The Scientific Fundamentalist

A Look at the Hard Truths About Human Nature

Satoshi Kanazawa is an evolutionary psychologist at LSE and the coauthor (with the late Alan S. Miller) of Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters. See full bio

January 11, 2009

Avoid boring people

Someone once asked me, right before we parted the very last time I ever saw her, who my hero was. I had to think long and hard before answering. I didn’t want to give obvious answers like “Darwin” or “Newton” or “Batman.” I had in the past expressed my admiration for Leda Cosmides, Simon Baron-Cohen, and Robert L. Trivers, for their scientific work, but I wasn’t sure if they were well known enough in public to count as my “heroes.” I racked my brain, as we walked across a foot bridge over the Thames. The answer I finally came up with when we reached the end of the bridge was “Jim Watson.” Read More

January 4, 2009

I’m a Mac, and I pursue the scientific truth at any cost

My father was an advertising executive, and he taught me always to judge a product by the quality of its commercials. Better products tend to have better commercials. Even though I am a lifelong and very dedicated Macintosh user (I’ve just purchased my 12th Macintosh in 23 years), my father in me can’t help but admire the latest commercial campaign for Windows from Bill Gates and Co. Read More

December 28, 2008

Women have better things to do than make money III

The sex gap in earnings and the so-called glass ceiling are caused, not by employer discrimination or any other external forces, but by the evolved and internal sex differences in preferences, values, desires, dispositions, and temperaments. Just as there are a few exceptional women who are more single-mindedly motivated to earn money and attain higher status than the average man, so too are there a few women who make more money and attain higher status than most men. Read More

December 25, 2008

Women have better things to do than make money II

As I explain in the previous post, employer discrimination (or any other external factor) as an explanation for why men make more money than women assumes that men and women are on the whole identical in their preferences, values, desires, and temperaments. But men and women are inherently and fundamentally different. Read More

December 21, 2008

Women have better things to do than make money I

In all industrialized nations, women on average earn less money and attain lower occupational status than men do. This is true across the board, among blue-collar and white-collar workers and professionals, and in capitalist, socialist, and communist economies. Why? Read More

December 18, 2008

Why young single men are more xenophobic II

I explain in my previous post that, unlike males of other lekking species, who display their genetic quality by physical ornamentation in their gaudy and colorful appearance, men display their genetic quality and earning potential by social and cultural ornamentation. This can explain simultaneously why women travel abroad more and why young single men are more xenophobic. Read More

December 14, 2008

Why young single men are more xenophobic I

Ask a group of friends what their hobbies are. If you have many young, unmarried friends of both sexes, chances are that many of your female friends would mention traveling as one of their hobbies, while very few of your young unmarried male friends would. Alternatively, you may find that many of your young single female friends have recently been to a foreign country on a vacation, but few of your young single male friends have. Why is this? Read More

December 10, 2008

Apparently, I was right about happiness

Two days after I posted my last piece, Nielsen published the results of a global online survey of 28,153 people from 51 nations. Here’s a summary of the findings, according to Reuters.

Men are happier with money, while women find greater joy in friendships and relationships with their children, co-workers and bosses, a new global survey reveals. Read More

December 7, 2008

How to Be Happy

Positive psychology is all the rage these days, and everybody wants the secret key to happiness. Go figure; everybody wants to be happy. What can evolutionary psychology say about how to be happy? Read More

December 4, 2008

Apparently, I was right about Michael Phelps

At the end of August, right after the conclusion of the Beijing Olympics, I posted a piece entitled “Apparently, Michael Phelps does everything he does in order to get laid.” Apparently, I was right. Read More

Books by Satoshi Kanazawa

Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters: From Dating, Shopping, and Praying to Going to War and Becoming a Billionaire-- Two Evolutionary Psychologists Explain Why We Do What We Do

Order by Accident: The Origins and Consequences of Conformity in Contemporary Japan

Evolutionary Psychology Basics

Our bodies evolved over eons, slowly calibrating to the African savanna on which 98 percent of our ancestors lived and died. So, too, did our brains. Evolutionary psychology postulates that the mind is shaped by pressure to survive and reproduce. We jealously guard romantic partners and cherish our closest relatives above all others, lest we fail to pass on our genes.

Go to the Evolutionary Psychology Basics page for more on Evolutionary Psychology including:

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Books by Satoshi Kanazawa

Evolutionary Psychology Basics

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