I graduated from college in 1969 as a psychology major. I vaguely remember being taught that humans do not have instincts. But I also vaguely remember a study that suggested that perhaps an infant may in fact have an instinctive fear of unfamiliar dark objects, in this case it was a black rubber glove being lowered into a crib. I’ve tried to look up some evidence to support either path and have come up miserably short. I did find an article by Harlow, Of Mice, Men and Motives, written in 1953 where he regrets the premature demise of “instinct theory” in humans. In my notes from some psychology class many years ago I found a definition of instinct: “an innate behavior pattern, unaffected by learning, found across the species that satiates a somatic tension.” That pretty much leaves out humans but I cant find anything to back it up. I did find a statement (I think in Encyclopedia of Britannica) that instincts increase in lower species and decrease in higher species. But do they go away all together, in humans?

So, the question is: Do humans have instincts?

-- Frederick D. Weber (fred.weber3@verizon.net), July 15, 2002

Answers

There was an extensive discussion of this question earlier on this list. You may find it interesting. See http://hv.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id=005aK7

-- Christopher D. Green (christo@yorku.ca), July 18, 2002.

Real-life story:

A miserable little squirrel ate half my flowers. Enraged, I bought a very realistic, plastic snake and placed it next to my flowerbed in the hope of scaring off the squirrel.

Several hours later, I went to water my flowers and jumped away like a frightened rabbit when I passed the snake I myself had just put there.

I figured it was an "instinctual" reaction.

-- visualize me (visualizeme@webtv.net), July 18, 2002.