Jul 21, 2016

Religion through an Evolutionary Lens: A Conversation about Dominic Johnson’s “God is Watching You”

Dominic Johnson's new book present an new look at religion by suggesting that the same underlying scientific perspective—evolution and natural selection—can lead to a very different stance on religion from Richard Dawkins and other New Atheists.

Jul 8, 2016

What we make and do can evolve with no end in sight

A simple, but powerful law, The Law of Effect, suggests that organisms tend to repeat the successful behaviors they perform and to refrain from repeating the unsuccessful ones.

Jun 3, 2016

America Needs to Steal Back the Nordic Model by Thom Hartmann

May 10, 2016

Evolving Organizations

Are the past systems humans have used to manage problems enough to deal with the complex environments we find ourselves in today?

Apr 11, 2016

Why did early human societies practice violent human sacrifice?

Is is possible that human sacrifice might have served some social function, and actually benefited at least some members of a society?

Apr 5, 2016

How WEIRD is Donald Trump?

Let’s hope future DNA studies don’t show a lot of Trump genes in the population.

Feb 2, 2016

BBS, Brains, and the Pain of Altruism: An Interview with Barbara Finlay

The co-editor of the #1 academic Journal in the Behavioral Sciences shares her views on Evolutionary Psychology.

Feb 2, 2016

Review of "Ultrasociety: How 10,000 Years of War Made Humans the Greatest Cooperators on Earth"

Professor Turchin’s new book Ultrasociety identifies the causal mechanisms hidden in the twists and turns of human civilisation by quantifying the rise and fall of empires.

Dec 28, 2015

Let’s find a compromise between group selection and the selfish gene

The sooner we begin to cooperate within the scientific discipline, the sooner the theory of evolution will be stronger than ever.

Dec 18, 2015

Share the Big History of Psychological Flexibility

Can our species collectively cultivate the socio-cultural changes required to make our shared visions of humanistic values become real on a global scale?

Dec 15, 2015

My Resolution: Getting My Stories Straight

Every day teachers build lessons, units, semesters, and school years around a narrative structure. But did you know that these strategies also make sense from an evolutionary perspective as well?

Dec 9, 2015

Star Wars, Christmas, and Constraints on Secular Influence

Why are cultural institutions like Christmas and Star Wars so popular? The answer may provide insight into human nature’s impulse towards supernatural explanation.

Nov 18, 2015

God Is Watching You: How the Fear of God Makes Us Human

Read an excerpt from Dominic Johnson's new book 'God is Watching You' where he presents a new theory of the origins and evolution of not only religion, but also human cooperation and society, and explores how fear of supernatural punishment exists within and outside of religious contexts.

Oct 21, 2015

Man Bites Dog: Cultural Evolution According to a Cultural Anthropologist

Aug 4, 2015

Want An Impactful Business? Focus on Design of Culture

Jul 23, 2015

What Small Scale Societies Tell Us About Our Own Child-Bearing Decisions

Jul 13, 2015

Why do Modern People have so few Children?

Jun 15, 2015

Seeing Cultural Evolution In The Patterns Of History

May 18, 2015

What Business Cycles Can Teach Us About Evolution

May 18, 2015

The New Science of Intentional Change

Apr 6, 2015

Change Your Stories, Change Your Reality

Feb 1, 2015

How To Get Credible Knowledge In A Myth-Filled World

Jan 12, 2015

Yes, Darwinian Feminism Is Real. And It's Growing

Dec 26, 2014

Taking Control Of The Planet. It Might Be Our Only Chance

Jul 14, 2014

Why This Book On Genetics And Race Is A Problem

The controversy continues about biological basis for race.

May 5, 2014

Blueprint For The Global Village. Norway Explained.

The unregulated pursuit of self-interest is cancerous at all scales.

Feb 23, 2014

Let’s Start Calling Ourselves Evolutionists!

Dec 4, 2013

On The Origin Of HBES: Sarah Hrdy

An interview with a pioneer anthropologist and primatologistThe latest installment of “On the Origin of HBES: An Oral History,” focuses on Sarah Blaffer Hrdy, an anthropologist and primatologist who has made major contributions to sociobiology and related disciplines.

Oct 27, 2013

Napoleon Chagnon: The Fierce Sociobiologist

Times have changed for the study of human behavior from an evolutionary perspective, thanks in part to his pioneering spirit.

Jun 8, 2013

Fast Life Histories, Not Pathogens, Account For Variation In Human Cognition And Social Behavior

The relationship between risky environments and life history.

Apr 25, 2013

Animal Culture In Monkeys And Whales

We thought humans only have culture. We were wrong.

Mar 1, 2013

Dismantling The Paradigm In The Social Sciences

Joe Henrich and his colleagues are shaking the foundations of psychology and economics.

Feb 14, 2013

Wild, Wacky And Complex. That's Evolution

Things that look as though they took ages to design and create just happen.

Feb 6, 2013

Genes Mix Faster Than Stories

Folk tales' 'DNA' shows that people would sooner have sex with strangers than tell their fables.

Feb 1, 2013

Chimps Learn Tool Use by Watching Others

Chimpanzees can learn to use tools more efficiently by watching how others use them.

Jan 30, 2013

Cultural Evolution Changes Bird Song

Thanks to cultural evolution, male Savannah sparrows are changing their tune, partly to attract “the ladies.”

Jan 9, 2013

Networking Ability a Family Trait in Monkeys

Social behaviors have been acted on by natural selection.

Jan 8, 2013

Jays Appear to Mourn Dead Winged Comrades

When a Western scrub jay dies, researchers report, other jays may hold a kind of funeral.

Jan 7, 2013

Bonobos Share With Strangers Before Acquaintances

Building a social network and making new friends as valuable as food.

Jan 6, 2013

Are We Born With a Sense of Fairness?

Does fairness come standard with every newborn, or is it something that we (hopefully) develop as we mature?

Jan 2, 2013

Restless Genes

If an urge to explore rises in us innately, perhaps its foundation lies within our genome.

Dec 20, 2012

Is Orangutan Culture Made of Ideas?

Like humans and chimpanzees, communities of orangutans have different traditions.

Dec 18, 2012

Ancient Bones That Tell a Story of Compassion

Life 7,500 years ago included an ability and willingness to help and sustain the chronically ill and handicapped.

Dec 16, 2012

Does History Cycle?

The reason you have ups and downs in dynamical systems is that there are internal feedback loops.

Dec 16, 2012

Human Rites

Rituals bind us, in modern societies and prehistoric tribes alike. But can our loyalties stretch to all of humankind?

Dec 10, 2012

Culture: the Engine of Human Adaptation

Social Learning Leads to Our Greatest Achievements and Worst Errors.

Nov 21, 2012

Why, As People Get Richer, Do They Have Fewer Children?

As people get richer, they have smaller families. Why?

Nov 15, 2012

China’s Biggest Problem? Too Many Men

The current sex-ratio bias could turn out to be catastrophic.

Nov 8, 2012

Early Humans May Have Been Much Smarter Than We Thought

Complex tools dating 71,000 years suggest advanced stoneworking techniques persisted.

Oct 30, 2012

The Russian Anarchist Prince Who Challenged Evolution

Are we cooperative or competitive?