Terrence Deacon: UC Berkeley Department of AnthropologyAlthough biologists have long recognized examples of regressive processes in evolution as well as a role for regressive processes in the development of brains, research interest tends to focus on presumably constructive and progressive processes under the influence of natural selection. Particularly in the case of human brains and […]

Peter Whybrow: UCLA David Geffen School of MedicineDr. Whybrow poses the question, “Are we Americans becoming the first addicts of the technological age?” Despite an astonishing appetite for life, more and more Americans are feeling overworked and dissatisfied in the world’s most affluent nation, epidemic rates of stress, anxiety, depression, obesity, and time urgency are […]

Jeffrey Davis: California State University Long Beach Department of SociologyFisher is widely known for his extraordinary contributions to population genetics and evolutionary biology. His sociological insights have received far less attention, even though five of the twelve chapters of The Genetical Theory of Natural Selection are devoted to developing a theory of the evolutionary consequences […]

Chris Guzelian: Searle Scholar, Northwestern University School of LawEvidence increasingly suggests that selection between competing ideas to become a prevailing social belief may be strongly influenced by evolutionarily descended limitations on human sensory and mental capabilities. Scholars posit that these limitations permit many "selfish" ideas to gain social traction and spread epidemically, driving out and […]

Joseph Campos: UC Berkeley Department of PsychologyThere is a fascinating paradox about fear of heights in humans and some animal species. Such fear has enormous biological adaptive value, represents a true life-span emotional reaction, and constitutes one of the strongest and most reliably-elicited fears in the human. As such, one would expect fear of heights […]

Nancy Burley: UC Irvine Department of Ecology & Evolutionary BiologySexual imprinting, a process by which early contact with parents shapes the mate preferences of developing young, has been widely documented among birds and has been reported for other vertebrates, especially mammals (including humans). Historically, studies of imprinting have emphasized causal and ontogenetic perspectives, with function […]

Michael Shermer: Skeptic MagazineThere are a number of parallels between evolution and economics that we shall explore on two tiers—historical and theoretical: the parallels between natural selection and the invisible hand; the nature of evolution and the characteristics of a free market economy; the reluctance to accept the theory of evolution and free market economics; […]

Bruce Winterhalder: UC Davis Department of AnthropologyArchaeological research shows that many human populations continued to hunt-and-gather for thousands of years after beginning the use of plant domesticates. This kind of mixed economy is rare in the ethnographic literature on foragers and horticulturalists; its persistence for millennia in the early stages of agricultural origins is inexplicable […]

Robert Hoffmann: Department of Economics, Nottingham University Business School, The University of NottinghamHuntington's notion of a clash of cultures has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years. In particular, religious differences as well as religious fundamentalism have been identified as crucial dimension of present culture clashes. We conducted a study to explore to […]

Dacher Keltner: UC Berkeley Department of PsychologyIn this talk I will present recent work on the pro-social emotions. I will present studies of smiling, the relations between oxytocin and the nonverbal displays of love and desire, and recent evidence exploring the role of vagus nerve activity in compassion and pro-social dispositions. I will use these […]