The Biology of a Buddy Flick

Perhaps you've heard of "The Hollywood Formula." It's a list of characteristics that, if all are included in a script, should help a movie be successful. The list includes believable characters, some sort of action or conflict, a romantic relationship, a bit of comic relief, and a happy ending. Sometimes one or more of these items is played-down in a screenplay, but rarely are these movies as successful as the ones who include them all. Yet there is one type of movie that consistently does well without the characteristic of romance—The Buddy Flick. Flicks like "Men in Black," "Lethal Weapon," or "Rush Hour". Dudes love 'em, ladies love 'em, and kids love 'em. They are so popular they are almost cliche. But I think buddy flicks are important. I think these big-screen relationships between friends should be considered a window to our paleolithic past...a time when we were solely dependent on our friends and family for our survival.

For about a year, I have been writing about an imaginary tribe who lived 40,000 years ago and had a leader called Jerome. Jerome's leadership style was unique because he had started to trust another tribe-member called Amir with some minor tribal responsibilities. You see, when our species was still living more like our closest tree-dwelling ancestors, there was generally one dude in charge of a group of followers. But as we evolved, human-like leaders gave up some of their power and started doing things a little differently. What follows is the continuing story of Jerome and his cavedwellers: It's also a loose screenplay for a buddy flick starring Jerome and his side-kick, Amir.

Setting: A summer evening in the savanna near a cluster of caves WAY back when. A group of cavedwellers are starting a large fire. A smaller group begin playing a few crude drums. We focus on a tall, healthy-looking man as he surveys his people. He is about 30 years of age, his long hair twitches in a breeze. A gentle voice-over rumbles...

“Jerome had known Amir since he had been born and, once he was done being a kid, Amir had been a helpful and dedicated tribe-member. Recently, Amir had been telling the tribe about some of the adventures that he and the other hunters had been experiencing on hunts, and Jerome had been noticing some unexpected effects these stories were having on the people in his tribe. Most other tribe-leaders would not have let another tribe member have so much time in the social spotlight for fear it would lessen their control over their followers—but Jerome's tribe seemed to be in higher spirits after Amir's fire-side chats. Jerome also trusted that even if some of his followers thought Amir would make a better leader, Amir would not conspire to take control of the tribe. As a result, Jerome allowed Amir to keep sharing what happened on hunts. Not only did Jerome's tribe seem to be motivated by Amir's stories, they were also learning new things from Amir, which ultimately made them work more efficiently as a group. That is because Amir had started labeling the things he was telling the tribe about in an attempt to make his stories move along more smoothly. Amir was creating and sharing words.”

Drumming ceases abruptly and action stops. A different voice speaks: “Wait a minute. These cavedwellers were just beginning to learn words? How the bleep was Jerome's tribe able to do things like hunt without being able to communicate with each other?"

The gentle voice responds: “Humans have not been able to communicate using words until very recently. For at least 90% of our species' evolution, we were only able to share how we felt, not necessarily what we thought.” (Dramatic music echos: dun-dun-DUN)

OK, I suck at screenplays. Don't @ me.

My point is this: People used to exclusively use facial signals, sounds, and gestures to tell others what was going on inside their minds and bodies. We were once more like other species who have always used gestures and sounds to signal how they are feeling, but human emotions have become more varied over time. Additionally, male cavedwellers signaled to each other using a complete range of emotions just like female cavedwellers did—especially during hunts. How else could the effort be coordinated? If people could not effectively communicate, we could not work together to hunt and gather food. And if we did not eat, we would not live to see the next drum circle. So when someone tries to tell me that cavemen who were stoic and emotionless made the best cavemen, I know that they are unaware of the living conditions many thousands of years ago.

Now back to present day...to the theaters, living rooms or wherever you watch movies. When we see people getting along, working together in a coordinated fashion, relying on each other, even joking with each other in a buddy flick, there is a spark in our brains. This situation is appealing. The fact that men are making themselves vulnerable to one another is comforting because this occurrence used to keep us nourished. Although buddies working together no longer serves the same purpose as it did WAY back when, I think this is why we like movies about buddies so much.

And what can we say about Jerome? He could have been the first leader who was more concerned with the well-being of his tribe-members than his concern for himself as an individual. In fact, he may have appreciated the back-up Amir afforded him. And the tribe certainly would have because if something bad were to have happened to Jerome, they would have known who to turn to for direction. So as it turns out, that "minor" responsibility that Jerome had trusted to Amir was not so minor after all. Jerome's habit of trusting another caveman with the attention of the tribe not only allowed his tribe-members to learn new information in the form of stories, but it led to healthier followers, which then led to more offspring, which eventually led to more cavedwellers who preferred leaders like Jerome. Even today, when a leader has more than just their own needs in mind, humans who follow that leader THRIVE. 

Listen to this soundtrack for The Biology of a Buddy Flick

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1eFTxyHjfzfQWOzj4InfAt?si=JRv753NWT22GY0PpmjRGKA

References

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https://app.dimensions.ai/details/publication/pub.1107253394?and_facet_journal=jour.1036864

Bhui, R.,  Chudek, M. & Henrich, J. (2018). How exploitation launched human cooperation. Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology, (2019) 73-78. https://link.springer.com/epdf/10.1007/s00265-019-2667-y?author_access_token=qNWQG0P6IXILVkpfuhGIrve4RwlQNchNByi7wbcMAY6eAe0sSlZ7UtODvyvthEU_XqRamh6GXDcyHD-4gpIQh_-QxcG1BpqyZ9JTMJoo_l08-icQoqyuQAE0y6efI7miGTwjeyZ9-DvpPTyPHuQUFA%3D%3D

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Salmon, C. & Symons, D. (2001).  Warrior Lovers: Erotic Fiction, Evolution and Female Sexuality. Weidenfeld and Nicholson, Great Britain.

Schwartz, J. (2007). Earliest evidence for modern human behavior found in South African cave. University of Washington, Online

http://www.washington.edu/news/2007/10/18/earliest-evidence-for-modern-human-behavior-found-in-south-african-cave-2/

Trivers, R. (2006). Reciprocal Altruism: 30 years later. In Kappeler P.M., van Schaik, C.P. (eds.) Coordination in Primates and Humans, Chapter 4. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.

van Vugt, M. & Anjana, A. (2011). Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership. HarperCollins e-Publishers.

Zimmer, C (2017). Oldest fossils of Homo Sapiens found in Morocco, altering history of our species. The New York Times, Online. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/science/human-fossils-morocco.html

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