7 Really Complicated Things You Do Without Thinking

5. Socialising

Whether you're a social butterfly, or you'd rather spend your Friday night with a good book, the average human's social skills are incredibly sophisticated. Everyone knows about the "love hormone" oxytocin by now. This little fella is responsible for a lot of the "loved up" feelings you go through, along with it's trusty sidekicks adrenaline and dopamine, but you're not quite as at the mercy of your hormones as you might think. There's a lot of brain work that goes into socialising, and you do it without even notice. Humans are incredibly social animals. This doesn't just mean that we like a drink after work, but that our talents for empathy are pretty much second-to-none in the animal kingdom. Our most notable advantage is a principle called Theory of Mind. This is the ability to understand that other people have wants, needs, desires and motives of their own and to be able to see things from other people's perspective. This ability to "walk a mile in somebody else's shoes" is what allows humans to cooperate and sympathise, as well as lie and manipulate. Whilst some animals show an inkling of theory of mind, it is usually no better than that of a very young baby. For example, whilst some primates have been taught to communicate with humans using sign language, not one of them has ever asked a human a question, demonstrating that they have no idea that someone else could be thinking anything different to themselves. Either that or they're just rude.