Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind

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Referring to Lewis Carroll's Red Queen from Through the Looking-Glass, a character who has to keep running to stay in the same place, Matt Ridley demonstrates why sex is humanity's best strategy for outwitting its constantly mutating internal predators. But if I come back with four friends, and we’ve all created a social connection and believe that you ought to be killed and we’re all throwing rocks, we’ll be throwing rocks at five times the pace, and we can all engage in the fight at once.

While Mating in Captivity shows why the domestic realm can feel like a cage, Perel's take on bedroom dynamics promises to liberate, enchant, and provoke. If you read all of the above works you will glean profound insight into most of what has driven the history of the western world. By using the Web site, you confirm that you have read, understood, and agreed to be bound by the Terms and Conditions. Obama, a deliberator in an instinctive business, this may be as instructive as any political science text. A bit like language, it’s one of those things where you’d say it seems really odd to say it evolved.So when we look at much earlier stages—what makes you angry or, who you fancy, or whatever, it’s not necessarily clear that they lead directly to behaviours that influence your gene success. Out of this complicated and contingent form of childrearing, Sarah Hrdy argues, came the human capacity for understanding others. In the international bestseller, Thinking, Fast and Slow, Daniel Kahneman, the renowned psychologist and winner of the Nobel.

In Quiet, Cain affirms to a good many of us who are introverts by nature that we needn’t try to be extroverts if we want to lead. So we know that there will have been pressure to behave morally, in the way other people think of it. The Illusion of Conscious Will is ostensibly a social psychology book, as opposed to an evolutionary psychology book. It cites a rich body of literature that provides insights into the role of sexual selection in shaping the human mind.So it’s very important that you don’t do things which cause other people to punish you, and that you choose the right side to be on when you’re ganging up with your rocks to punish someone else. How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism?

Why do our headaches persist after taking a one-cent aspirin but disappear when we take a 50-cent aspirin? Human traits are a product of natural selection—and the story of how we have evolved explains many of our psychological quirks today. If the young were to survive in a world of scarce food, they needed to be cared for, not only by their mothers but also by siblings, aunts, fathers, friends--and, with any luck, grandmothers. I already know: I talk to tell you stuff, I talk to get things I want…’ You’ve got to break that down first. Perfect for people in all walks of life, the principles of Influence will move you toward profound personal change and act as a driving force for your success.At once excitingly ambitious and wittily accessible, this is the first book to combine evolutionary psychology with cutting-edge neuroscience to defend the radical claims at the heart of Buddhist philosophy.