@starluna @neal @maggiejk @jmcrookston Eons ago I read about which human behaviors aren't at all socially conditioned.

1) Suckling. Duh, right? Can you imagine the selective pressure (biologist-speak for "shortly being dead") against a newborn who couldn't do that?

2) Smiling. Early on, it's purely instinctive. Means nothing. But the selective pressure favoring newborns who do it is, obviously, immense. Eventually, what was originally just a meaningless thing has to be reinforced by seeing others smile. Otherwise the smiling behavior is lost. An early hint was that babies born blind didn't retain the tendency to smile at caregivers after a couple of months.

3)For the first few days (or was it hours? don't remember) after birth, there's a very strong reflex to grip fur. Disappears quite quickly.

And that, if memory serves me well, is it.

Falling all over yourself to maintain status as a member of the top caste is not remotely biological.

(Which is also why women look free of this particular nonsense. They don't have a high caste position to defend. Watch them when they do. I don't know if they perfectly match men's idiocy, but they can sure get close.)