BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture - ECPv6.16.5.1//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://bec.ucla.edu X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/Los_Angeles BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20080309T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20081102T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20090308T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20091101T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20100314T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20101107T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090406T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090406T000000 DTSTAMP:20201013T004831Z CREATED:20200922T214335Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4097-1238976000-1238976000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Joseph Henrich - The Evolution of Cultural Adaptations: Fijian Food Taboos Protect Against Dangerous Marine Toxins DESCRIPTION:Joseph Henrich: University of British Columbia Departments of Psychology and EconomicsThis talk will first develop an evolutionarily-informed\, cognitively-grounded approach to culture\, and then apply this approach to explain patterns of food taboos for pregnant and lactating women on Yasawa Island\, Fiji. Within a broader cognitive framework\, I focus on (1) understanding our capacities for cultural learning as evolved cognitive mechanisms for acquiring adaptive information from other individuals\, in a complex\, noisy\, and changing world\, and (2) examining how and when these learning mechanisms result in cumulative cultural evolutionary processes that produce population-level patterns of adaptation and maladaptation. Then\, applying this framework\, I will argue that the patterns of food taboos observed across three villages in Fiji represent a culturally-evolved adaptation\, influenced by various cognitive biases\, that protects women\, fetuses\, and infants from dangerous marine toxins. Our findings indicate that these patterns likely emerged\, and are now maintained\, by the operation of the cultural learning mechanisms predicted by our evolutionary approach to cognition. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/joseph-henrich-the-evolution-of-cultural-adaptations-fijian-food-taboos-protect-against-dangerous-marine-toxins/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090413T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090413T000000 DTSTAMP:20201013T004831Z CREATED:20200922T214335Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004831Z UID:4098-1239580800-1239580800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Naomi Eisenberger - Why Rejection Hurts: Examining the Shared Mechanisms Underlying Physical and Social Pain DESCRIPTION:Naomi Eisenberger: UCLA Department of PsychologyNumerous languages characterize ‘social pain\,’ the feelings resulting from social rejection or loss\, with words typically reserved for describing physical pain (“broken hearts\,” “hurt feelings”) and perhaps for good reason. It has been suggested that\, in mammalian species\, the social attachment system borrowed the computations of the physical pain system in order to prevent the potentially harmful consequences of social separation. In this talk\, I will use a combination of behavioral and neuroimaging methodologies to explore the notion that physical and social pain rely on overlapping neural and experiential processes. Specifically\, I will examine: 1) whether social pain activates pain-related neural circuitry\, 2) whether individual differences in sensitivity to one kind of pain relate to individual differences in sensitivity to the other (e.g. Are individuals who are more sensitive to physical pain also more sensitive to social pain?)\, and 3) whether factors that up- or down-regulate one type of pain affect the other in a similar manner (e.g.\, Can physical painkillers reduce social pain?). URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/naomi-eisenberger-why-rejection-hurts-examining-the-shared-mechanisms-underlying-physical-and-social-pain/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090415T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090415T000000 DTSTAMP:20201013T004830Z CREATED:20200922T214336Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4099-1239753600-1239753600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Barbara König - Cooperation and Social Selection - A Case Study of Communal Nursing in House Mice DESCRIPTION:Barbara König: University of Zurich Institute of ZoologyIn addition to sexual selection\, selection resulting from social interactions in contexts other than mating can be a potent evolutionary force. Such social selection processes are facilitated whenever individual fitness varies as a result of any form of social interactions. The choice of social partners for communal care of young is such a situation in which interactants potentially experience fitness variance. We combine lab experiments with field data to investigate the existence and impact of female social partner choice and the potential for social selection to occur in the communally breeding wild house mouse (Mus domesticus). Female house mice display non-random preferences\, and social partner choice yields significant fitness benefits. This suggests that interactions among females are subject to social selection processes\, driving the evolution of female traits.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/Konig.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/barbara-ka%c2%b6nig-cooperation-and-social-selection-a-case-study-of-communal-nursing-in-house-mice/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090420T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090420T000000 DTSTAMP:20201013T004830Z CREATED:20200922T214336Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4100-1240185600-1240185600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Edouard Machery - Did Morality Really Evolve? DESCRIPTION:Edouard Machery: University of Pittsburgh Department of History and Philosophy of ScienceThat morality evolved is a commonplace among evolutionary biologists\, psychologists\, and anthropologists. In this talk\, I will however argue that biologists\, psychologists\, and anthropologists have failed to pay enough attention to the differences between three distinct interpretations of the hypothesis that morality evolved: (1) some components of moral cognition (e.g.\, some particular emotions\, concepts\, or norms) evolved\, (2) a capacity to grasp and be motivated by norms in general evolved\, and (3) a capacity to grasp and be motivated by a distinctive type of norms evolved. Under the first two interpretations\, it is fairly uncontroversial that morality evolved\, while under the third and most interesting interpretation\, the hypothesis that morality evolved is empirically unsupported. Philosophical implications in ethics will be incidentally considered.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/MacheryEvolutionOfMorality.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/edouard-machery-did-morality-really-evolve/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090427T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090427T000000 DTSTAMP:20201013T004830Z CREATED:20200922T214337Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4101-1240790400-1240790400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jenessa Shapiro - Perceiving White Norms: Ironic Effects in Blacks' versus Whites' Judgments of Minority Targets DESCRIPTION:Jenessa Shapiro: UCLA Department of PsychologyConformity to a perceived norm is a common strategy used to gain the approval of one’s interaction partners. Identifying a group norm is ordinarily relatively simple. However\, this task may be especially difficult when the norm is held by a group to which one does not belong\, as is the case in intergroup interactions. In contemporary American society\, Whites tend to believe that norms condemning public expressions of racial prejudices are pervasive (e.g.\, Dovidio & Gaertner\, 1986). In contrast\, Black Americans tend to view normative White behavior as prejudicial against themselves and other minority groups (e.g.\, Neimann\, Jennings\, Rozelle\, Baxter\, & Sullivan\, 1994). The present research examined some ironic implications of this divergent perception of White prejudice-relevant norms. In one study\, when evaluations of a Native American job candidate were to be made public to an unfamiliar group of White males upon whom participants were dependent\, White men expressed less prejudice whereas Black men expressed greater prejudice\, relative to when these responses remained private. In contrast\, White and Black females expressed no prejudice when their evaluations were to be public to White females\, although Black females expressed generally more favorable judgments of both White and Native American candidates. Follow-up studies support the hypothesis that differential inferences about White prejudice norms underlie this pattern of findings: The public judgments made by Black males (compensatory conformity) and Black females (compensatory pleasantness) can be seen as strategies aimed at reducing the likelihood that they themselves will be discriminated against in an intergroup interaction. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jenessa-shapiro-perceiving-white-norms-ironic-effects-in-blacks-versus-whites-judgments-of-minority-targets/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090429T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20090429T000000 DTSTAMP:20201013T004830Z CREATED:20200922T214408Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004830Z UID:4102-1240963200-1240963200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Paul Mellars - Rethinking Modern Human Behavioural Origins and Dispersal: Archaeological and Genetic Perspectives DESCRIPTION:Paul Mellars: University of Cambridge Department of ArchaeologyResearch over the past ten years in both DNA studies and archaeology has provided some remarkable new insights into the origins of biologically and behaviourally modern human populations\, and their widespread dispersal from Africa to the rest of the world around 60\,000 years ago. \nThe combination of DNA studies and recent finds of skeletal remains show that essentially ‘modern’ humans had emerged in Africa by at least 150-200\,000 years ago\, and subsequently spread from Africa into both Asia and Europe around 55-60\,000 years ago\, where they rapidly replaced the pre-existing “archaic” populations (including the Eurasian Neanderthals) within a matter of a few thousand years. \nThis talk will focus specifically on the patterns of dispersal of biologically and behaviourally modern humans from Africa\, and the nature of the cultural and behavioural adaptations which made this dispersal possible. The aim will be to compare and integrate evidence from both genetic (i.e. DNA) studies and the recent spate of new archaeological discoveries in Africa and elsewhere. The talk will focus on the two questions of (a) why there was a delay of around 100\,000 years between the initial emergence of modern Homo sapiens in Africa and their subsequent dispersal to the rest of the world; and (b) what range of behavioural innovations and adaptations allowed the widespread geographical dispersal of modern humans into a range of new and sharply contrasting environments\, and the rapid replacement of the pre-existing ‘archaic’ populations in these regions\, within such a short space of time. How far these behavioural innovations can be attributed to a major neurological change\, and how far to simple cumulative ‘feedback’ processes of technological\, social and other behavioural changes remains a central and critical question for future research.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/MellarsDispersalModel.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/paul-mellars-rethinking-modern-human-behavioural-origins-and-dispersal-archaeological-and-genetic-perspectives/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR