Adaptive and Maladaptive Reaction to Threats
Through most of human history, humans have had to be very good at identifying and protecting against things that wanted to hurt us…things like saber-toothed tigers or perhaps the Mongol Horde. While similar environmental threats still exist, albeit on a different evolutionary scale, we generally no longer face such threats to our existence on a daily basis. But that doesn’t mean our brains have stopped scanning the environment for potential harm; on the contrary, our brains are hardwired for self-protection. However, the environmental threats we’ve evolved to identify and avoid have now been replaced by actual or perceived threats to our identity and thus our place in society.
Dr. David Rock, who is an expert in the neuroscience of leadership, studies these phenomena and created the SCARF model to identify and name these modern threats as threats to our Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness.
In short, they are threats to our position in society or our position and status in our in-group.
As in the old days, when we were avoiding things like that saber-toothed tiger that wanted to kill us, our System 1 brain — using Daniel Kahneman’s vernacular — continues to scan our environment for threats. When it doesn’t identify existential threats, it defaults to identifying societal threats. System 1’s job is to protect us and if it can’t identify one type of threat, it will look for another — basically a form of substitution bias.
Once System 1 has identified a perceived red flag, it tells our System 2 brain how to respond. But it’s playing by an outdated play book. We respond to societal threats just as we would respond to existential threats. This often is not helpful.
If I’m attacked by a bear (which is more likely than a saber-toothed tiger), I have two options – fight back or play dead. I push into the threat (fight) or I retreat from it (freeze or flight). These are adaptive responses when I’m faced with a threat that wants to kill me.
In the interpersonal domain of status-related threats, my brain will serve up these same options, yet in this context they often result in opposite the desired outcome.
For example, if my co-worker offers a solution to a problem our organization is facing, and I perceive that solution as a threat to my status or power in the organization, I may launch an unexpected attack on the idea or my colleague, or I may withdraw and fail to offer any helpful insight. These are maladaptive responses that create conflict and communication breakdown and most likely undermine rather than enhance my status. Our body and brains are designed to provide these types of responses to protect ourselves, but in the modern world we need to learn how to interrupt these reactions and instead respond adaptively in interpersonal situations.
When there is no imminent danger, learning how to pause and respond with positive confidence, confidence that, even though this feels like a threat, I can contribute to creating a workable plan, demonstrates true strength without defaulting to “fight or flight” mode. Or I can respond with positive curiosity, the desire to fully understand the situation and the options first, and then put myself in a position to contribute toward potential outcomes. Having the presence of mind to initiate these responses involves changing how we externally communicate with others, and at a deeper level, how we understand ourselves, our feelings, and our behaviors. Knowing yourself, and why you react the way you do in certain situations, is a critical element of responding effectively and prosocially in those situations.
At Pyxis Academy, we work with your organization to deepen self-understanding, to improve communication, and to help align your communications with an effective and adaptive corporate culture. We can provide you and your team with models for becoming aware of well-intentioned but ineffective or self-preserving behaviors, and then how to adapt them into a healthy, rapport-building corporate culture. This awareness is power that can affect positive change within your organization and improve not only the day-to-day interactions and transactions in your business, but ultimately make a difference in your bottom line.
