September 29, 2021
Written by David Petty
Remember your leaders, those who spoke the word of God to you; consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith. — Hebrews 13:7
Neuroscientists have discovered in recent decades that humans have a great capacity for imitation. Neurologist and historian William Bernstein gives the following illustration. Native people in the arctic are very skilled at building (and using) kayaks. Natives of the Amazon do not have this ability, but can construct and use blowguns well, which arctic people cannot. It is not that one group has a bigger “kayak-building part” or “blowgun-building part” of the brain. Instead, both have a well-developed “imitating part” of the brain. Once these inventions were developed, probably through a long process of trial and error, it became relatively easy for succeeding generations to imitate the skills.
It’s an important ability for native peoples, and it turns out to be important for us as well, given the almost constant introduction of new technologies for us to learn. Certainly there are people and behaviors we ought not imitate. You can come up with plenty of examples of these yourself — I am reminded especially of a couple of investment fraudsters (both now deceased) who destroyed the fortunes of thousands of people a few decades ago.
And there are, on the other hand, people that we do want to imitate. So it seems to me that a useful trick to improving our behavior would be to identify those people in our lives whom we admire and then work diligently to be like them. “What would Jesus do?” and “What would Paul do?” can be useful questions, but it might be more practical sometimes to ask, “What would Nancy do?” or “What would Jim do?”
Who knows? If we work at it perhaps some day people will want to imitate us.
Gracefully submitted,
David Petty