Laurie Santos: Yale UniversityI will explore the evolutionary roots of some of our species' irrational decisions. I will start by reviewing some classic biases in the field of judgment and decision-making and will then turn to the question of how these biases came about in the first place by exploring some recent experiments in exploring […]
Jacob Foster: UCLAScience is an incredibly successful instance of social learning. Its practices produce and subtly organize the attention, effort, and creativity of millions of scientists, leading to rapid and cumulative cultural evolution. In this talk, I outline the striking convergence between this view of science and the one developed in science studies. Using data […]
A.J. Figueredo and Michael Anthony Woodley: University of Arizona, Free University of BrusselsA sequential canonical cascade model, detailing the hypothesized biogeography of human life history (LH) and intelligence (IQ), derives elevated levels of IQ through a series of causal steps, starting with the evolution of slower LH strategies based on both the physical ecology (climatological […]
Kristin Snopkowski: Boise State UniversityOver the past two hundred years, most societies around the world have experienced fertility transitions, defined as a dramatic decline in reproductive rates through time. The conscious decision to reduce fertility to very low levels appears maladaptive and poses a theoretical challenge to human behavioral ecologists who expect humans to maximize […]
Dan Franks: University of YorkWhy females of some species cease ovulation before the end of their natural lifespan is a longstanding evolutionary puzzle. In humans as well as some natural populations of cetaceans and insects, reproductive aging occurs much faster than somatic aging and females exhibit prolonged post-reproductive lifespans (PRLSs). Determining the mechanisms and functions […]
Erik Gjesfjeld: UCLAIn both the past and present, human populations are consistently presented with unpredictable situations. Behavioral responses to these situations are often heavily mediated by our degree of knowledge (uncertainty) about the variability in outcomes (risk). Using social network analysis as well as a novel macro-evolutionary method for examining the mode and tempo of […]
Tim Shields: Chapman UniversityWe describe results of a study in trust-based exchange that supports the proposition that humans perceive intention not only through what others do but also through what others choose not to do. Crucial to this proposition is the notion that trust-based exchanges entail decision dilemmas where mutually exclusive goals are traded off […]
Debra Martin: University of Nevada, Las VegasViolence (lethal and nonlethal) is often associated with social spheres of influence and power connected to daily life such as subsistence intensification, specialization, resources, climate, population density, territorial protection and presence of immigrants, to name just a few. By using fine-grained biocultural analyses that interrogate trauma data in particular […]
Drew Rendall: University of LethbridgeThe evolution of language is a longstanding problem that continues to invite study, analysis, and speculation from a variety of perspectives. One perspective has been to adopt a comparative stance and seek the rudiments of key elements of language in the communication systems of closely related nonhuman primates. While sensible enough, […]
Elly Power: Santa Fe InstituteDiscerning the intentions and character of others is a difficult task. In South India, religious practice is seen as particularly helpful in that process of discernment. There, the ritual acts undertaken are often quite dramatic: devotees walk across hot coals, pierce their skin with hooks and spears, walk barefoot to distant […]
