Contextualisation

Contextualisation (and recontextualisation) is the process by which Evolved Impulses are given meaning through interaction with an individual's Information Environment. Impulses are innate, but the ways they manifest are not — they are informed over an individual's lifetime through learning that occurs in that environment.

How it works

The impulse to signal status, for instance, appears universal, but whether it is expressed through feathers, jewellery, or a car depends entirely on the surrounding information environment — where and when a person was born and lived. From birth, individuals learn how to meet their needs through observation and experience; social context, learning and cultural norms support the formation of expectations — conscious and unconscious mental models of how the world works and what behaviours produce which consequences. These mental models are continuously revised as new experience interacts with existing ones, driving an ever-evolving set of predictions that influence behaviour.

Where it happens

In MTI society, marketing and entertainment contextualise behaviours and norms through media (narrative, film, games, books) often without intentionality or consideration of the effect. The paper calls the information environment "a long lever for changing behaviour, culture and norms through widescale recontextualisation" — the basis for the intervention logic set out under the Neurobiological/Fitness Gap.

See also

Evolved Impulses · Information Environment · Social Norms · Neurobiological/Fitness Gap