The brain of the average Salman Khan fan is in the Stone Age. Curb your cackle – so is yours. And mine. In 2004, a fairly controversial evolutionary psychologist called Satoshi Kanazawa came up with a term called the ‘Savanna Principle’. Very simply put, in terms that even a Salman bhakt would understand, this principle states that the human brain has not changed in its functioning in the last 10,000 years.

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Explaining the ‘Salman Khan Effect’

While Kanazawa used this to explain various human behaviour patterns, I am going to attempt to explain the ‘Salman Khan effect’ using it.



Basically, this principle states that the human brain cannot differentiate between actual human beings and impressions of human beings that it sees either on television or in the films. Because in the Stone Age, when you saw a human being, it was just that – a human being. Therefore, your brain starts building empathy and relationships with characters that it sees either in the movies or on TV. It cannot distinguish between real and reel.





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It is a controversial theory and apt to decode a man who is pretty chummy with controversy.

For his fans, Salman is the sum total of all his screen appearances. And they are mesmerised. They have probably never seen him in real life – but his on-screen persona is their only reality. Which is why the smartest thing that Salman could have done is to actively change it.

After all, he is the man who transports little lost girls to Pakistan, the man who rescues nurses stranded in Iraq, and the man who feeds biscuits to black bucks.

That they die then subsequently of gluten intolerance is hardly his fault. (The last didn’t happen in a film or in real life – but by now, we know, that is immaterial). Everything then gets glossed over – he is the misunderstood ‘good boy’. The man-child who errs but it is never intentional.

The buck never stops with him, as his films continue to bring in the big bucks. (This is the first and last bucks pun, I promise.)

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What ‘Bhai’ Is Good at – Being Human

But nothing in the Savanna Principle explains the hold Salman Khan has over the entertainment media. These are people who meet him frequently in real life. And yet he inspires in them a mix of awe and deference. He is difficult, moody, doesn’t actively charm them like a charismatic Shahrukh Khan, but it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that they adore him almost as much as the average Salman fan does.

View photos Salman Khan sporting a Being Human tee. More

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