• Question: why do humans have unique individuality within their personalities and hormones?

    Asked by to Edward, Ian, Mathew, Naomi, sakshisharda on 23 Jun 2014. This question was also asked by .
    • Photo: Ian Stephenson

      Ian Stephenson answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Primarily because diversity helps drive evolution.

      If every animal of a certain specis was EXACTLY the same they’d be easy victims if a predator, disease, or simply changing environment. By making everyone slightly different nature gets to try out millions of versions of humans. The differences are all very slight, but for example if a new disease appears, then there’s a good chance that just by luck at least some people will be immune, and survive.

      Now you might say – but how come we ended up being so ideally suited to evolving? surely if you need diversity to evolve, then diversity must have predated evolution… well not really. Non-diverse species die out. Those that are more diverse survive better, so evolution creates good conditions for evolution!

    • Photo: Naomi Osborne

      Naomi Osborne answered on 23 Jun 2014:

      Genetic diversity is essential for evolution – just as Ian has mentioned. Being different is essential for survival – if everyone was the same, a disease could kill a whole population. This means we have genes that influence the way we behave and our hormone levels, so that more desired traits are passed on to make us a fitter species (such as kindness which has been important for survival). Our environment also has a huge impact on our personalities and hormone levels.

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