How satisfied people are with their lifestyle has almost nothing to do with objective realities and everything to do with where they see themselves in the pecking order.
People talk about work as though it were before the Industrial Revolution. In reality work today is much better but our perceptions have not kept track.
Pope Francis acts out the humility preached by Christian ascetics for two millennia. Yet, he owns what is probably the most valuable art collection in the world.
More people today are sexually active before marriage than ever before. The true reasons are practical and have little to do with changing belief systems.
Modern humans enjoy a much faster pace of life than our subsistence ancestors, makes us smarter but contributing to anxiety and health problems. Can we slow to a healthier pace?
The standard test of self-awareness is being able to recognize ourselves in a mirror. Although chimpanzees pass this test with flying colors, dogs flunk.
Some people are exceptionally good at focusing on rarefied abstract problems. Some of these have exceptionally high IQ. Some are autistic. Some are both.
Pessimists cite our reptilian brain as the source of random acts of violence. Even optimists brood darkly about the inner caveman who indulges in road rage.
How men attract women is a much more difficult question than vice-versa because women are both more selective, and also more individualistic in what they want.
The history of European explorers contains nasty stories of intelligent people failing to adapt to harsh new environments. One exception may be Viking colony in Greenland.
In subsistence societies, heavier women are perceived as fertile and sexually attractive. In developed countries, women strive to be more slender. Why?
Our remote ancestors likely had dark eyes, whether brown or black. Blue eyes are common in northern Europe and emerged some 5,000 years ago. This suggests evolution can be fast.
In a golden age of fake news we are becoming more accustomed to politicians spouting self-serving lies. We are also beginning to grasp the complicity of their audience.
Extraverts are more vulnerable to boredom. In the evolutionary past, they likely relieved the boredom by having affairs. Did this improve their reproductive success?
Our society favors extroverts as the outgoing individuals who discover continents and sell stuff and they may be better at managing stress also. So why did introversion evolve?
There is no argument about the fact that women spend a lot more time, effort, and money on their appearance than men do. How they look is clearly important to them. Why?
The majority of abusive parents were abused themselves as children. Now we are beginning to understand the underlying biological mechanisms thanks to animal experiments.
Dietary recommendations are often faddish as illustrated by flip-flops on whether to take vitamins. Now researchers are grasping how diet interacts genes and offspring.
