Why Do Humans Want Control?

David Geary says humans want control because organizing life recreates the outcomes that once raised social status and reproductive opportunities, the same conditions that helped the human brain evolve. He does not mean a wish to be Hitler or Genghis Khan. For status competition, the aim is to move up a hierarchy. For a woman, in his account, the aim is a social network that provides support, help with children, and sometimes economic support.

He pictures the scope as concentric rings. Some people want control only of the day, the job, and friends. Others want to organize a much wider world. At either scope, control means being able to change the environment in the future so it benefits one person more than other people. People put energy into curating who is friends with whom. When the pattern does not serve them, anger or upset triggers the problem-solving networks: what has to change so the network works in their interest.