This View of Life
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For millennia, group boundaries have organized our identities, motivated allegiances, and inspired feats of coordination the likes of which are unparalleled in the animal kingdom.We hypothesize that psychological adaptations exist that structure the way we think about groups, and that regulate cooperative and competitive behavior in the context of specific coalitional dynamics; specifically, we argue that humans are endowed with an evolved “coalitional psychology.”

We ought to look to nature—and its 3.5 billion years of adaptations for survival—for how to better protect ourselves from terrorist attacks, natural disasters and infectious disease.

Shouldn't our society have a wellness program like we do as individuals?

A better metaphor for economics is that of a giant organism continually reacting to and also modifying its own environment.

The evolved emotion of disgust neutralizes many pathogens by helping us avoid what makes us sick. We need to adapt our behavioral immune system to counter new threats.

An evolutionary perspective on psychological biases tells a very different story about decision making.If we have learned anything from recent years in the behavioral sciences, it is that humans have numerous but systematic psychological biases that steer our judgment and decision-making away from what one might expect if we were even-handed in weighing up costs, benefits and probabilities.

If we’re doing psychology, therefore, then we’re also doing evolutionary psychology: we’re trying to understand evolved adaptations—and their mental, behavioral, and cultural products and by-products—and our ability to do so is enhanced through the invocation of evolutionary principles.

Rabbi Geoffrey Mitelman interviews Professor David DeSteno on the science of compassion

In biology, regulation isn’t about less or more. It’s about just the right kind of regulation required to survive and reproduce.

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.

Scientists used genetic engineering and molecular evolution to direct the enzymatic synthesis of a semiconductor.

Why using an evolutionary approach to understanding the mind is crucial.