the Cuban missiles in exchange for the U.S. promising not to invade Cuba.

Today, Russia is facing the same threat to its national security from NATO and its cooperation with Ukraine that America faced in the Cuban Missile Crisis. Russia demands that no missiles be placed at its border, but NATO refuses to back down. Russia felt it had no choice but to use military force to neutralize this perceived threat. Russia invaded Ukraine, and an ongoing destruction of Ukraine is currently happening until it agrees with Russia’s demands. The Ukrainians perceive war against Russia as fighting for “freedom”.

As discussed above the most important factor in democracy is the idea of “self-discipline”. Russia and NATO do not get along well. As a third party, Ukraine should not favor any side because this exacerbates the situation. In democracy any action taken should help to make the situation better. Ukrainians think democracy is “freedom”, which would entail doing whatever they like, but democracy is not total “freedom”. “Freedom” can sometimes make the situation worse, and produce a negative result. “Self-discipline” is required for effective democracy because it helps the situation get better, and can produce a positive result.

There are three governance styles. 1, “authoritarian”, which is the government always looking over your shoulder making sure you follow the rules. 2, “self-discipline”, you can do whatever you like but the outcome must be positive, and 3, “freedom”, you insist on doing whatever you like but the outcome may not be positive. It is my hypothesis that the Ukrainians lack “self-discipline”. Ukrainians are learning democracy from Westerners, but their interpretation of democracy is wrong as it lacks self-discipline.

Ukrainians do not want to be controlled by Russia, which is their instinctive behavior. On the contrary, the instinctive behavior of Westerners is that they consider economics as the most important factor in separating or joining a country. Look how Scotland joined England for the sake of better economics. Russia has a strong energy industry and Ukraine has a strong industrial capability. If they can join together, both sides would benefit. Ukrainians possess an outdated instinctive behavior which is not justified in the present environment. They need to adjust their instinctive behavior.

When Easterners want to adapt democracy there are a few elements they need to consider:

1. Easterners have an instinctive behavior in which they don’t want to be controlled by a higher authority in joining or separating from a country. But Westerners consider economics as the most important factor in joining or separating a country. Easterners need to adjust their outdated instinctive behavior.

2. The main factor in democracy is “self-discipline”. Your action must produce a positive result. Democracy does not involve “fighting for freedom” which sometimes produces a negative result.

3. Westerners can maintain a truly democratic society. A number of Eastern countries have tried to adopt democracy but failed. Examples are China, Russia, Middle East countries, Vietnam, India, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Philippine, and Cambodia etc. The reason for their failure is because people lack “self-discipline”. People become corrupted after the introduction of democracy which is less controlling. Easterners need to learn “self-discipline” before they can successfully run a truly democratic society. Some Easterners have established successful democratic countries, but their societies are not as democratic as Western societies. Actually they are half democracy and half authoritarian. This includes Singapore, Japan, South Korea, Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Greece, Italy etc.

Unfortunately those elements were not considered before the Russia- Ukraine War. I hope people can help me to establish those elements before the next war “fighting for freedom”; in which there is a high possibility this could happen with China and Taiwan. The main objective for my theoretical framework is to prevent the next “fighting for freedom” war from happening.

I consider this theory is validated to be true. We can say humans have instinctive behaviors, just like animals have instincts. This will be a great finding in psychology. It can solve many social behavioral problems. It can bring harmony between races. People of different races can better understand with each other. All I need to do is to promote this theory so that people aware of the theory and put to practical use.

The next pages are my other critical thinking of one innovation and two inventions. One important innovative theory is it can explain how memory can be passed down to our next generation. Please visit.

If you have comment or scientific discussion on my theory write to my email Stephen Cheng

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