Lobsters (more broadly, Trilobites) have been on earth for nearly 270 million years which predates dinosaurs. Given that lobsters and humans are worlds apart, there doesn't seem to be much that we share in common. However, in 'The 12 Rules For Life' Jordan Peterson opens the book with the first chapter explaining that there's a strong similarity in how both creatures are affected by and wins and losses and its compounding effect.
Regardless of whether lobsters are in the wild or raised in captivity, they will aggressively fight over potential habitat spaces as well as food sources. Scientists have found that these battles between lobsters result in chemical differences between winners and losers. Lobsters that triumph over others show a higher level of serotonin than losers, where losers have the opposite result - they show lower serotonin levels and higher levels of octopamine. What makes this more interesting is that the initial stage of a fight sees the lobsters stand up tall on its legs and spread open its claws. Sometimes, this display of dominance will be enough to discourage the opponent to even engage in a fight.
Over time, as a lobster successfully wins or defends its territory, the built up higher levels of serotonin change the lobster's posture where they become more agile and upright. For losers, the opposite is evident where they become more hunched over and lower to the floor. This has a compounding affect where the prior winners will appear bigger and more intimidating which causes hunched over 'losers' to more easily back down and therefore lose again.
When taken further and seen over time, it can be known as the Matthew Effect (Matthew 25:29, RSV), "For to every one who has will more be given, and he will have abundance; but from him who has not, even what he has will be taken away." In other words, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.
This cumulative advantage (or disadvantage) can snowball over time and there's evidence of this happening. Education theorist Anthony Kelly used the Matthew Effect to explain his observations in how children with reading difficulties compared to normal readers show a widening gap in reading ability. This is because children who fall behind in reading would read less, increasing the gap between them and their peers. Later, when students need to "read to learn" (where before they were learning to read), their reading difficulty creates difficulty in most other subjects. In this way they fall further and further behind in school, dropping out at a much higher rate than their peers.
Having read Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life, he explains how the characteristics of success and failure in lobsters translates to humans; the idea that success brings increased serotonin levels in humans just like lobsters. People "down on their luck" tend to have a more drooped stance, and successful people seem to walk with their head high and shoulders back. He explains that simply changing the way you carry yourself can help change the initial impressions you give to others around you. I think there's certainly more to it than simply "standing up straight" - it almost feels like you're wearing a mask, especially if you don't feel successful in life. However, it's something that I will certainly try out to see if has an effect when meeting strangers.
People, just like lobsters, size each other up, partly in consequence of stance. If you present yourself as defeated, then people will react to you as if you are loser. If you start to straighten up, then people may well look at and treat you differently. Given that this same chemical is found in humans with its results in creatures that predate human history by millions of years goes to show that it is something that is so deeply engrained into all of us that we're not even aware of it at a conscious level.
As Jordan Peterson's rule 1 says: Stand Up Straight With Your Shoulders Back
