Tag: Culture

January 10, 2025

Hunter-Gatherer Societies, Human Origins, and Modern Democracies: A Conversation with Vivek Venkataraman

Hunter-gatherer societies have much to teach us about modern Democratic governance.

June 22, 2023

Spirituality, Science, and Action: A Conversation Between David Sloan Wilson and Brother Phap Linh

Spirituality often seems like the opposite of action, but some of the most committed forms of activism come from spiritual leaders.

April 2, 2024

Hollywood Climate Movies and The Potential of Tragedy

Filmic tragedies about climate change would be a better genre than melodrama to help promote perspective and purpose for the ethical and political difficulties ahead.

March 26, 2024

Why Do Humans Enjoy Fictional Stories?

The imaginary worlds we create and consume are not cultural anomalies, but rather direct manifestations of our cognition.

February 18, 2012

Back to Basics with Social Theory

Our economy is built on competition – but, really, we are collaborators.

April 19, 2012

Big Love: Polygamy, Evolution, and the Law

Why should polygamy be illegal and should the law be changed? Two cases are pending in the US Supreme Court and a case considered by the Supreme Court of British Columbia in 2012 upheld the law.

April 20, 2012

Are Taboos Adaptive? Evidence from the Island of Fiji

Are taboos ignorant superstitions, do they contain adaptive wisdom, or are they a mixture of both?

February 27, 2012

Evolution and Racial Inequality

What does evolution have to do with racism and oppression of minority groups?

May 4, 2012

Consilience Conference Celebrates Unity of Knowledge In Biology, Social Science, and Humanities

Two controversies lurk beneath an impressive display of interdisciplinarityRecently, we at <em>Evolution: This View of Life</em> had the pleasure of attending and covering the first annual conference on “Consilience”—or the unity of the sciences, social sciences, and the humanities. The conference, of which we at ETVOL hope to see many future iterations, was organized and hosted by Joseph Carroll of the University of Missouri in St. Louis.

July 30, 2012

Does Human Biology Favor Gun Control or Gun Ownership?

Gun control vs. Gun ownership and human nature.

August 7, 2012

Cliodynamics: A Science For Predicting The Future

Evidence for principles that explain past patterns and that just might also predict future trends.

July 12, 2012

Cultural Evolution of Pants II

The association between horse-riding and wearing of pants.

July 13, 2012

Do Wild Bats Hold the Key to Understanding Human Tribal Behavior?

Disease-causing pathogens–viruses, bacteria and protists–have geographies, both in terms of where they can be found and how common they are within those regions.

July 18, 2012

Boiling Blood

The physical experience of anger may be similar for all humans, but different cultures have different ways of expressing it.

July 9, 2012

Cultural Evolution of Pants

Why do we wear pants?

August 29, 2012

Small Family Size Increases the Wealth of Descendants but Reduces Evolutionary Success

Having a small number of children increased the economic success and social position of descendants across up to four generations, but reduced the total number of long-term descendants.

October 26, 2012

Political Strength: A Man’s Muscle Power Influences His Beliefs

Do you favor wealth redistribution? The answer might depend on how strong you are.

September 8, 2012

Study Demonstrates Evolution of Stereotypes

Stereotypes form and evolve over time through social transmission of information, similar to the way in which languages evolve.

August 21, 2012

Social Position Drives Gene Regulation of the Immune System

New research with rhesus macaques shows that dominance rank has a major impact on gene regulation of the immune system.

October 22, 2012

Why Partisans Can’t Explain Their Views

Being forced to explain your views can lead you to become more moderate on those views

November 11, 2012

Steven Pinker and His Critics: Is the Long Peace a “Statistical Illusion”?

Scholars continue to debate the Decline of Violence thesis. The latest critique is offered by Nassim Taleb; Pinker responds.

August 22, 2012

Bonobo Genius Makes Stone Tools Like Early Humans Did

The findings will fuel the ongoing debate over whether stone tools mark the beginning of modern human culture.

May 24, 2013

Political Motivations May Have Evolutionary Links to Physical Strength

Men’s upper-body strength predicts their political opinions on economic redistribution.

August 20, 2012

Cliodynamics: Can Science Decode the Laws of History?

he new and highly controversial discipline cliodynamics is the most recent attempt to transform history into science.

September 8, 2012

When Men Stop Seeking Beauty and Women Care Less About Wealth

The more equal men and women became, the less emphasis men placed on youth and beauty, and the less emphasis women put on wealth and power.

February 23, 2013

Surprising Brain Differences Between Republicans and Democrats

Two studies support the theory that political decision making has a neurological basis.

June 29, 2013

Good Intentions and the Road to Hell

Pathological altruism can counterintuitively lead to pervasive problems in public policy.

July 25, 2013

War Arose Recently, Anthropologists Contend

A battle has broken out among scientists trying to untangle the origins of war.

May 2, 2014

The Future Looks Good For Citizen Science

Public participation in science, or citizen science, is finding a foothold in all branches of science.

April 26, 2014

Homo Religiosus

July 22, 2013

Are some problems too big for democracy?

When you have lost a democratic election to someone who fights against your sacred values, there is no consolation in the thought that you can barter over policy details in the legislature.

January 12, 2014

Trustworthy People Are Seen As More Similar To Ourselves

We trust people based as much on how they look, how similar to us, than other factors, but our perception of looks can vary with social interaction.

February 7, 2014

Books are Maps of Nature, Screens are Maps of Nothing

Our Stone Age brains never had or needed a way to process written symbolic language.

July 25, 2013

Let’s Shake Up The Social Sciences

It is time to create new social science departments that reflect the breadth and complexity of the problems we face.

March 22, 2013

Left, Right: The Brain Science of Politics

Political inclinations and ideological leanings may be tied to innate factors like a person’s biology, physiology and genetics.

June 29, 2013

Painful and Extreme Rituals Enhance Social Cohesion

Painful and extreme rituals may enhance social cohesion.

May 22, 2014

Taming The Autonomous Learner

May 8, 2014

Evolutionary Educational Psychology as a Base for Instructional Design

While it is intuitively plausible that teaching [critical thinking] skills should be useful, evidence that they are teachable is sparse.

July 15, 2013

Education, Neoliberal Culture, and the Brain

“There is a Mr. Hyde inside each of us. What we have to do is prevent the conditions that will bring the monster forth.”

July 3, 2014

Why Best Practices Don’t Spread

July 26, 2012

The Joker’s Wild: On the Ecology of Gun Violence in America

The United States is the deadliest wealthy country in the world. Can science help us explain, or even solve, our national crisis?