A assessment of John A. Shivik, Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes: The Science of Animal Personalities, (Beacon Press, 2017)
Economists can be taught loads from non-economists. Biologist and animal rescuer John Shivik’s charming 2017 ebook Mousy Cats and Sheepish Coyotes is a superb instance. He, doubtless unintentionally, affords two deep insights for economists. First, Shivik exhibits that particular person dignity is vital, and never only for people. Second, he affords vivid examples of equilibrium as a course of, slightly than an finish state.
Shivik’s opening sentence units the tone: “My cat, for all practical purposes, is an asshole.” Although a self-described canine particular person, Shivik reluctantly opens his coronary heart to this unwelcome cat as his distinctive character emerges. They convey, develop routines, and bond with one another in methods no different two people might.
As with our pets, so with different species. Shivik’s later tales of tagging coyotes and dealing with different animals are extra vivid and fewer heartwarming, however are simply as instructive in how completely different particular person animals might be. They’re distinctive, dignified people, identical as people.
Economists can be taught from this. The homo economicus species that inhabits economists’ good competitors fashions is an automaton. It has no individuality and no free will. Its sole objective is to maximise utility. It has all the person character of an equation. This lifeless view of people is just like the mechanistic view that Shivik warns in opposition to with regards to different animal species.
People have constructed civilizations and despatched ourselves to area. Due to the written phrase, we will ship messages 1000’s of years into the longer term. No automaton might have executed this. Individuals needed to give you new concepts. They needed to construct upon others’ work. They needed to persuade different people who their new improvements had been worthwhile. It took individuals demanding to be handled with dignity and company, and treating others that approach in return. Briefly, it takes character.
Whereas humanity’s accomplishments transcend different species, our variations with them are extra of diploma than of form. Our individuality is much older than we’re. This lengthy heritage, which is thousands and thousands of years older than our species, makes the case for particular person dignity even stronger than most classical liberal economists already consider.
An enchanting query that Shivik discusses incessantly, however doesn’t develop absolutely, is why one character kind by no means dominates a whole species. In any given species, some people are extra timid, and a few are extra aggressive. If one character kind constantly outcompeted the opposite, then the much less match character kind would go extinct. This virtually by no means occurs. Why is that?
If each particular person is aggressive, their species will die out as a result of they spend an excessive amount of power combating one another over standing, mates, and meals, leaving too little left over for locating these issues within the first place. This sort of surroundings creates a gap for extra timid members on the sidelines to go on their genes.
The identical factor applies on the different finish of the spectrum. An all-timid species would possibly starve or go extinct as a result of its members wouldn’t take sufficient possibilities. This would offer a pure opening for extra aggressive personalities to take meals and mates for themselves.
As a substitute of 1 character kind dominating, each all the time coexist. Shivik by no means makes use of financial terminology, however it is a improbable instance of a pure equilibrating course of. Someplace, Walras is smiling.
On the identical time this push-and-pull course of is occurring, pure intervals of abundance and shortage additionally continually shift the benefit between aggressive and timid character varieties.
Aggressive personalities would possibly survive higher throughout laborious instances, as a result of they’re higher at combating over scarce assets. Timid people would possibly do higher throughout ample intervals, as a result of by avoiding battle they have an inclination to dwell longer.
Shivik hasn’t simply unintentionally described a static equilibrium mannequin, he exhibits a dynamic equilibrium course of that adapts to altering circumstances. Various individualism is an efficient survival technique, which is why almost each species has it.
This can be a fascinating perception, and an astute biologist or economist might spend a profession exploring it. As a substitute of equilibrium producing uniformity, it generates all of the distinctive particular person traits we see in all animal species, not simply people.
Character varieties work somewhat bit like a cartel mannequin in economics, which is a particular case of equilibrium at work. Members of a cartel agree to limit provides and artificially increase costs. This opens alternatives for non-members to enter the market and take away the cartel’s clients by providing decrease costs.
The upper the cartel worth, the extra that non-members can revenue. It additionally turns into extra doubtless that cartel members will cheat on their settlement by boosting provide or decreasing costs.
Because of this cartels like OPEC can’t maintain themselves with out authorities assist. Absent that interference, costs will return to equilibrium market ranges.
Now substitute the phrase “aggressive” for “cartel member” and “timid” for “non-member,” or vice versa. The dynamic is fairly comparable for various animal personalities inside a species. If one character kind dominates, that creates openings for the opposite kind, after which that dominance goes away. Any dominance that does emerge is short-term.
This assessment has solely explored simplified two-personality-type fashions. Shivik makes use of the Briggs-Meyers character check all through the ebook, which has 4 dimensions. He introduces the reader to particular person animals that change alongside all 4 dimensions, and to various levels. Simply as each human is exclusive, so are all different animal species.
Whereas an enterprising economist might construct all kinds of refined fashions across the insights Shivik touches on, an important lesson from his ebook is his reminder of the significance of particular person dignity, for each people and animals.
Our human individuality didn’t come from a vacuum. It emerged from a protracted evolutionary course of. Variety isn’t simply an ingredient of humanity, it’s an ingredient of life itself.
Ryan Younger is senior economist on the Aggressive Enterprise Institute.
