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The evolutionarily older systems also play a role in human information processing and behavior, albeit in a more rigid and stereotyped fashion. The intricately interconnected neocortical regions of the frontal lobes are involved in self control, which permits the modulation of these older systems and the overriding of organismal hedonistic impulses for the benefit of others (15).

Evidence across human history provides overwhelming support for the supposition that humans are fundamentally social creatures (13). Even in contemporary times in which autonomy is revered, the average person has been estimated to spend nearly 80% of waking hours in the company of others, most of which is spent in small talk with known individuals (16). These estimates have been supported in more detailed assessment using the day-reconstruction method to determine how people spend their time and how they experienced events in their lives on a daily basis (17). The results of these daily assessments indicate people spend only 3.4 hrs alone, or approximately 20% of their waking hours. The time spent with friends, relatives, spouse, children, clients, and coworkers is rated on average as more inherently rewarding than the time spent alone (17).

Respondents indicate that their most enjoyable activities are intimate relations and socializing – activities that promote bonding and high quality relationships, whereas their least enjoyable activities are commuting and working. These results are consistent with survey data. When asked “what is necessary for happiness?” the majority of respondents rate “relationships with family and friends” as most important (18), although we certainly do not always act like this is most important. It

is surprisingly easy to overlook the evident.

Noticing the Unusual, Overlooking the Obvious

On January 15, 2009, US Airways Flight 1549 departed from New York’s LaGuardia Airport for Charlotte, North Carolina when it struck a flock of geese during takeoff. Both engines were disabled, and the heavy aircraft quickly lost the power it needed to stay aloft, but Capt. Chesley Sullenberger somehow managed a controlled descent into the Hudson River. The media dubbed the ditching of the plane and the survival of all 155 passengers and crew the miracle on the Hudson, and Sullenberger was duly heralded as a hero. The ability to control the descent of an 84-ton plane without engine thrust is not something with which humans are naturally endowed. Sullenberger was not a novice, of course. He is a U.S. Air Force Academy graduate who flew F-4 fighter planes while in the Air Force, has 40 years of flight experience, and holds a commercial glider license and glider instructor rating. As remarkable as was his achievement relative to what one might normally expect in this situation, however, Sullenberger’s efforts were not sufficient for the miracle on the Hudson to be achieved.

When Flight 1549 came to a stop in the frigid Hudson River, the passengers and crew scrambled to the wings and inflatable slides of their slowly sinking aircraft. Local commercial vessels from the New York Waterway and Circle Line fleets responded almost immediately, with the first of the vessels reaching the plane within four minutes. The crews of the various vessels worked together to rescue the passengers and crew of Flight

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