Evolutionary Psychology

What Kind of Ancestral Leader Are You Most Like?

By Gregg Murray, Ph.D. on February 9, 2012 in Caveman Politics

What kind of ancestral leader are you most like? Evolutionary Leadership Theory identifies six leadership functions carried out in ancestral groups that serve as leadership prototypes today. Read More

Do You Mate Like a Cavewoman?

By Donna Barstow on February 8, 2012 in Ink Blots Cartoons

Finding the right person requires savvy and skill. Perhaps Darwin could shed a little Love Advice your way. Read More

Deconstructing the Dominance Myth (Again...)

By Lee Charles Kelley on February 8, 2012 in My Puppy, My Self

If all members of a wolf pack had a direct approach to prey, the hunt would fail. If they all had an indirect approach, same deal. These tendencies would also be reflected in pack social behaviors. Read More

Six Degrees of Social Influence

By Douglas T. Kenrick on February 7, 2012 in Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life

Why would a world-renowned group of psychologists and marketing researchers team up with a man who was once the world’s most wanted computer hacker to write about one man’s social influence? Read More

Dr. David Eagleman's New Dream Project

By Maureen Seaberg on February 7, 2012 in Tasting the Universe

Top synesthesia researcher Dr. David Eagleman wants to replace himself... Read More

Do You Wish Evolution Weren’t True?

By Tania Lombrozo, Ph.D. on February 7, 2012 in Explananda

Many people believe that an evolutionary worldview is existentially challenging, making it harder to find meaning in life and easier to justify selfishness. Do people reject evolution because they don't want it to be true? Do those who accept evolution do so reluctantly? Research in educational and cognitive psychology provides some surprising answers. Read More

Are Rich People Heavy Drinkers?

By Nigel Barber, Ph.D. on February 6, 2012 in The Human Beast

Much has been made of a 2010 Gallup survey finding that the proportion of people saying they drink alcohol increases steadily with income. Alcohol consumption went from 46 percent for people earning less than $20,000 to 81 percent for people earning over $75,000. Hence the oft-repeated claim that affluent people drink more. Read More

Zeitgeist: Boomerang and the Creation of a Narrative

By Ravi Chandra, M.D. on February 6, 2012 in The Pacific Heart

Lessons from Michael Lewis’ bestseller Boomerang about human nature, and some thoughts on social psychology. Read More

Parental Put Downs, Power Tests, and Power Struggles with Adolescents

By Carl E. Pickhardt, Ph.D. on February 6, 2012 in Surviving (Your Child's) Adolescence

All parents fall from grace.

The child looks up to parents and their wonderful powers and idealizes who they are. The adolescent looks down on parents and their unfair authority and criticizes who they are. The young adult looks at the hit-and-miss child raising job parents have done and humanizes them as well-intended but imperfect people. Read More

Blissful Love Can Make You Sick or Crazy

By Mary C. Lamia, Ph.D. on February 5, 2012 in Intense Emotions and Strong Feelings

Love, when it involves an initial state of bliss, can later make you feel sick or crazy, whether or not the object of your affection has left your life. Bliss is an emotion that people seek. A surge of extreme pleasure and rapture is felt when it is activated, and you seem to transcend your self or merge with another person. Read More

Do Men and Women Process Humor Differently?

By Gil Greengross, Ph.D. on February 4, 2012 in Humor Sapiens

There is abundant research on sex differences in humor appreciation and humor production. Some studies found consistent sex differences, especially in the mating context (see my previous post here and here), while other studies did not find such differences. One way to study the subject is by looking at people's brains. Read More

The Seven Year Itch: Theories of Marriage, Divorce, and Love

By Dario Maestripieri, Ph.D. on February 3, 2012 in Games Primates Play

In the 1955 film The Seven Year Itch, a married man struggles with the temptation to leave his wife and small child to run off with the young woman next door, played by Marilyn Monroe. The title of the film refers to a time in a marriage when—according to the U.S. Census Bureau—a divorce is most likely to happen. Read More

Why Are Men So Violent?

By Jesse Prinz, Ph.D. on February 3, 2012 in Experiments in Philosophy

Are men warriors by nature? A new evolutionary account may be wrong about the source of male violence. Read More

Sneaking Hebephilia Into DSM 5

By Allen J. Frances, M.D. on February 2, 2012 in DSM5 in Distress

Dr. Ray Blanchard, of the DSM 5 sexual disorders work group, has written a misleading blog that portrays the introduction of 'Hebephilia' into DSM 5 as no more than a minor change. In his rendering, DSM IV already permits the diagnosis of pedophilia if victims are 13 or younger and DSM 5 is just raising the age threshold to 14. No big deal. Read More

Is "Managing Without Managers" An Oxymoron (Or Oxytocin)?

By Paul J. Zak on February 2, 2012 in The Moral Molecule

Can a company run without any managers? Find out how and why and what Peter Drucker thought here. And, what tomatoes have to do with it all. Read More

Why Facebook Is Failing

By Jeff Wise on February 2, 2012 in Extreme Fear

The company has striven to bind together every aspect of the internet experience, to achieve immortality through intrusiveness. And this, I think, will be their undoing. Read More

Making Love: All of the Positions

By Dr. Jeremy Sherman on February 2, 2012 in Ambigamy

A woman I know nearly throws up when anyone calls sex “making love.” You wouldn’t guess it to see her or hear her talk. She’s classy and refined, and a true romantic, too. Still, she much prefers calling sex sex or any of its other rougher names. Read More

Long Tails Versus Short Tails and Canine Communication

By Stanley Coren, Ph.D., F.R.S.C. on February 1, 2012 in Canine Corner

New research involving a robotic dog interacting with real dogs confirms that dogs with short or docked tails are treated negatively by other dogs. This is because the absence of a visible tail limits a dog’s communication ability. Read More

Explaining the Universe vs. Explaining Its Rulers

By Robert N. McCauley, Ph.D. on February 1, 2012 in Why Religion Is Natural and Science Is Not

Popular religion engages cognitive capacities that are unconscious, intuitive, automatic, and easy; while the core cognitive capacities that the sciences demand are conscious, reflective, deliberate, and difficult. Read More

Fear Factor: The Religious Right's Problem With Women

By Dr. Peggy Drexler on February 1, 2012 in Our Gender, Ourselves

The world has seen the terror and confusion on the porcelain face of eight-year-old Naama Margolese, who was insulted and spat on by ultra-Orthodox men as she walked to school in the Israeli city of Beit Shemesh. The Haredi, to use Israeli term, found her bare arms so immodest that they screamed "whore!" Read More

Essential Reads: Editor's Picks

Dr. David Eagleman's New Dream Project
by Maureen Seaberg
The Seven Year Itch: Theories of Marriage, Divorce, and Love
by Dario Maestripieri, Ph.D.
Long Tails Versus Short Tails and Canine Communication
by Stanley Coren, Ph.D., F.R.S.C.

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