Needs Model

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📷 “Needs Model” on Youtube: https://youtu.be/XqiRFpQXKXg

Tom Bieber, an architect, is currently working on the next presentation of his design for a new hospital operating room. Like his colleagues at the architecture firm, he uses Adobe Photoshop in order to present his ideas in the best and most attractive way. However, he only has a basic command of the program and wastes a lot of time trying to use it. He has long since booked an online course on Photoshop, but still hasn’t managed to complete it. He knows that he could save a lot of time if he knew how to use Photoshop better, and that his presentations would be more attractive if he could utilize the full potential of Photoshop.

He is constantly making excuses to himself while prioritizing seemingly more urgent work. If he were to reflect more deeply, he would realize that the training seems too arduous for him. Is that rational?

Why do you open a recently received text message when you should be concentrating on your work? Is it an addiction to the latest news? Is that rational? If you want Google Maps to remember frequently used locations, you need to create a user account. Why do you accept the use of your location data even though you don’t understand the terms of the agreement to use your data? Because you find it easier for planning your trip? Is that rational? Why do you let Instagram steal your time by consuming reel after reel? Because you are captivated by the daring ski descent through an avalanche or the sexily portrayed model? Is that rational? Why do video clips in the news keep catching your attention even though you’re working on something else? Is that rational?

Rationality

Are these examples proof that we often behave irrationally, that is, against reason? The answer is twofold: it is not irrational if it is rational to satisfy our needs immediately. Yes, it is irrational if it is rational to fulfill our needs in the longer term. Giving in to a need immediately creates hedonia. Forgoing short-term gratification in order to have greater pleasure in the longer-term results in eudaimonia. This architect familiarizes himself more with Photoshop in order to become more successful in his profession and take pride in his achievements. He forgoes erotic excitement provided by Instagram reels in order to save time and be more satisfied with his reality. He is therefore sacrificing short-term hedonia in favor of long-term eudaimonia.

Our consciousness is constantly struggling to decide between hedonia and eudaimonia. Deliberate violations of eudaimonia are usually considered irrational behavior.

Consciousness

Our conscious mind can only process a few aspects of a decision at the same time. The subconscious likely influences our actions more than the conscious mind. The decision of whether to trust a person is made within tenths of a second, a timeframe far from enough for clear consideration. The subconsciouscondenses our experiences into patterns, which then serve as shortcuts for thinking. Seen in this light, prejudices are necessary simplifications of our thought process.

Brain and Physiology

Learning through homeostasis largely occurs in the brain with its neurons and synapses. Socio technical evolution is based on explicit knowledge that we have consciously acquired with the brain. Nevertheless, our brain is only limitedly responsible for our behavior.

Physiochemical conditions such as blood sugar and hormone levels or even the microbiome in the digestive tract have a much greater influence on our needs than we care to admit. Our feelings such as thirst, exertion, jealousy, dominance and sexual gratification can domineer our so-called rational thinking. There are plenty of examples for anyone who reflects on themselves.

Relativity

Needs such as hunger or thirst can be fully satisfied, in other words eating and drinking will satisfy you to satiety. Needs such as capital, appearance and knowledge can only be satisfied to a relative extent. Relative means in comparison to the past or in comparison to others. An athlete training for hurdles satisfies the need related to her training condition when her time improves, but it does not satisfy the need for rank if her competitors improve faster. This relativity is the driving force behind the hamster wheel of evolution.

Needs in an affluent society

If the needs for food, health, safety, knowledge, energy, sex, and reproduction can be satisfied, the basic needs of self-preservation and species conservation are fulfilled. This is largely the case in affluent societies. Then the differentiating needs of capital, community, appearance, power, rank and self-worth will come to the forefront. These then shape life, especially behavior on social media and in online games, but also in the use of efficiency tools such as Photoshop. The need for differentiation fuels the hamster wheel of evolution and ensures constant development, even if it is no longer necessary for survival and may even become detrimental.

Learned and inherited needs

Inherited needs are encoded in our genes and primarily control us physiologically via hormones, enzymes, etc. A newborn instinctively knows without instruction that there is nourishment in the mother’s breast and that it must nurse. A human recognizes the snarling of a predator as a threat and reacts by fleeing. Humans refine their inherited needs through experiences, for example by learning that knowledge of Adobe Photoshop can reduce their workload in the long term or that opening a text message in WhatsApp can bring them valuable news. A person’s genetic makeup and socialization individually shape their inherited needs.

Individuality

When introducing someone to the needs model, the initial reaction is often questioning the universality of needs, with the belief that individual differences would render a general model meaningless. Is there a universally valid needs model, or are humans too diverse? We can assume that evolution ensures needs for self-preservation, species preservation, and the selection of the fittest in all individuals. However, the detailed genetic expressions and environments of individuals vary. Genes equip each person with individual intelligence, a unique body, and individual biochemical traits such as hormone levels. Standard of living, upbringing, education, and environment shape one’s perception of reality. Tom Bieber is not particularly physically attractive and therefore seeks to attain a satisfactory status in society through his high intelligence.

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The 13 needs of the Needs model are present in every person, albeit with varying degrees of importance. The specific needs that an individual develops depend on their personal situation. A slum dweller in Mumbai will not ponder over the name brand of their clothes or the vintage of their wine; an oligarch will not think about their pension plan. A world-class athlete is not worried about obesity, a housewife with five children has little to do with car racing and a successful manager is less concerned with reproduction than a farmer in Tanzania.

Needs as instruments of evolution

Evolution selects the fittest specimens for reproduction. Characteristics such as health, power and appearance determine our rank and thus the selection. Every woman chooses the most attractive man she can obtain with her attractiveness, and every man chooses the most attractive woman he can attain.

In this way, evolution ensures constant further development, because knowledge about our actions and their consequences, that is, the corresponding perceptions, the effect on our needs and the resulting feelings, helps us to differentiate ourselves, improve our rank and thus be selected for reproduction.

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The goals of evolution and humans only partially coincide. If our needs for food, security, sex, knowledge, etc. are satisfied, it generates well-being and lays the foundations for further development. If we succumb to the needs of selection, evolution traps us in the hamster wheel of development and differentiation. It prevents us from being satisfied with what we have achieved, from avoiding stress, from looking after our health or from spending enough time with our family. Evolution drives us to consume in order to differentiate ourselves from others with the goal of ultimately improving our status. It harms us through exertion and anti-social competitive behavior and is arguably the greatest enemy of the environment through excessive consumption.

Although Instagram is a platform for presenting oneself in the most favorable light, it intensifies competition between users and damages the self-esteem of those who cannot keep up with this competition, drastically reducing the quality of life of these people.

Digitalization

Digitalization is creating previously unprecedented opportunities for developing a Behavior model. Never before have we had such a wealth of data collected from the use of digital services, never before have we had such powerful machines and algorithms for recognizing patterns within this data nor have we ever had such extensive knowledge about the physical and psychological processes of humans

It will be possible to derive a universally applicable Behavior model from the detailed, objective and current data and simultaneously adapt it to each individual. This requires capturing the breakdown into detailed needs and the weights of these needs. An empirically verified needs model could help us to set the goals and rules for artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.

The needs model presented here appears unrefined and not well-founded scientifically. Although it is in reality derived from many sources ranging from psychology, philosophy, ethics and biology to neurology, it nevertheless requires further validation and refinement in all areas. It can only serve as a preliminary entry point into the careful derivation of a needs model. The present model of the 13 needs has been evaluated on the basis of numerous concrete examples through self-observation and with the help of third parties.

Questions

To comprehend and advance it, it’s most effective to apply the model to yourself in various examples and analyze how actions impact needs and, consequently, well-being.

· When will you be truly satisfied with your presence on Instagram or LinkedIn?

· Why do you want data protection on one hand yet happily reveal your interests through ChatGPT on the other?

· Will artificial intelligence surpass our own understanding of what benefits us within the next 20 years?

Messages

· Needs are fundamentally the same for all people, but weighted differently.

· The data collected by digital services and machine learning processes offer the opportunity to understand people’s needs better than ever before.

· An individual’s data can be used to understand his or her individual needs.

· It is difficult for us to override our physiological, in part inherited, needs by using reason.