Category:
Business
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Articles:
Oct 8, 2013
Darwin’s Business Conference At NYU Stern
New evolutionary thinking about cooperation, groups, firms and societies.To explore the new implications of this vastly improved evolutionary theory for business, we recently organized a one-day symposium at Stern titled “Darwin’s Business: New Evolutionary Thinking About Cooperation, Groups, Firms and Societies.”
Oct 7, 2013
Trait-signaling Instincts Can Drive Conspicuous Consumption—But That It Not The Only Option
Social competition and sexual selection have shaped human instincts for showing off our mental traits.Social competition and sexual selection have shaped human instincts for showing off our mental traits (e.g. intelligence. personality traits, moral virtues) to mates, rivals, friends, peers, and other groups. In modern capitalism, such trait-display instincts are channeled mostly into educational credentialism, workaholic careerism, and runaway consumerism, with often harmful effects on environments, societies, families, and fertility patterns.
Oct 7, 2013
Punctuated Equilibria And The Evolution of Norms
Theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living.My theory of history explains phenomena such as the constant improvement of the human standard of living by looking primarily at just two forms of innovative ideas: technology and rules.
Oct 7, 2013
Working With Human Nature To Improve Business Ethics
Why our moral psychology makes it difficult to teach ethics.I give a brief overview of an evolutionary approach to moral psychology in which people are mostly concerned about appearances and reputation, rather than actually doing the right thing. I explain why this complex psychology makes it difficult to teach ethics to anyone. Yet an understanding of the origins and mechanisms of moral cognition open the way for us to do (and teach) “<a href="http://www.ethicalsystems.org/">ethical systems design</a>,” a way of working with human nature and setting up environments that lead to better ethical behavior.
Oct 7, 2013
A More Natural Workplace
The effects of the presence of a companion animal on behavior and attitudes in the workplace.My talk is about two studies that deal with “mismatch.” The basic idea behind mismatch theory is that aspects of the modern environment are incongruent (mismatched) with our psychology and physiology, which are more adapted to the environment in which we evolved—the savannas of East Africa.
Oct 7, 2013
The Empathy Problem
The implications that the empathy problem has for ethical behavior within firms.I address the implications that the empathy problem has for ethical behavior within firms, particularly engendering sufficient trust to facilitate the use of modern institutional mechanisms that, in turn, affect firm, industry, and social evolution.
Oct 7, 2013
Corporate Honesty: A Behavioral And Evolutionary Model, With Policy Implications
Neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and is based on an incorrect model of human behaviorSince the mid-1970's neoclassical economic theory has dominated business school thinking and teaching, based on an incorrect Homo economicus model of human behavior. Moreover, the neoclassical efficient markets hypothesis implies that a firm's stock price is the best overall measure of the firm's long-term value, so managerial incentives should be tied closely to stock market performance.
Oct 7, 2013
A Third Wave Of Evolutionary Thought
How evolution experienced a case of arrested development in relation to human affairs.I explain how evolutionary thought has developed more or less continuously in the life sciences since Darwin, but experienced a case of arrested development in relation to human affairs. A renewed effort to rethink the human-related academic disciplines began in the late 20th century, comprising a second wave of evolutionary thought.
Oct 7, 2013
The Cultural Equivalent Of Sex: How Exchange Accelerates Cultural Evolution
Lack of exchange explains why culture evolves more slowlyIt is now well established that cultural evolution is a fundamentally Darwinian process, exhibiting incremental descent with modification, semi-random innovation (trial and error), competition among ideas, selective survival and other Darwinian features. One key ingredient of Darwinian evolution is genetic recombination, usually through sexual reproduction, which makes evolution a cumulative phenomenon.
Oct 7, 2013
What Might Darwin Have Said About Private Contracts That Limit Competition?
When unbridled competition is clearly inefficient and how more competition is not always a good thing.I explains how private contracts and limited competition have been treated as presumptively illegal under the anti-trust laws which implicitly rest on the premise that more competition is always a good thing. Yet in many cases, unbridled competition is clearly inefficient.
Oct 7, 2013
Tribal Social Instincts, Gene-culture Co-evolution, And Business
Organizational management is about shaping the norms and institutions of quasi-tribal groups so that they work better. Pete Richerson argues that much of what organizational management amounts to is trying to shape the norms and institutions of quasi-tribal groups so that they work better.
Sep 5, 2013
Welcome To The New Business Section
Why business? What does evolution have to contribute to the study or conduct of business?Welcome to the new business section of This View of Life. My name is Jon Haidt, and I’m a social psychologist and professor of business ethics at the NYU-Stern School of Business.
Aug 29, 2012
Using Evolution to Understand Apple’s Business Model
Compared to competing companies, they routinely blow everybody else out of the water. How is this the case?