BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture - ECPv6.15.20//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Center for Behavior, Evolution, and Culture 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: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 BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20110313T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20111106T090000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0800 TZOFFSETTO:-0700 TZNAME:PDT DTSTART:20120311T100000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0700 TZOFFSETTO:-0800 TZNAME:PST DTSTART:20121104T090000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111031T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111031T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T215033Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004818Z UID:4181-1320019200-1320019200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Robin Nelson - Contextualizing Kinship: A Bio-cultural Study of Families and Health in Jamaica DESCRIPTION:Robin Nelson: UCRIn this talk\, I will explore the extent to which variability in the quality of familial and social relationships is correlated to the phenotypic expression of biological indicators of health status for adults and children. This research applies theories popularized in evolutionary ecology to a study of sociality and health in Manchester Parish\, Jamaica. Using ethnographic methods\, I identified culturally salient aspects of investment relationships amongst a lower class study population. Jamaica’s unstable economic climate necessitates increased investment from social and familial contacts and thus\, provides the framework for studies of this received investment. Health outcomes were measured using anthropometric and immunological analyses. In this presentation\, I will discuss my findings regarding the impact of a variety of investment relationships on health outcomes for (1) adults who are involved in romantic relationships and (2) adults who were children during the post-colonial era in Jamaica and (3) a recent study of children living in state-sponsored orphanages. These findings suggest that investment relationships in Jamaica\, specifically with relatives\, serve as one important factor in the maintenance of good individual health. These relationships are particularly important in the context of Jamaica’s risky and unstable economic environment. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/robin-nelson-contextualizing-kinship-a-bio-cultural-study-of-families-and-health-in-jamaica/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111024T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111024T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T215032Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004818Z UID:4180-1319414400-1319414400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Derek Penn - Why Are We So Odd? Explaining the Discontinuity Between Human and Nonhuman Minds DESCRIPTION:Derek Penn: UCLAHuman animals– and no other– build fires and wheels\, diagnose each other’s illnesses\, communicate using symbols\, risk their lives for ideals\, collaborate with others\, explain the world in terms of unobservable causes\, punish strangers for breaking the rules\, worship ghosts and teach each other how to do all of the above.\nWhy are we so odd?\nIn this talk\, I will explore what we now know (and don’t know) about the discontinuity between extant human and nonhuman minds. I will argue that this cognitive discontinuity runs much deeper than language\, culture\, a prosocial disposition or a “Theory of Mind” alone can explain. And I will sketch out a functional specification of where the root of the discontinuity might lie.\nhttp://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/penn-2011.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/derek-penn-why-are-we-so-odd-explaining-the-discontinuity-between-human-and-nonhuman-minds/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111017T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111017T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T215032Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004818Z UID:4179-1318809600-1318809600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Andrew Shtulman - Cognitive constraints on the understanding and acceptance of evolution DESCRIPTION:Andrew Shtulman: OccidentalEvolution by natural selection is a theory that has unified the biological sciences but divided the general public. In this talk\, I shall discuss how early-emerging\, essentialist constraints on the conceptualization of biological kinds impedes learning about population-level phenomena like evolution and natural selection. Data from cognitive studies (Shtulman\, 2006)\, developmental studies (Shtulman & Schulz\, 2008) and teaching-intervention studies (Shtulman & Calabi\, 2011) all suggest that students initially construe evolution as the uniform transformation of all species members – a view consistent with early views of evolution in the history of science (Mayr\, 1982). Only through specialized instruction are students able to replace their “transformational” misconceptions with a correct\, “variational” view of evolution\, in which evolution is construed as the selective propagation of within-species variation. This transition is marked not only by an increased understanding of what evolution is but also by an increased willingness to accept evolution as true. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/andrew-shtulman-cognitive-constraints-on-the-understanding-and-acceptance-of-evolution/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111010T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111010T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214926Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004818Z UID:4178-1318204800-1318204800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Alyssa Crittenden - The ontogeny of prosocial behavior: foraging and food sharing among Hadza hunter-gatherer children DESCRIPTION:Alyssa Crittenden: UNLVHuman prosociality is one of the defining characteristics of our species\, yet the developmental origins of altruistic behavior remain little understood. The evolution of widespread food sharing in humans helped shape cooperation\, family formation\, life history\, language\, and the development of economies of scale. While the behavioral and ecological correlates of food sharing among adults are widely studied\, very little is known about what motivates children to share food. Here\, in the first study to analyze food collection and distribution of hunter-gatherer children\, a higher degree of genetic relatedness between sharing partners correlates with both a higher frequency of sharing and a greater amount of food shared. Among genetically unrelated sharing partners\, reciprocity appears to motivate food sharing. These results support recent suggestions that prosocial behaviors and egalitarianism develop strongly in middle childhood when children acquire the normative rules of their society. http://www.bec.ucla.edu/crittenden_ucla_oct_2011.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/alyssa-crittenden-the-ontogeny-of-prosocial-behavior-foraging-and-food-sharing-among-hadza-hunter-gatherer-children/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111003T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20111003T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214926Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004819Z UID:4177-1317600000-1317600000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Dora Costa\, Matthew Kahn - Heroes\, Cowards\, and Beyond DESCRIPTION:Dora Costa\, Matthew Kahn: UCLAIn Heroes and Cowards: The Social Face of War we used the life histories of more than forty thousand Civil War soldiers to discover when people are willing to sacrifice for the common good\, what are the benefits of friendship\, and what are the costs and benefits of being in a diverse community. We discuss these themes as well as the role of leadership in eliciting sacrifice\, the role of social networks in mediating wartime stress\, and the scarring effects of wartime experiences. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dora-costa-matthew-kahn-heroes-cowards-and-beyond/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110926T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110926T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214925Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004819Z UID:4176-1316995200-1316995200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Ralph Adolphs - When the stimulus is a real person: social neuroscience studies of face-to-face interactions. DESCRIPTION:Ralph Adolphs: Cal TechLike most other social neuroscience groups\, my lab has been using pictures of faces as stimuli for a long time– we investigate how people look at them\, what social judgments they make about them\, and how their brains respond to them. But how ecologically valid is this? Recently\, we have begun exploring how we respond to the presence of a real person. These studies reveal profound effects on judgment\, behavior and brain activation by a real person\, compared to a mere picture (or video) of them. They also point to specific brain structures that mediate these effects (notably the amygdala) and begin to shed further light on disorders of social behavior such as autism. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/ralph-adolphs-when-the-stimulus-is-a-real-person-social-neuroscience-studies-of-face-to-face-interactions/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110523T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110523T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214924Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004819Z UID:4174-1306108800-1306108800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Charles Perreault - The pace of cultural evolution DESCRIPTION:Charles Perreault: UCLA Department of AnthropologyHumans adaptive radiation has been explained by our capacity to socially learn information (culture). Culture is an inheritance system that parallels and interacts with the genetic one. Cultural variation and innovations accumulate in a population throughout time\, allowing for complex cultural adaptations to evolve. Since\, it is assumed\, cultural evolution occurs faster on average than biological evolution\, humans can adapt to new ecosystems more rapidly than other animals. The assumption that cultural evolution is faster than biological evolution\, however\, has never been empirically tested. In this talk I will suggest that human technologies typically change more rapidly than animal morphologies. Like biological evolution\, rates of cultural evolution are inversely correlated with the time interval over which they are measured. This correlation explains in part why the pace of change in technologies appears faster when measured over recent time intervals\, where taphonomic intervals are often shorter. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/charles-perreault-the-pace-of-cultural-evolution/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110518T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110518T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214925Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004819Z UID:4175-1305676800-1305676800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Federico Rossano - Structure and Development of Gestural Communication in Great Apes DESCRIPTION:Federico Rossano: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyIn this talk I address two crucial aspects of gestural communication in non-human primates: how gestures are acquired/developed and how similar is their use when compared to human behavior (in particular with respect to issues such as communicative intentions and recipient design).\nThere is general agreement among researchers that nonhuman primates gesture in sophisticated ways (Tomasello & Call\, 2007; Pollick & de Waal\, 2007). However\, the process by which apes acquire gestures is an issue of debate. One of the central questions in this debate is whether apes acquire species-typical gestural repertoires\, with little individual innovation (the “biological inheritance” hypothesis) (e.g.\, Genty et al.\, 2009)\, or whether they develop gestures individually through the ritualization of particular social acts (the “ontogenetic ritualization” hypothesis) (e.g.\, Tomasello\, 1996). In the first part of the talk\, I address this question by examining the relationship between the structure of a particular social interaction and the form of the gestures used to elicit that interaction. I present data on nine mother-infant Bonobo pairs as they engage in a particular social interaction: co-locomotion via a ventral or dorsal carry and I show how ontogenetic ritualization is the best account for the development of their gestural repertoire. \nIn the second part of the talk I present an ongoing study on food sharing in great apes\, with particular focus on how they perform offers and requests and how other group members recognize and respond to these intentional actions. The main focus will be on Orang-Utangs and Chimpanzees. \nIn this work I start from actions (functions) and their sequential unfolding\, rather than on specific gestural forms investigated out of context. \nGenty\, E.\, Breuer\, T.\, Hobaiter\, C. & Byrne\, R. W. (2009). Gestural communication of\nthe gorilla (Gorilla gorilla): repertoire\, intentionality and possible origins. Animal Cognition\, 12\, 527-546. \nPollick\, A. S. & de Waal\, F. B. M. (2007). Ape gestures and language evolution.\nProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences\, 104(19)\, 8184-8189. \nTomasello\, M. (1996). Do apes ape? In B. G. Galef & C. M. Heyes (Eds.)\, Social\nLearning in Animals: The Roots of Culture (pp. 319-346). San Diego: Academic\nPress. \nTomasello\, M. & Call. J. (2007). Comparing the gestures of apes and monkeys. In J. Call\n& M. Tomasello (Eds.)\, The gestural communication of apes and monkeys (pp. 197-220). London: Lawrence Erlbaum Publishers. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/federico-rossano-structure-and-development-of-gestural-communication-in-great-apes/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110516T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110516T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214903Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004819Z UID:4173-1305504000-1305504000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Mary K. Shenk - Why Does Fertility Decline? Comparing Evolutionary Models of the Demographic Transition DESCRIPTION:Mary K. Shenk: University of Missouri Department of AnthropologyEvolutionary anthropologists have given significant attention to the global phenomenon of the demographic transition\, especially the remarkable decreases in fertility that characterize it. The literature is crowded with competing theories and sub-theories\, and scholars often call for more comprehensive\, better-controlled studies that would allow us to distinguish between competing causal models—yet only limited comparative work has previously been done. This paper compares evolutionary models emphasizing decreasing risk\, changing motivations for parental investment\, and changing forms of cultural transmission as motivations for fertility decline. The goal is to determine which model\, or combination of models\, produces the most robust explanation of a rapid\, recent demographic transition in rural Bangladesh. \nModels are compared using an evidence-based statistical approach employing model selection techniques derived from likelihood theory. This approach allows quantification of the relative degree of support the data give to alternative models\, even when model predictions are not mutually exclusive. Data come from a new survey conducted in rural Bangladesh in 2010 designed specifically for comparative testing. Results suggest that models emphasizing changing motivations for parental investment\, including increasing payoffs to investment as well as increasing costs of and competition between children\, are the best predictors of fertility decline. Yet findings also indicate that a full explanation involves variables from multiple models\, and that important causal synergies underlie key predictors such as education\, suggesting that multiple causal pathways are likely to be implicated in the rapidity and degree of recent demographic transitions. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/mary-k-shenk-why-does-fertility-decline-comparing-evolutionary-models-of-the-demographic-transition/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110509T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110509T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214902Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004819Z UID:4172-1304899200-1304899200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Peter Nonacs - Is Kin Selection Dead and Is It Time to Move On in Understanding the Evolution of Cooperation? DESCRIPTION:Peter Nonacs: UCLA Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyHamilton’s theory of inclusive fitness broadly states that whether or not a trait increases in frequency is dependent on both the direct reproductive success of individuals having that trait and the help that such individuals can provide to other trait bearers for their reproduction. The latter portion of inclusive fitness is commonly known as kin selection and has become the dominant paradigm for the evolution of cooperation: I.e.\, helping genetic relatives reproduce can create a net increase in inclusive fitness even with a substantial loss in direct reproduction. Recently\, however\, Martin Nowak has argued that the mathematical foundations of inclusive fitness theory are inappropriate for predicting the evolution of cooperation (1). Edward O. Wilson has gone even further and claimed that\, “Kin selection is wrong” and a “gimmick” (2). Instead\, Wilson proposes cooperation evolves through group selection. Not surprisingly\, their claims have drawn considerable criticism (3)\, with Richard Dawkins going so far as to pronounce that he has “never met anybody apart from Wilson and Nowak who takes it seriously (2).” I will look at both sides of this issue and attempt to separate the scientific concerns from the heated clashes of personalities. At issue appears to be the question of the evolutionary advantages of genetic diversity versus kinship. Both can be advantageous\, but they are simultaneously incompatible. Their resolution requires a multi-level approach as nepotism favoring kin can be selected for within groups\, but genetic diversity is selected for only across groups. \n(1) Nowak et al. 2010. Nature 466: 1057-1062. \n(2) http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2011/04/17/where_does_good_come_from/?page=full \n(3) Abbot et al. 2011. Nature 471: E1-E4. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/peter-nonacs-is-kin-selection-dead-and-is-it-time-to-move-on-in-understanding-the-evolution-of-cooperation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110502T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110502T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214902Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4171-1304294400-1304294400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Siobhán M. Mattison - Kinship and market integration among the ethnic Mosuo of Southwest China DESCRIPTION:Siobhán M. Mattison: Stanford University Department of Anthropology and Morrison Institute for Population and Resource StudiesThe study of kinship is foundational to anthropology. Though interest in kinship waned briefly\, it has recently been rekindled\, particularly in the area of evolutionary ecology. In this talk\, I review briefly the major trends in anthropological thought on kinship and\, by way of example\, explore the contributions that evolutionary and quantitative studies have made to its study. In doing so\, I consider the ethnic Mosuo of Southwest China\, a population that traditionally was matrilineal and engaged in subsistence agro-pastoralism\, but that recently has become integrated into the wider market economy. I discuss evidence for associated change in kinship practices\, arguing that such change is at least partially consistent with hypotheses from evolutionary ecology. I consider several topics of traditional interest to kinship theorists\, including marriage\, residence and inheritance and conclude by emphasizing the need to synthesize often disparate findings and by suggesting several avenues of future research.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mattison.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mattison1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mattison2.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/siobhan-m-mattison-kinship-and-market-integration-among-the-ethnic-mosuo-of-southwest-china/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110425T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110425T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214902Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4170-1303689600-1303689600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Daniel M.T. Fessler - The Importance of Attending to Phylogenetic Derivation in the Study of the Mind Or Why Emotions are Kludgy Or Some Gross Conclusions from the Study of Grossness DESCRIPTION:Daniel M.T. Fessler: UCLA Department of AnthropologyThe evolutionary study of mind and behavior has benefited enormously from the functionality heuristic\, i.e.\, the assumption that mental mechanisms can usefully be understood as well-designed solutions to recurrent adaptive problems. While virtually every investigator in this area acknowledges the importance of Tinbergen’s (1963) Four Levels of Explanation\, in practice\, emphasis in evolutionary psychology is invariably placed primarily on ultimate explanations. Although this is a productive starting point\, because evolution involves the gradual modification of existing designs\, the functionality heuristic will frequently lead investigators to under-emphasize\, or even overlook entirely\, constraints on optimality entailed by phylogeny. Likewise\, even when high levels of functionality are\, in fact\, observed\, the functionality heuristic will often fail to explain many features of the adaptation at issue\, features that diminish efficiency even if they do not influence effectiveness. The study of emotions provides an opportunity to illustrate the utility of combining ultimate and phylogenetic perspectives in investigating the mind. A hybrid approach to emotions can illuminate otherwise puzzling combinations of qualia\, display\, cognition\, and behavior\, and suggests areas where we might expect constraints on optimality. Additionally\, such an approach can productively generate predictions concerning the nature of emotions across species and across taxa\, holding the promise of a broadly comparative evolutionary affective science that pinpoints both the commonalities and the divergences between our emotions and those of other organisms. These possibilities will be illustrated through a discussion of research on the evolutionary psychology of disgust. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/daniel-m-t-fessler-the-importance-of-attending-to-phylogenetic-derivation-in-the-study-of-the-mind-or-why-emotions-are-kludgy-or-some-gross-conclusions-from-the-study-of-grossness/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110418T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110418T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214901Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4169-1303084800-1303084800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Polly Wiessner - Cycles of War among the Enga of Papua New Guinea: Youths\, Elders and Indoctrinability. DESCRIPTION:Polly Wiessner: University of Utah Department of AnthropologyIndoctrinability\, the capacity to be inculcated with values or doctrines and to accept them uncritically\, poses an evolutionary puzzle because it can lead individuals to voluntarily sacrificing immediate individual interest for a belief\, cause\, or group. I will briefly explore the cognitive capacities underlying indoctrinability. Then I will propose that strong social selection for indoctrinability was an outcome of parent-offspring conflict in arranging marriage and in building cooperative cohorts. That is\, elders used their control over the marriage market\, as well as their network and information advantages\, to persuade youths to uncritically accept cultural beliefs that would to align the goals of youth with their own. I will illustrate these ideas in a case study among the Enga of PNG by: (1) outlining the different agendas of elders and youth in different periods over 250 years of Enga history and (2) showing how elders manipulated indoctrination through ritual and other means to instill norms\, values and beliefs that guided peace and war in pre-contact generations and even today when youths have the advantage of wielding high-powered weapons. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/polly-wiessner-cycles-of-war-among-the-enga-of-papua-new-guinea-youths-elders-and-indoctrinability/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110411T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110411T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214838Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4168-1302480000-1302480000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Andrew Delton - Welfare Tradeoffs: Computation\, Reciprocity\, and Social Emotions DESCRIPTION:Andrew Delton: UCSB Department of Psychology and Center for Evolutionary PsychologyMembers of social species routinely make decisions that involve welfare allocations—decisions that impact the welfare of two or more parties. These decisions often involve welfare tradeoffs such that increasing one organism’s welfare comes at the expense of another organism’s welfare. In this talk\, I present preliminary evidence that the mind computes a variable—a welfare tradeoff ratio—that is used to regulate this kind of social decision-making. By consulting this variable\, an organism can determine when it is and is not appropriate to cede personal welfare on behalf of another. I also summarize an initial empirical test of the role of welfare tradeoff ratios in reciprocity and how the emotions of anger and gratitude might function to recalibrate welfare tradeoff ratios within reciprocal relationships. The larger theme of this talk is that thinking in terms of neurocomputational variables such as welfare tradeoff ratios helps to explain how complex behaviors—such as cooperation\, generosity\, and aggression—can arise from a physical device such as the human brain. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/andrew-delton-welfare-tradeoffs-computation-reciprocity-and-social-emotions/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110404T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110404T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214837Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4167-1301875200-1301875200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Christopher von Rueden - Why do men seek positions of status or leadership? DESCRIPTION:Christopher von Rueden: UCSB Department of AnthropologyThe relationship between social status and reproductive success in small-scale societies can provide insight into how natural selection may have acted on status-seeking behavior in ancestral human environments. With data from the Tsimane horticulturalists of Bolivia and other small-scale societies\, I show that high male status increases lifetime fitness\, and I analyze the factors responsible for increases in surviving offspring among high status men. Interview data from the Tsimane suggest that mate acquisition and social support mediate the status-fitness relationship. Some of the fitness benefits of high status may accrue in the context of leadership within collective actions. However\, observation and experimental induction of collective action suggest that Tsimane leaders do not differentially benefit from the division of spoils (although leadership may improve team efficiency). Identifying the proximate pathways by which status and leadership generate current fitness sheds light on the kinds of social relationships evolution has motivated men to maintain.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/VonRueden1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/christopher-von-rueden-why-do-men-seek-positions-of-status-or-leadership/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110328T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110328T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214836Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4166-1301270400-1301270400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Edward H. Hagen - Drugs are bad...for pathogens. Testing an alternative to the DESCRIPTION:Edward H. Hagen: Washington State University Vancouver Department of AnthropologyCurrent neurobiological theory of recreational drug use is based on the observation that all addictive drugs induce changes in activity of dopaminergic circuitry\, interfering with reward processing\, thus enhancing drug seeking and consumption. On this view\, recreational drugs “hijack” evolved reward circuitry. \nCurrent theory of drug origins\, in contrast\, views almost all major drugs of abuse\, including nicotine\, cocaine and opiates\, as plant neurotoxins that evolved to punish and deter herbivores. According to this latter view\, plants should not have evolved compounds that reward or reinforce plant consumption. Mammals\, in turn\, should not have evolved reinforcement mechanisms easily triggered by toxic substances. Situated in an ecological context\, drug reward is a paradox. \nOne potential resolution of the paradox is that humans\, like other animals\, might have evolved to exploit plant neurotoxins to defend against pathogens. Psychoactive substances\, by definition\, interfere with neural function. Psychoactivity is thus a potential cue of efficacy against pathogens with nervous systems. Specifically\, recreational drug use could be a form of chemoprophylaxis (preventative medicine) or chemotherapy (palliative medicine) against pathogens such as fleas\, ticks\, and helminths. \nThe chemoprophylaxis and chemotherapy hypotheses were examined in a population of Aka foragers in the Central African Republic. The Aka have high levels of helminth infection yet little access to Western anti-worm medicines\, and so might be motivated (consciously or unconsciously) to consume readily available substances that are effective against worms. The plant defensive chemical nicotine\, in particular\, is an effective anthelmintic. Hence\, “recreational” tobacco use\, which is widespread at the study site\, might be a form of self-medication against helminths or other pathogens. \nThe chemoprophylaxis hypothesis predicts that smoking should protect against helminth infection\, an hypothesis tested in a cross sectional study of nicotine exposure vs. worm burden. The chemotherapy hypothesis predicts that smoking should increase upon helminth infection\, and decrease when the infection abates. The latter prediction was tested in a randomized\, double-blind\, placebo-controlled trial involving treatment with albendazole\, a commercial anthelmintic. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/edward-h-hagen-drugs-are-bad-for-pathogens-testing-an-alternative-to-the/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110309T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110309T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214836Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004820Z UID:4165-1299628800-1299628800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Michael McCullough - Cognitive Systems for Revenge and Reconciliation DESCRIPTION:Michael McCullough: University of Miami Department of PsychologyExploitation—the targeted infliction of fitness costs on another organism for the purpose of capturing benefits for the self—is a fact of life for social organisms. Because of its pervasiveness in social life\, natural selection gives rise to deterrence mechanisms (e.g.\, thorns\, toxins\, defensive weaponry) designed to alter potential exploiters’ estimates of the net benefits to come from exploitation. In this talk\, I situate humans’ (and other social animals’) propensities to seek revenge among other naturally selected deterrence mechanisms. Revenge-based deterrence\, however\, can create additional costs\, including those associated with lost access to valuable relationship partners. Consequently\, natural selection gives rise to subsidiary mechanisms designed to (under a fairly restricted set of circumstances) inhibit revenge-based deterrence and signal a willingness to re-establish positive relations. I conceptualize these subsidiary systems as reconciliation (or forgiveness) systems. In this talk\, I introduce several lines of research in which we have: (a) searched for the social conditions that revenge and forgiveness/conciliatory behavior evolved to address\, (b) searched for the computations that underlie these systems\, and (c) sketched out their endocrinological substrates. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/michael-mccullough-cognitive-systems-for-revenge-and-reconciliation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110307T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110307T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214830Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4162-1299456000-1299456000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Ivy Pike - Embodying Violence and the Biocultural Approach: What can nomadic herders from Northern Kenya teach us about linking context to global health disparities? DESCRIPTION:Ivy Pike: University of Arizona Department of AnthropologyGrowing efforts to carefully link social environments to biological experiences have emerged in many disciplines; Anthropology is no exception. This integrative perspective aims to place bodies in context with a strong awareness of the role gradients of inequality play in shaping population variation in health. While much anthropological research contributes to our understanding of extreme inequality on health (e.g. Farmer 1999\, 2003) less attention has been paid to the precise mechanisms that allow context to be embodied. The most precise mechanisms derive from evolutionary biology with an emphasis on environment / biology interactions\, especially as they unfold across growth and development. In this paper\, I draw on a case study of nomadic herders from Northern Kenya to examine the benefits of an evolutionary informed approach to studying global health disparities. The herding communities experience geopolitical marginalization with endemic violence in the form of AK-47 raids. Such a backdrop comes with a suite of predictable health indicators but with some noteworthy differences. These differences are linked to the sociocultural environment and to the community responses to violence. As such\, they create an opportunity to link context to the biology of inequality in more nuanced ways as an integrative model for global health policy. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/ivy-pike-embodying-violence-and-the-biocultural-approach-what-can-nomadic-herders-from-northern-kenya-teach-us-about-linking-context-to-global-health-disparities/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110228T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110228T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214829Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4161-1298851200-1298851200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Sarah Mesnick - Sperm whale social structure: kith and kin. Implications for behavior\, culture and conservation DESCRIPTION:Sarah Mesnick: Southwest Fisheries Science Center\, NOAA Fisheries ServiceKnowledge of the genetic structure of social groupings provides the basis for understanding the relative influences of kin selection and reciprocity in the evolution of individual behavior and for understanding the basis of population structure\, which is important for conservation. Sperm whale\, Physeter macrocephalus\, groups comprised of females and dependent young were once thought to be strictly matrilineal\, with a social structure similar to that of African elephants. We investigated this hypothesis using samples from 3 completely sampled mass strandings in Tasmania (n = 11\, 37\, 64 individuals respectively) and 55 partially sampled groups from the eastern North Pacific. We used mitochondrial (400 bp of the hypervariable control region) and nuclear (six microsatellites and 36 single nucleotide polymorphisms) markers and the sex of individual sperm whales to estimate genetic relatedness within and among groups. The preliminary results indicate that sperm whale groups were not purely matrilineal in structure. Rather\, groups were comprised both of individuals that had no close relations and of individuals accompanied by potential first and second order relations\, some potentially related through their fathers and others through their mothers. Groups were composed of mixed matrilines\, as evidenced by the presence of 1 – 5 mtDNA haplotypes (maternally inherited) per group. The mean coefficient of relatedness for the completely sampled groups ranged from 0.15-0.27. The groups were comprised of small clusters of related individuals although in all groups there were several individuals with no relations closer than those expected by chance. Pairs of individuals with high coefficients of relatedness\, but different mtDNA haplotypes\, were consistent with patterns of paternal half sibs. Three subadult males with unique mtDNA haplotypes were found among a group of adult females indicating that their mothers were not present\, an unexpected finding. Some old (and very old) females\, some of whom were accompanied by close relatives and others not\, were lactating. These results cause us to rethink the relative influences of kin selection and reciprocity in the evolution of individual behavior (e.g.\, babysitting\, communal defense). We suggest that for the sperm whale\, and other cetacean species that live\, raise young and contend with predators in the open ocean\, the integrity of the bonds developed through association\, cooperation and lactation\, are as strong as blood relations. \nFor this presentation\, I will summarize what is known about sperm whale social and population structure from recent genetic work in our laboratory and observations of social interactions at sea. Additional insights from the acoustic research of colleagues provide the background for cross disciplinary\, cross- taxa discussion on three topics: (a) social structure within females groups and observations during an attack by killer whales; (b) social transmission of a novel foraging behavior (depredation on demersal long lines) among adult males in Alaska; and (c) population structure – geographically defined stocks and culturally defined clans – for conservation and management.\nhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MesnickPaper1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MesnickPaper2.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MesnickPaper3.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sarah-mesnick-sperm-whale-social-structure-kith-and-kin-implications-for-behavior-culture-and-conservation/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110225T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110225T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214835Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4164-1298592000-1298592000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Ádám Miklósi - Dog-human social interaction: Old wine in new bottles? DESCRIPTION:Ádám Miklósi: Eötvös University Department of EthologyFor longer than we can remember dogs and humans have been friends. While both humanity and dogs benefited from this relationship\, science has not shown any interest in the “Whys” and “How-s” until recently. However\, the last 15 years have pushed the dog into the middle ground\nof comparative investigations that aim to understand the evolution and mechanisms of social behavior. \nIn this presentation I will present a simple descriptive model for convergent\nbehavioral evolution of dog social behavior in the anthropogenic environment. The central\nexample will describe how in a very simple way dogs may have adapted to the pedagogical\nnature of humans. We have good experimental evidence that dogs can be attracted to human\ncommunicative intent\, to human referential signals\, and may learn about the referent. Parallel\nwork has shown that this ability shows strong parallels to early pedagogical interaction\nbetween human infants and caregivers but rests probably on different mechanisms. In any\ncase\, the dogs’ receptiveness to human social signals enhances their survival in our social\nniche. \nBased on these findings we can put forward a more general model of social behavior in the\ncase of inter-specific relationships\, introducing the concept of social competence. It turns out that\nthis may be particularly useful in recent research which is aimed to envisage a “new world” of\nhuman-artificial agent social interaction.\nhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/MiklosiPaper.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/adam-miklosi-dog-human-social-interaction-old-wine-in-new-bottles/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110214T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110214T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214829Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4160-1297641600-1297641600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Brian Wood - Household and Kin Provisioning by Hadza Males DESCRIPTION:Brian Wood: Stanford Department of AnthropologyIn this research\, we use newly collected data describing how Hadza men’s foods were produced\, shared\, and consumed in order to elucidate the general motivations underlying\, and consequences of\, Hadza male foraging strategies. We test predictions of the showoff\, costly signaling\, household provisioning\, and kin provisioning hypotheses\, finding strong support for the latter two. We find that Hadza men foraged for a range of food-types\, including fruit\, honey\, small game\, and large game. Our data indicate that men shared the foods they produced in ways that directly benefitted their own households as well as their consaguineal and affinal kin living in other households. Our work indicates that large game hunting was one important element of men’s foraging strategies but not an exclusive specialization. These results differ from prior investigations of the Hadza\, in which it was argued that men specialized in hunting large game for its status benefits\, rather than pursuing other types of foods and more effectively feeding their households. We discuss how and perhaps why our studies differ. We also explore how camp demographics\, seasonality\, and men’s marital status influenced their food production and sharing. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/brian-wood-household-and-kin-provisioning-by-hadza-males/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110207T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110207T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214828Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4159-1297036800-1297036800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Derek E. Lyons - The social roots of artifact culture: Overimitation and the development of children’s causal understanding DESCRIPTION:Derek E. Lyons: Post-Doctoral Scholar; UC Irvine Department of InformaticsChildren are generally masterful imitators\, both rational and flexible in their acquisition of knowledge from the observation of others. A phenomenon that we have termed overimitation (Lyons\, Young\, & Keil\, 2007)\, however\, initially seems a curious exception to this rule. After observing an adult intentionally operating an unfamiliar object with a sequence of relevant and irrelevant actions\, children will frequently imitate not only the actions that were causally necessary\, but also those that were clearly superfluous. Indeed\, children will overimitate irrelevant actions that even chimpanzees readily ignore (Horner & Whiten\, 2005). Prior explanations for overimitation tended to see it as a byproduct of social motivations (e.g. a desire to “be like” the adult or to accommodate inferred task demands)\, but we have argued that the phenomenon may have deeper significance. Our hypothesis is that when children observe an adult intentionally acting on a novel object\, they may automatically encode all of the adult’s actions as causally meaningful\, restructuring their causal beliefs about the object accordingly. This process of automatic causal encoding (ACE) would generally guide children to accurate beliefs about even highly opaque objects; however\, in the case where some of the adults’ intentional actions were unnecessary\, it would also lead to stubborn overimitation. In this talk I will undertake a thorough examination of the ACE hypothesis\, reviewing prior evidence as well as offering three new experiments to further test the theory. Our new data show that children will persist in overimitating even when doing so imposes a direct and motivationally salient cost\, thus underscoring the involuntary nature of the effect. At the same time\, however\, overimitation is not unbounded: the effect is strictly coupled to intentionality in a manner consistent with its posited learning function. Overimitation may offer an important window not only on the structure of children’s causal understanding\, but also on the social learning processes that help to support our species’ artifact-centric culture. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/derek-e-lyons-the-social-roots-of-artifact-culture-overimitation-and-the-development-of-childrens-causal-understanding/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110131T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110131T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214819Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004821Z UID:4158-1296432000-1296432000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Sarah Mathew - Warfare and the collective action problem in acephalous societies DESCRIPTION:Sarah Mathew: UCLA Department of AnthropologyKnowledge of the nature and scale of cooperation in acephalous societies is important for understanding the evolution of human sociality. I will present data showing that the Turkana\, an acephalous pastoral society in East Africa\, sustain costly large scale cooperation in warfare through informal sanctions against free riders\, and that Turkana norms regulating warfare benefit the ethno-linguistic group\, not smaller social units. The findings shed light on the equilibrium selection processes that have shaped human sociality and suggest that large scale cooperation may have been common for a long period of human evolutionary history. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/sarah-mathew-warfare-and-the-collective-action-problem-in-acephalous-societies/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110124T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110124T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4157-1295827200-1295827200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jason A. Clark - Serial homologies of psychological traits: the case of emotions DESCRIPTION:Jason A. Clark: University of Osnabrueck Institute for Cognitive ScienceWithin emotion theory\, it is common for theorists to order emotions along phylogenetic and developmental scales. ‘Basic emotions’ (such as fear and joy) are seen as having a longer evolutionary history that we share with other animals\, and as emerging earlier in development. Higher-cognitive emotions (such as shame and pride) are often seen as arising de novo in the human line\, and late in development\, and both their evolution and development are seen as arising from uniquely human higher-cognitive capacities.\nHowever\, an increasing number of emotion theorists are converging on the idea that higher-cognitive emotions in humans are homologous to simpler forms of these emotions in nonhuman animals\, and branch off from developmentally earlier and simpler precursors. One problem faced by such theories is the fact that the more basic forms of emotions appear to persist as such\, despite the emergence of higher-cognitive forms. This is inconsistent with the standard view of homology according to which ancestral traits are transformed into derived traits in a continuous series in which the original form of the trait is lost or modified.\nOne solution to this problem which reconciles evolutionary and developmental transformations with the persistence of the original forms is to construe these homologies as serial homologies. In serial homology a trait is duplicated\, and while the original trait usually remains in place and functions as before\, the duplicate trait is allowed to vary independently in response to potentially distinct evolutionary pressures. According to this model\, ancestral ‘basic’ forms of emotions (or some of their components) are duplicated. The basic forms of these emotions are retained\, while the duplicates are allowed to vary within uniquely human evolutionary\, cultural and cognitive contexts. This thesis is illustrated using a variety of emotions\, including shame\, pride\, disgust\, and laughter. Finally\, while serial homologies are often invoked to explain behaviors\, they are not typically applied directly to psychological capacities. I consider some of the general issues involved in such applications\, including some potential brain mechanisms that might underlie them. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jason-a-clark-serial-homologies-of-psychological-traits-the-case-of-emotions/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110110T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110110T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214818Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4156-1294617600-1294617600@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Bruce Winterhalder - Behavioral ecology models of habitat in-fill and the evolution of prehistoric despotism DESCRIPTION:Bruce Winterhalder: UC Davis Anthropology & Graduate Group in EcologyMy topic is the evolution of despotism and oligarchies in prehistoric societies. I begin by covering ground that is theoretically well understood\, the novelty rests in the empirical analysis and methods. Prehistoric settlement of the Northern Channel Islands (Santa Barbara) follows a pattern predicted by the Ideal Free Distribution (IFD). I establish this by comparing the resource suitability of 46 watersheds to a well-studied archaeological record using a Gibbs sampler to assess model fit. As population on the islands grew\, habitat quality in settled sites declined and sites of decreasing desirability were colonized. The second part of the talk is more theoretical and speculative. Reproductive skew models make the prediction that opportunities for socio-economic exploitation would expand concurrently with habitat in-fill. This hypothesis is consistent with the archaeological data\, in that Late Prehistoric Chumash residents of the region were characterized by hereditary chiefdoms\, wide-ranging economic exchange\, declines in stature and endemic conflict. But\, it is not yet well understood in model form. Acknowledging the influences of both Boserup and Carneiro\, I conclude by describing briefly our effort to develop population ecology models focused directly on the evolution of despotism.papers/WinterhalderPaper1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/bruce-winterhalder-behavioral-ecology-models-of-habitat-in-fill-and-the-evolution-of-prehistoric-despotism/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110103T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20110103T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214816Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4154-1294012800-1294012800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Moshe Hoffman - Biological Basis of Sex Differences in Risk Aversion and Competitiveness DESCRIPTION:Moshe Hoffman: UCSD Rady School of ManagementWe review the evidence regarding a biological basis for sex differences in risk aversion and competitiveness. We present the relevant literature in evolutionary theory\, and animal behavior\, endocrinology and neuroscience\, as well as the literature relating human risk aversion and competitiveness to handedness\, 2D:4D (a proxy of prenatal testosterone exposure)\, facial masculinity (a proxy of pubertal testosterone exposure)\, as well as circulating testosterone. While the results are thus far somewhat mixed\, the evidence suggests that biological factors explain part of the sex gap in these economic preferences.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/HoffmanPaper1.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/moshe-hoffman-biological-basis-of-sex-differences-in-risk-aversion-and-competitiveness/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101208T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101208T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214817Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4155-1291766400-1291766400@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Christophe Boesch - Ecology of Cooperation and Altruism in Humans and Chimpanzees DESCRIPTION:Christophe Boesch: Director of the Department of Primatology at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary AnthropologyFieldwork studies have revealed with much detail the sophisticated levels of cooperation and altruism in the social domain seen in many animal species. Now\, recently some psychologists and economists are loudly claiming that cooperation and altruism are uniquely human abilities. How can such divergences originate? In my eyes\, a very strong underestimation of ecology is at the origin of such a situation. I review in my talk some of the recent evidence showing the importance of ecology on the development of intelligence in humans and in chimpanzees and how that affects the performance of cooperation and altruism in these two species. The evolution of cooperation and altruism is decisively affected by the ecological conditions and this explains why under some contexts the level of cooperation and altruism might strongly differ within one species. In conclusion\, I ask for more sensitivity to ecological conditions when making cross- species comparisons and suggest that at present no data support a species difference in cooperation and altruism tendency\, but all point to a strong ecological component. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/christophe-boesch-ecology-of-cooperation-and-altruism-in-humans-and-chimpanzees/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101129T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101129T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214751Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4147-1290988800-1290988800@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Jennifer Smith - Kinship structures patterns of cooperation and social network dynamics in the spotted hyena DESCRIPTION:Jennifer Smith: UCLA Center for Society & Genetics and Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCooperation is pervasive in the societies of humans and other animals\, yet the current body of evolutionary theory often fails to fully explain its persistence. Because spotted hyenas (Crocuta crocuta) live in complex societies\, this species provides an interesting opportunity to elucidate the evolutionary forces favoring patterns of cooperation in a group-living carnivore. Unlike most social carnivores\, which live only with their kin\, hyenas reside in social groups\, called ‘clans’\, comprised of both kin and non-kin. In fact\, hyena clans are strikingly similar in their size and hierarchical structure to troops of Old World monkeys. Like groups of humans and other apes\, hyena societies are further structured by fission-fusion dynamics. That is\, individual hyenas regularly separate from and rejoin members of their permanent social group on an hour-to-hour basis. Here\, I apply social network theory to analyze the effects of kinship and resource distribution on the social relationships among these ‘primate-like’ carnivores. This work is part of a long-term study in the Masai Mara\, Kenya. The results indicate that hyenas associate most often with their kin\, and that although resource competition constrains the strength of social network ties among all hyenas\, kin always sustain the strongest relationships. Moreover\, when forming coalitions\, hyenas bias agonistic support towards kin and take the greatest risks when helping kin. Finally\, I show that hyenas regularly reinforce social ties with kin\, and closely associating non-kin\, through ritualized reunion displays\, called greetings. Overall\, this work reveals the central role of kinship and signaling in the maintenance and coordination of cooperation among social allies living in dispersed social groups.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper1.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper2.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/papers/JenSmithPaper3.pdfhttp://bec.ucla.edu/posters/JenSmithPaper4.pdf URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jennifer-smith-kinship-structures-patterns-of-cooperation-and-social-network-dynamics-in-the-spotted-hyena/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101122T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101122T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214750Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004822Z UID:4146-1290384000-1290384000@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Parry Clarke - Infanticide and Reproductive Restraint in the Archetypical Polygynous Primate DESCRIPTION:Parry Clarke: UC Davis Department of AnthropologyClassic sexual selection theory\, exemplified by the work of Bateman and Trivers\, has played and continues to play a central role in the study of primate mating systems. As a result\, most theorizing within the field is premised on the assumption that males have been selected to maximize competitive ability at the point of conception and are largely immune to variance in infant survivorship. This perspective runs contrary to more recent theoretical treatments of sexual selection\, however\, which point out that males will rarely\, if ever\, be able to compensate for infant mortality through re-mating and should therefore be sensitive to infant survivorship. Using data on male reproductive success in wild chacma baboons (Papio hamadryas ursinus) I will argue that males do act to augment their offspring’s survivorship and they do so at the expense of their maximum potential reproductive output. Specifically\, I will show data suggesting that dominant males willingly cede reproductive opportunities to subordinates in an effort to encourage them to remain in the group. I conclude that this is because by doing so they afford their infants a greater level of protection from infanticide\, a significant source of infant mortality in chacma. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/parry-clarke-infanticide-and-reproductive-restraint-in-the-archetypical-polygynous-primate/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101115T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20101115T000000 DTSTAMP:20260501T193708 CREATED:20200922T214750Z LAST-MODIFIED:20201013T004823Z UID:4145-1289779200-1289779200@bec.ucla.edu SUMMARY:Dominic Johnson - Adaptive Politics: The Strategic Advantages of Psychological Biases DESCRIPTION:Dominic Johnson: University of Edinburgh Reader in Politics & International RelationsA recent explosion of work suggests a key role for human physiology and evolutionary psychology in understanding political behaviour\, from genes to hormones to cognition. However\, the entire notion of an evolutionary basis for human behavior meets a traditional skepticism in the social sciences\, and political science in particular. One common conception is that psychological biases are “mistakes” or “errors” that cause policy failures\, disasters\, or wars. The book sets out the argument that psychological biases have their roots in the evolution and biology of the human brain. Consequently\, they are far from “mistakes”\, but rather they are adaptive heuristics that were favoured by natural selection because they brought important advantages in our evolutionary past. The question that remains is whether (and when) they continue to be triggered in appropriate contexts today. Given the social and political differences between the environment of our past and the environment of today (mismatch)\, an evolutionary approach offers fresh predictions for when\, why and how psychological biases will worsen\, or at other times improve\, contemporary political decision-making. The book examines five common psychological phenomena that have commonly been used to explain decision-making failures in political science: (1) overconfidence\, (2) cognitive dissonance\, (3) the fundamental attribution error\, (4) prospect theory\, and (5) in-group/out-group bias. It is argued that all of them can equally be adaptive rather than maladaptive in some contexts. The idea is that in doing so\, political scientists will be forced to rethink whether biases may have a functional rather than destructive role\, implying an evolutionary origin. The book is intended to be provocative\, showing that false beliefs can paradoxically lead to more effective decision-making–”just as they were “designed” to do by natural selection. But effectiveness depends on context\, because behavioral mechanisms are contingent\, not fixed. An evolutionary approach therefore offers us the tools to improve our understanding and predictions of political phenomena. URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dominic-johnson-adaptive-politics-the-strategic-advantages-of-psychological-biases/ CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR