Brief NYT article on empathy in children
Posted 25 Jan 2013 / 0The New York Times “Understanding How Children Develop Empathy“
A Minor Post, Altruism, Articles, EmpathyIs selective rejection of science really a problem?
Posted 18 Jan 2013 / 1In a recent short opinion piece (Scientific American “Creation, Evolution and Indisputable Facts“), Jacob Tanenbaum argues that selectively rejecting evolutionary biology is dangerous to the scientific culture of America. He rightly points out that our populace does not reject science as a whole, but instead picks and chooses what science to doubt and what science Read More
A Major Post, Adaptation, Altruism, Articles, Belief, Cooperation, Evolution, Gene-Culture Coevolution, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Religion, System StabilityMontreal art installation rewards cooperative play with musical novelty
Posted 12 Jan 2013 / 1I really appreciate the combination of social play and music that went into this very simple but very rich piece of public art.
A Minor Post, Art & Design, Cooperation, Installation Art, Play, Public Art, WebBarash not so enlightening on the paradox of human homosexuality
Posted 02 Jan 2013 / 1The Chronicle of Higher Education “The Evolutionary Mystery of Homosexuality” It is interesting that Barash focuses so heavily in this article on traditional population genetic explanations for the “paradox” of homosexuality, especially when it is becoming so clear that single-gene approaches to human evolution make very little sense. Barash also makes a really weak argument Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Evolution, Gene by Environment Interactions, Genetics, Group Selection, Kin Selection, Natural Selection, Population Genetics, Reproductive Fitness, Sex and ReproductionFreeman Dyson wins the contest, and then says the contest is stupid
Posted 07 Dec 2012 / 0Institute for Advanced Study “The Prisoner’s Dilemma” One of my favorite skateboarders when I was young was Natas Kaupas, an innovative skater who pioneered a lot of modern streetstyle. Natas was one of those skaters who could do things that no other skateboarders could, but he was not particularly successful in one arena that was Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Modeling (General), Multilevel Selection, ReciprocityNPR provides a quick overview of the human drive to reciprocate
Posted 26 Nov 2012 / 0National Public Radio Shots “Give And Take: How The Rule Of Reciprocation Binds Us” I appreciate the far-ranging nature of this piece, and how it applies a basic understanding of reciprocity to larger social phenomena. There is not much here about how genetic and environmental factors modify how reciprocal people choose to behave; while there Read More
A Minor Post, Behavior, Cooperation, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Emotion, Ethics, Evolutionary Psychology, Human Evolution, Political Science, Psychology, Public Policy, Radio & Podcasts, Reciprocity, Reputation, Social Norms, SociologyNew evidence that economic cooperation existed between Vikings and Inuit
Posted 24 Nov 2012 / 0The November 2012 issue of National Geographic features an interesting article entitles “Vikings and Native Americans” that suggests that Viking settlers and Native Americans enjoyed a cooperative relationship. Archaeological evidence suggests that Europeans were depicted positively in Native American artifacts, and the pattern of settlements uncovered in recent digs reveals that Viking and Native American settlements were in close Read More
A Minor Post, Archaeology, Articles, Cooperation, Cultural Anthropology, Cultural Evolution, Human Evolution, Memetic FitnessFurther evidence that Hamilton was wrong about eusocial insects
Posted 11 Nov 2012 / 0Current Biology “Social Evolution: When Promiscuity Breeds Cooperation” Current Biology “Promiscuous Honey Bee Queens Increase Colony Productivity by Suppressing Worker Selfishness” What I find so fascinating about this study is that relatedness can actually under some scenarios undermine cooperation, and that when proper policing of cheating is possible, less-related individuals may have more incentive to Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Cooperation, Hymenoptera, Punishment, SuperorganismsMaking the formation of social networks more realistic also makes them more cooperative
Posted 11 Nov 2012 / 0Physical Review E “Building cooperative networks“
A Minor Post, Articles, Coevolution, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Social NetworksLee Alan Dugatkin blesses Slate with a piece on Kropotkin
Posted 31 Oct 2012 / 0Slate “The Russian Anarchist Prince Who Challenged Evolution” I really appreciate the fact that Dugatkin uses Kropotkin to bring to light that Darwinian evolution has been — even in the time and work of Darwin — a process that was imagined to involve both competition and cooperation. Only in recent times has evolution become synonymous Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Articles, Behavior, Biography, Coevolution, Competition, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Ethics, Evolution, Mutualism, Political Science, Predation, Religion, Taiga (Boreal Forest), Tundra, Web