Category Archives: Psychological Adaptation

Can neuroeconomics help economics become a real science?

Posted on October 6, 2012 by Chris Jensen

The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Marketplace in Your Brain” I think that this article suggests that much of economics is not much of a science. Faced with new information, mainstream economics has failed to update its models of how … Continue reading →

Posted in A Minor Post, Belief, Economics, Emotion, Evolutionary Psychology, Game Theory, Neuroscience, Psychological Adaptation, Psychology, Religion, Social Networks, Social Norms | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Enforcing norms may be for personal gain, not to maintain social order (at least amongst Santa Barbara undergraduates)

Posted on September 28, 2012 by Chris Jensen

PLoS ONE “What Are Punishment and Reputation for?” Once again, a valuable and ingenious experiment over-reaches on the meaning of its finding, and the over-reach bleeds into the popular media. This is a really valuable experiment in that it asks … Continue reading →

Posted in A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Cooperation, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Multilevel Selection, Psychological Adaptation, Punishment, Reciprocity, Reputation, Social Networks, Social Norms | 2 Comments

Can playing games make the world a better place?

Posted on September 27, 2012 by Chris Jensen

One of the very talented students I work with in the Envirolutions club, Rhett Bradbury, pointed me towards the work of Jane McGonigal, a game designer and evangelist for the idea that games can save the world. For Rhett, her work is … Continue reading →

Posted in A Major Post, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Development, Emotion, Evolutionary Psychology, Happiness, Health & Medicine, Human Evolution, Mismatch Theory, Phenotypic Plasticity, Play, Psychological Adaptation, Psychology, Radio & Podcasts, Social Networks, Subsistence, Web | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Martin Nowak lecture on The Evolution of Cooperation at MIT

Posted on August 3, 2011 by Chris Jensen

I just checked out a lecture given by Martin Nowak at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology that was recently posted on the MIT videos site. The video was recently posted on the MIT site, but it is not entirely clear … Continue reading →

Posted in Altruism, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Kin Selection, Mathematics, Multilevel Selection, Psychological Adaptation, Radio & Podcasts, Reciprocity, Talks & Seminars, Web | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

What can Dean Potter teach us about evolution?

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Chris Jensen

I have a bit of an obsession with why people push limits in particular sports. Although I am far from a big limit-pusher myself, I do enjoy the more dangerous forms of skateboarding, bicycling, and snowboarding. Of late I have … Continue reading →

Posted in Articles, Cultural Evolution, Film & Television, Happiness, Memetic Fitness, Play, Psychological Adaptation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Economics and Human Satisfaction

Posted on June 9, 2011 by Chris Jensen

There’s a nice article in a recent edition of The Chronicle of Higher Education entitled “The Economics of Unhappiness“. In this article John Quiggan gives an overview of two recent books that focus on explaining our incessant need to increase … Continue reading →

Posted in Articles, Cooperation, Evolutionary Psychology, Happiness, Human Evolution, Mismatch Theory, Psychological Adaptation, Web | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Barash and Lipton on Bin Laden (and Us)

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Chris Jensen

David P. Barash and Judith Eve Lipton are unafraid of explaining modern social behavior from an evolutionary perspective. As famous communicators of evolutionary psychology, they see in an understanding of biology the promise of explaining humanity. In their latest column … Continue reading →

Posted in Articles, Cooperation, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Nature, Multilevel Selection, Psychological Adaptation, Psychology, Punishment, Sociology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NPR is all up in evolution

Posted on August 30, 2010 by Chris Jensen

It is kind of amazing how much evolution has found its way into the news of late. National Public Radio usually has pretty good science coverage via Talk of the Nation Science Friday, but lately they have been providing some … Continue reading →

Posted in Cultural Evolution, Evolution, Human Evolution, Psychological Adaptation, Radio & Podcasts, Religion, Reviews | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Patternicity and that jerk on the cell phone

Posted on May 22, 2009 by Chris Jensen

I was recently taking the Amtrak down from Vermont to New York City when I noticed an interesting contrast, pointed out to me by a chatty fellow passenger. I generally favor trains over planes when it comes to travel: trains … Continue reading →

Posted in Consciousness, Evolution, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Psychological Adaptation | Tagged | Leave a comment

Human Adaptation and Happiness

Posted on May 18, 2009 by Chris Jensen

I just finished reading a fascinating article in The Atlantic entitled “What Makes Us Happy?”. Although I am not all that well-read or at all trained in human behavioral science, I am increasingly interested by it, and this article by … Continue reading →

Posted in Adaptation, Altruism, Data Limitation, Ecology, Evolutionary Psychology, Happiness, Human Evolution, Long Term Ecological Research, Psychological Adaptation | Tagged , | Leave a comment