Posted 30 Aug 2013 / 0
I am excited to report that my review of Origins of Altruism and Cooperation was just published in the Quarterly Review of Biology. Although it requires some work to get through, this collection presents a really important counter-narrative to the prevailing attitude in evolutionary biology that altruism is simply self-interest in disguise. The book uses Read More
A Major Post, Altruism, Behavior, Books, Cooperation, Cultural Evolution, Empathy, Group Selection, Human Evolution, Human Uniqueness, Kin Selection, Multilevel Selection, My publications, Primatology, Reciprocity, Social Networks, Social Norms
Posted 30 Aug 2013 / 0
NPR Morning Edition “Wise Old Whooping Cranes Keep Captive-Bred Fledglings On Track” What’s incredible here is the fact that scientists studying these cranes can show — even with their very small sample size — that experienced birds are aiding less-experienced birds in successful migration.
A Minor Post, Biodiversity Loss, Conservation Biology, Cultural Evolution, Habitat Destruction, Radio & Podcasts
Posted 23 Aug 2013 / 2
Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation “The Evolutionary Dominance of Ethnocentric Cooperation” Human beings are not always (or completely) engulfed in a war of tribe against tribe. In other words, we are not strictly “ethnocentric” in our cooperation: we are willing to cooperate with those not directly identified as our “in group”. This modeling Read More
A Minor Post, Cooperation, Individual-based Models, Kin Selection
Posted 23 Aug 2013 / 0
The Chronicle of Higher Education “On the Failures of Others“
A Minor Post, Competition, Emotion
Posted 23 Aug 2013 / 0
Mongabay News “The evolution of cooperation: communal nests are best for ruffed lemurs” Behavioral Ecology and Sociobiology “Communal nesting, kinship, and maternal success in a social primate” What I find particularly interesting about these findings is that they appear to show that kinship — if a factor at all — might well be a byproduct Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavioral Ecology, Cooperation, Kin Selection, Mating systems, Mutualism, Reciprocity, Reproductive Fitness, Tropical Forest, Web
Posted 23 Aug 2013 / 0
National Geographic “The Short Happy Life of a Serengeti Lion” This article provides a great overview of the kind of work that Craig Packer’s research group does in the Serengeti to understand the social behavior of lions. There is valuable information here on why lions are social (unlike other large cats), why lions must cooperate, Read More
A Minor Post, Articles, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Carrying Capacity, Cooperation, Grasslands, Kin Selection, Predation, Reciprocity
Posted 21 Aug 2013 / 0
WNYC The Leonard Lopate Show “The Untold Story of the Notorious Milgram Psychology Experiments” This great feature uncovers two major sources of scientific distortion: Milgram himself selectively reported his results in order to tell a more sensational story; and Media depictions, fueled by popular preconceptions, further filtered and distorted the meanings of Milgram’s scientific results. Both Read More
A Minor Post, Altruism, Behavior, Emotion, Empathy, Ethics, Human Nature, Methods, Psychology, Radio & Podcasts, Scientific Fraud, Social Norms
Posted 15 Aug 2013 / 0
The Scientist “A Twist in Evolutionary Game Theory: Biologists demonstrate the instability of employing a selfish strategy in the prisoner’s dilemma game” Nature Communications “Evolutionary instability of zero-determinant strategies demonstrates that winning is not everything” I am so glad to see that someone did the math and simulations to look at the long-term stability of Read More
A Minor Post, Adaptation, Articles, Behavior, Coevolution, Cooperation, Evolutionary Modeling, Game Theory, Individual-based Models, Phenotypic Plasticity, Punishment, Reciprocity, System Stability
Posted 10 Aug 2013 / 10
WARNING: This article is accurate as of August 2013; publishing policies are rapidly evolving and therefore the page charges described below are subject to change. Every scientist wants to have funding to support his or her research, and part of that funding has to be ear-marked for page charges. Page charges? It sounds like an Read More
A Major Post, Ecology, Evolution, Periodicals, Professional Societies, Publication, Science as a career
Posted 30 Jul 2013 / 0
National Public Radio Morning Edition “For Some Mammals It’s One Love, But Reasons Still Unclear” Although brief, I appreciate how this article lays out the three hypotheses for monogamy: Monogamous co-parenting increases the survival rate of offspring as compared to parenting by the mother alone; Monogamy results from the pattern of resource distribution: if resources are Read More
A Minor Post, Behavior, Behavioral Ecology, Competition, Cooperation, Evolution, Genetics, Human Uniqueness, Mating systems, Radio & Podcasts, Sex and Reproduction
