Why Do We Do What We Do?
At a surface level, human actions appear voluntary. We choose, we decide, we act. But beneath that appearance lies a network of inherited instincts, psychological conditioning, cognitive constraints, and cultural programming. In this essay we will examine five foundational factors that drive human behavior, integrating philosophical, psychological, and scientific insights without resorting to simplification or rhetorical embellishment.
1. Biological Imperatives and Neurochemical Incentives
Human action is rooted in biological survival. This includes not just the obvious needs, such as food, shelter, and reproduction, but also more abstract signals that support evolutionary fitness, such as social belonging or status.
Neurologically, much of this is mediated by dopamine-driven reward circuits. Actions that increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction are encoded as desirable through reward prediction errors. This is not just about pleasure, but about reinforcement learning: behaviors that historically led to fitness are reinforced, even when the original context no longer exists.
Philosophers like Schopenhauer and Nietzsche correctly identified this pre-rational, non-teleological impulse. The organism acts not because it has a conscious goal, but because it is compelled by its design. This is not “free” in the moral sense; it’s deterministic on a biological level.
2. Conditioning and Habit Formation
You wake up and scroll. Or stay in bed. Or feel the quiet panic that nothing matters. Then you go do something, anything. And somewhere in all that, a life takes shape.
Much of what we do is not consciously chosen in the moment but conditioned over time. This includes habits, reflexes, and routine responses to environmental stimuli. Classical and operant conditioning, as formalized by Pavlov and Skinner, demonstrate that action often becomes decoupled from awareness. The brain encodes cue-routine–reward loops [1] to minimize cognitive load.
These loops are stored in the basal ganglia, which favors efficient pattern execution over flexibility. Once a behavior becomes habitual, it is executed automatically unless interrupted by a competing impulse strong enough to overcome the inertia.
From an Indian philosophical perspective, this aligns with the concept of samskara, latent impressions that shape perception and action unconsciously, across time.
Compulsive behavior arises from the deep ‘I’ tendency where language doesn’t exist. That part of our being is common with trees and animals and with little kids. – Acharya Prashant [2]
3. Identity Construction and Role Maintenance
We humans act in ways that preserve or reinforce our self-concept. This includes behaviors meant to satisfy internal identity narratives (“I am a hard worker”, “I am not like them”) or external social roles. Much of this is performed for validation, either from others or from one’s own self-image.
Social identity theory and self-categorization theory support this:
individuals act in alignment with the groups they identify with, and cognitive dissonance arises when actions deviate from that self-perception.
Existentialist philosophy, particularly Sartre, observed that humans often operate in “bad faith”, not because they lie, but because they act in accordance with socially constructed roles while denying their actual freedom. This leads to an unconscious performance of identity rather than conscious inquiry.
4. The Search for Meaning and Narrative Coherence
Beyond survival or self-image, humans exhibit behavior directed toward meaning-making. This is not universal in content (people find meaning in vastly different things), but it is structurally consistent: humans create narratives to explain why their actions matter.
This narrative construction is a function of the prefrontal cortex, which seeks causal coherence and goal direction. From a cognitive standpoint, purpose-driven behavior reduces uncertainty and increases subjective agency.
Viktor Frankl [3] argued that meaning is not an abstract luxury but a psychological necessity. People will endure suffering, sometimes immense suffering, if they believe it is meaningful. Without that structure, motivation collapses.
In Vedantic frameworks, this drive for meaning is ultimately a misdirected longing for non-duality, the need to resolve the apparent separation between self and world. In this view, all action is an unconscious attempt to return to wholeness, even if the actor is unaware of it.
5. Cognitive Efficiency and Momentum
This is what J. Krishnamurti called the “mechanical mind” [4]. A mind that reacts rather than seeing.
The brain is not designed to optimize truth or virtue; it is designed to conserve energy while navigating complexity. Once a behavior is known to produce results regardless of quality, or whether it is good or bad, it is repeated unless challenged.
This creates inertial patterns. In physics, momentum is mass in motion; in psychology, it’s past decisions replicating themselves under the illusion of present choice. The result is that we often act not because something is optimal, but because it is familiar.
And Acharya Prashant puts it as:
Conscious behaviour may appear better than unconscious behaviour but is nevertheless not the best thing. The best is to be superconscious, to be ahead of consciousness. – Acharya Prashant [2]
Human behavior is not reducible to a single cause. It emerges from a multi-layered architecture: neurobiological imperatives, historical conditioning, identity maintenance, narrative construction, and cognitive shortcuts. These forces do not operate independently; they reinforce and mask each other.
Understanding what we do requires observing not just the action, but its structural origin, and the complex interplay between automaticity and awareness.
Behavior is not inherently meaningful. Meaning is retroactively assigned. If one does not investigate the underlying structure of their actions, even so-called “meaningful” behavior can become sophisticated repetition.
True clarity begins not in choosing better actions, but in examining the assumptions beneath action itself. This is the “mechanics” of action.
If behavior is a structure and not a statement of who we are, what then remains of me behind it?
It is the “I” that shapes the world. Inner and outer. The reality is the product of the “I”.
References:
[1] Cue-Routine–Reward loops - Stanford
[2] Beyond hormonal impulses and compulsive behavior || (2019) - Acharya Prashant
[3] Viktor Frankl’s ‘Search for Meaning’ in 5 Enduring Quotes - How Stuff Works
[4] J. Krishnamurti’s ‘The Mechanical Mind’
[5] From Krishnamurti’s Book CAN THE MIND BE QUIET? - K Foundation
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Last updated: 2025-07-15T23:58:45+05:30