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DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050411T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213703Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231352Z
UID:3986-1113177600-1113177600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Daniel M.T. Fessler - Cringing before others' eyes: A cross-cultural investigation of the evolution of shame
DESCRIPTION:Daniel M.T. Fessler: UCLA Department of AnthropologyCross-cultural comparisons can a) illuminate the manner in which cultures differentially highlight\, ignore\, and group various facets of emotional experience\, and b) shed light on our evolved species-typical emotional architecture. In many societies\, concern with shame is one of the principal factors regulating social behavior. Three studies conducted in Bengkulu (Indonesia) and California explored the nature and experience of shame in two disparate cultures. Study 1\, perceived term use frequency\, indicated that shame is more prominent in Bengkulu\, a collectivistic culture\, than in California\, an individualistic culture. Study 2\, comparing naturally occurring shame events (Bengkulu) with reports thereof (California)\, revealed that shame is associated with guilt-like accounts in California but not in Bengkulu\, and subordinance events in Bengkulu but not in California; published reports suggest that the latter pattern is prominent worldwide. Study 3 mapped the semantic domain of shame using a synonym task; again\, guilt was prominent in California\, subordinance in Bengkulu. Because shame is overshadowed by guilt in individualistic cultures\, and because these cultures downplay aversive emotions associated with subordinance\, a fuller understanding of shame is best arrived at through the study of collectivistic cultures such as Bengkulu. After reviewing evolutionary theories on the origins and functions of shame\, I evaluate these perspectives in light of facets of this emotion evident in Bengkulu and elsewhere. The available data are consistent with the proposition that shame evolved from a rank-related emotion and\, while motivating prestige competition\, cooperation\, and conformity\, nevertheless continues to play this role in contemporary humans.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Fessler_4-11-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/daniel-m-t-fessler-cringing-before-others-eyes-a-cross-cultural-investigation-of-the-evolution-of-shame/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050404T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050404T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213658Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231353Z
UID:3985-1112572800-1112572800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Mark Kleiman - Dominance hierarchies and public policies
DESCRIPTION:Mark Kleiman: UCLA Department of Public Policy1. Dominance hierarchies help resolve conflicts over resources with a minimum of actual combat by giving the higher-ranking individual priority. To some extent\, then\, the hierarchy ranking is going to reflect who would come out on top if there were actual combat. \n2. In complicated human societies\, the structure of the dominance hierarchy(ies) is partly a matter of deliberate choice\, including deliberate choice through public policy. As Aristotle pointed out\, a democratic regime doesn’t just mean that public decisions get made by the many rather than by a few or by one; it means greater social equality as well. \n3. In designing social institutions relating to dominance\, there are two big questions: \na. How steep the gradient should be.\nb. What behaviors should lead to dominant status. \n4. Being on top of the dominance hierarchy means more access to resources. That makes it desirable\, and worth fighting for. And in fact individuals in all dominance-hierarchy-forming species do fight for dominance. \n5. But if access to resources were all that counted\, then resource-rich environments would reduce the intensity of dominance conflict. Is that true? \n6. Being lower on the hierarchy in a resource-rich environment can mean more access to resources than being higher up in a resource-poor environment. (We all eat better\, sleep more comfortably\, and have better medical care than Louis XIV did.) \n7. Economists normally assume that people care about the resources available to themselves and not where they stand in dominance hierarchies. That’s what makes the Pareto Principle seem plausible. \n8. But some resources are naturally scarce; not everyone can have preferential access to mating opportunities\, for example. \n9. It turns out empirically that\, holding resource access constant\, position in hierarchy is an important contributor to health and other measures of well-being. (Whitehall studies.) \n10. That makes evolutionary sense. \n11. It also turns out empirically that\, while cross-sectionally within a society wealth correlates with happiness\, that doesn’t hold longitudinally as a society gets richer or cross-sectionally among societies\, above a national income of something like 1/3 of that currently enjoyed in the U.S. (Hedonics literature\, e.g.\, Easterlin\, Kahnemann) \n12. Ideally\, dominant status should accompany pro-social behaviors. One advantage of market-driven societies is that people gain status by accumulating wealth rather than by accumulating the means of violence. \n13. On the other hand\, awarding dominance to money can lead to an unhealthy concentration on money-making. As Keynes said\, in a poor society getting the smartest people to concentrate on making money is a good way to expand total resources available. But now that we’re rich enough so that the benefits of getting richer are limited\, maybe we ought to start rewarding more attractive human traits than diligent and well-directed greed. If you value art and science\, you ought to be thinking about how to arrange things so that producing art and science is a good way to acquire dominant status. \n14. Awarding dominance to money also promotes Veblenesque conspicuous-consumption behavior\, and commodity fetishism. Conspicuous consumption is largely signaling behavior: spending is a market signal for wealth\, so the more closely dominance runs with wealth\, the greater the incentive for conspicuous waste. Marketing means convincing people that it’s important to have whatever it is you’re trying to sell. Being inundated with marketing (other than Citigroup ads) should make people value “stuff” more relative to\, e.g.\, leisure or culture or virtue or happiness. \n15. Increasing scale through rising population\, cheap communication\, e-commerce\, and globalization tends to increase income inequality\, at least at the top of the scale\, because the greater the size of the potential market the greater the rewards for outstanding performance. (Cook and Frank’s “winner-takes-all” effect. \n16. Given how unhealthy\, and how bad for your children\, it is to be at the bottom of the pecking order\, we need to ask whether\, and how\, that problem can be allieviated. \n— Gentler status gradients\n— Multiple hierarchies \n17. That would be worth doing even at some cost in economic efficiency\, narrowly considered. But social exclusion has big external costs\, so relieving the problems at the bottom of the pecking order might turn out to have big benefits\, even in strictly economic terms. \n18. It would seem logical that a more equal income distribution would make money less important in awarding status. But is that true? \n19. If money gets less important in awarding status\, does the total steepness of the hierarchy gradient decrease\, or is money just replaced by something else with the gradient held constant or even increased? \n20. Norms of informality\, whether Quaker or hippie\, seem designed to reduce status gradients. Do they work?http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/B6V8F-3YGTSKK-T/2/964f8cb37c7ea0eb05ed82b7b18ae978
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/mark-kleiman-dominance-hierarchies-and-public-policies/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050314T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050314T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213657Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231353Z
UID:3984-1110758400-1110758400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Kang Lee - Little Liars: Development of Verbal Deception in Different Social Contexts
DESCRIPTION:Kang Lee: UC San Diego Department of PsychologyIn this talk\, I will present three sets of studies that examined children’s lying: (a) to conceal their own transgression\, (b) to be polite\, and (c) to be modest. I will use the results of these studies to illustrate that (a) lying is a behavior that develops early and rapidly\, (b) preschoolers are already capable of managing their nonverbal behaviors when lying\, which makes their lies difficult to detect\, and (3) cultural factors influence both children’s moral understanding of lying and their actual behavior. However\, there exists a complex relationship between children’s moral understanding: One factor is whether both are consistently promoted and sanctioned in a culture. When they are not\, there is no relationship between the two. When they are\, there is a small to moderate correlation between the two.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Lee_3-14-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/kang-lee-little-liars-development-of-verbal-deception-in-different-social-contexts/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050307T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050307T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231353Z
UID:3983-1110153600-1110153600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Joanna Mountain - Deep common ancestry of African click-speaking populations
DESCRIPTION:Joanna Mountain: Stanford University Department of Anthropological SciencesIn the 1960’s linguist Joseph Greenberg classified all languages spoken primarily in Africa into four families. One of those families\, Khoisan\, includes not only the languages of the Khoe and San peoples of southern Africa\, but also the languages of the Hadzabe and Sandawe peoples of Tanzania. Primary criteria for including languages in the Khoisan family were the presence of click-consonants and the absence of evidence of recent borrowing of such clicks. In 1998 we set out to compare the genetic variation of the Hadzabe with that of a San population of Namibia in order to better understand both the linguistic and population history of this broad region of Africa. Our analyses of mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosomal variation indicated deep genetic divergence between these click-speaking populations\, with implications for the evolution of the click languages. More recently Sarah Tishkoff of the University of Maryland and I have teamed up to investigate how the Sandawe fit into the picture. Intriguingly\, even the geographically proximate click-speaking populations\, the Hadzabe and Sandawe\, are relatively divergent in terms of genetic variation. Furthermore\, the haplotypes of some Sandawe individuals indicate a deep but unique link with the San. The correspondence with the conclusions of linguist Bonny Sands is striking.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Mountain_3-7-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/joanna-mountain-deep-common-ancestry-of-african-click-speaking-populations/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050228T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050228T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213656Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231353Z
UID:3982-1109548800-1109548800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Neil Tsutsui - Genetics and social organization of an invasive ant in its native and introduced ranges
DESCRIPTION:Neil Tsutsui: UC Irvine Department of Ecology and Evolutionary BiologyCultural evolution is driven in part by the strategies individuals employ to acquire behavior from others. These strategies themselves are partly products of natural selection\, making the study of social learning an inherently Darwinian project. Formal models of the evolution of social learning suggest that reliance on social learning should increase with task difficulty and decrease with the probability of environmental change. These models also make predictions about how individuals integrate information from multiple peers. We present the results of micro-society experiments designed to evaluate these predictions. The first experiment measures baseline individual learning strategy in a two-armed bandit environment with variation in task difficulty and temporal fluctuation in the payoffs of the options. Our second experiment addresses how people in the same environment use minimal social information from a single peer. Our third experiment expands on the second by allowing access to the behavior of several other individuals\, permitting frequency-dependent strategies like conformity. In each of these experiments\, we vary task difficulty and environmental fluctuation. We present several candidate strategies and compute the expected payoffs to each in our experimental environment. We then fit to the data the different models of the use of social information\, and identify the best-fitting model via model comparison techniques. We find substantial evidence of both conformist and non-conformist social learning and compare our results to theoretical expectations.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Tsutsui_2-28-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/neil-tsutsui-genetics-and-social-organization-of-an-invasive-ant-in-its-native-and-introduced-ranges/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050214T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050214T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213655Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231353Z
UID:3981-1108339200-1108339200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Dwight Read - Where Does Culture Fit In?
DESCRIPTION:Dwight Read: UCLA Department of AnthropologyA long standing issue in human societies has been the relationship between culture and behavior. One extreme position views culture as arising primarily out of behavior structured by a variety of processes\, ranging from external factors such as environmental conditions to internal factors such as behavioral consequences arising directly from interactions of individuals within groups. The other extreme sees behavior as a consequence of the roles and identities that individuals take on. Change in those roles and identities are seen as occurring over relatively long time scales\, thereby giving primacy to viewing behavior as arising from the cultural context in which individuals are embedded. The sociologist James March has recently argued that neither position has successfully demonstrated the irrelevancy of the other position\, but his argument leaves unanswered how these two positions might be integrated into a more encompassing view of the processes affecting and structuring human behavior\, including the capacity of human systems for self-restructuring. I will address these two positions by considering two sharply contrasting hunting and gathering groups\, the Netsilik Inuit of Hudson Bay in Canada the Tiwi on Melville and Bathurst Islands off of the NW coast of Australia.\nI will use the Netsilik as an example amenable to the first position and argue that the Netsilik cultural framework of infant naming and sealing partners provided a cultural basis for implementing methods of resource procurement that were necessary for survival in their extreme\, Arctic region. At the same time I will argue that the cultural framework is more complex than simply reflecting necessary patterns of behavior in that the cultural framework not only provides a cultural basis for implementing the required behaviors\, but the cultural framework has its own dynamics and thereby adds another dimension that structured their particular behavioral means for coping with the environmental constraints to which they had to adapt. \nThe Tiwi\, I argue\, provide a stark contrast to the Netsilik and exemplify the way in which the cultural framework can have far reaching consequences for social organization and behavior that only makes sense by reference to the cultural system(s) in which the behavior is grounded\, rather than by reference to behavior as the means to interact with their environment or as arising from the consequences of individual interaction\, per se. In brief\, the Tiwi had an extremely complex social system structured by a kinship framework that appears to bear little relevance to what was required to procure resources on Melville and Bathurst Islands.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Read_2-14-05_a.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dwight-read-where-does-culture-fit-in/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050207T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050207T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213653Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231353Z
UID:3979-1107734400-1107734400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Richard McElreath - Applying evolutionary models to the laboratory study of social learning
DESCRIPTION:Richard McElreath: UC Davis Department of AnthropologyCultural evolution is driven in part by the strategies individuals employ to acquire behavior from others. These strategies themselves are partly products of natural selection\, making the study of social learning an inherently Darwinian project. Formal models of the evolution of social learning suggest that reliance on social learning should increase with task difficulty and decrease with the probability of environmental change. These models also make predictions about how individuals integrate information from multiple peers. We present the results of micro-society experiments designed to evaluate these predictions. The first experiment measures baseline individual learning strategy in a two-armed bandit environment with variation in task difficulty and temporal fluctuation in the payoffs of the options. Our second experiment addresses how people in the same environment use minimal social information from a single peer. Our third experiment expands on the second by allowing access to the behavior of several other individuals\, permitting frequency-dependent strategies like conformity. In each of these experiments\, we vary task difficulty and environmental fluctuation. We present several candidate strategies and compute the expected payoffs to each in our experimental environment. We then fit to the data the different models of the use of social information\, and identify the best-fitting model via model comparison techniques. We find substantial evidence of both conformist and non-conformist social learning and compare our results to theoretical expectations.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/McElreath_2-7-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/richard-mcelreath-applying-evolutionary-models-to-the-laboratory-study-of-social-learning/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050131T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050131T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213653Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231354Z
UID:3978-1107129600-1107129600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Jon Haidt - Intuitive ethics: How a few evolved intuitions give rise to culturally variable virtues
DESCRIPTION:Jon Haidt: University of Virginia Department of PsychologyMorality has long been thought to come from outside – from God\, society\, or parents – into children\, who are empty vessels. In contrast\, an “externalization” model is presented in which four cognitive/affective modules generate intuitions about social events. The modules respond to issues of harm/suffering\, reciprocity/fairness\, hierarchy/duty\, and purity/piety. (This theory draws heavily on the works of A. Fiske and R. Shweder.) The modules were created by natural selection\, but they co-evolved with cultural learning. Cultures create variable sets of virtues that are grounded in and constrained by the four modules. The case of the purity module is worked out in detail\, including experimental demonstrations that flashes of irrelevant disgust (triggered by hypnosis\, or by working at a dirty desk) make moral judgments more severe.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Haidt_1-31-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/jon-haidt-intuitive-ethics-how-a-few-evolved-intuitions-give-rise-to-culturally-variable-virtues/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050124T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20050124T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213652Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231354Z
UID:3977-1106524800-1106524800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:David Reznick - The evolution of placentas in the Poeciliid fishes: An empirical study of macroevolution
DESCRIPTION:David Reznick: UC Riverside Department of BiologyAn unanswered question in biology is “how do complex traits evolve?”. This question endures as an area of controversy because of a paucity of empirical evidence and because the process unfolds on a time scale that is far longer than human experience. I am developing a model system for the evolution of complexity by studying the evolution of the placenta in the fish subfamily Poeciliinae. This group of fish offers a unique opportunity to study the evolution of complexity because placental adaptation exhibits: 1) dynamic variation: placentas appear to have evolved five or more times in the family\, 2) serial variation: in several cases\, closely related species exhibit either no placentas\, intermediate stages\, or highly developed placentas\, and 3) quantitative variation: an objective criterion for pre- versus post-fertilization maternal provisioning exists which provides an index of placental performance. Furthermore\, these fish are readily reared and bred in captivity\, are easily studied in nature\, and have an excellent prior history as subjects in laboratory and field studies. Evaluating the evolution of complexity demands integrated studies at different levels of biological organization. I envision the ongoing research as creating a template that will facilitate such work because it will define independent origins of placentas and groups of closely related species that either do not have a placenta or have a placenta in an intermediate stage of development. These sets of species represent the likely sequence of events associated with the evolution of the placenta and become the targets of further study.\nI am my collaborators are using a combination of molecular and morphological systematics to define relationships within the subfamily and the relation of the subfamily to the remainder of its order. We are quantifying the life histories of these fish so that we can combine life history and phylogeny data\, then apply statistical methods that will allow us to infer the patterns of evolution of life histories in the subfamily. We will also use these methods to develop hypotheses for how and why the placenta evolved. Finally\, we are executing a series of laboratory experiments that test predictions and assumptions derived from recently developed theory for the evolution of placentas.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Reznick_1-24-05.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/david-reznick-the-evolution-of-placentas-in-the-poeciliid-fishes-an-empirical-study-of-macroevolution/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041206T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041206T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213652Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231354Z
UID:3976-1102291200-1102291200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Dan Blumstein - The evolution\, function and meaning of alarm communication in marmots
DESCRIPTION:Dan Blumstein: UCLA Department of Organismic Biology\, Ecology and Evolution Many prey species signal when they encounter a predator. For over a decade I’ve used anti-predator communication as a model for understanding the evolution of complex communication in general. I will summarize results\, primarily focusing on my work with marmots–large\, alpine ground squirrels found throughout the Northern hemisphere. I will talk about recent work on the evolution of alarm communication in rodents as well as in marmots\, and the current adaptive utility of alarm communication. Surprisingly\, it seems that alarm calls first evolved as a form of detection signalling primarily directed to predators. Calling has subsequently been exapted to have a conspecific alarm function. Much of my work has focused on the meaning of alarm calls. While marmots don’t seem to have functionally referential communicative abilities\, they do encode risk in a variety of ways. Much recent work has focused on the somewhat paradoxical question of why calls might be individually specific. Evaluating caller reliability seems to be the key to selecting for the ability to distinguish among callers.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Blumstein_12-6-04.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/dan-blumstein-the-evolution-function-and-meaning-of-alarm-communication-in-marmots/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041129T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041129T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213651Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231354Z
UID:3975-1101686400-1101686400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Michael Sockol - Investigating the Origins of Hominid Bipedalism
DESCRIPTION:Michael Sockol: UC Davis Department of Anthropology The origin of the human family\, Hominidae\, has been a primary focus of paleoanthropologists for more than a century. Indeed\, the desire to understand our origins is ubiquitous in human society. Of continuing interest to anthropologists is the nature of the shift to bipedal locomotion in our earliest hominid ancestors. Though debate exists about whether bipedalism serves to define Hominidae\, it is clear that becoming bipedal was the critical first step in the emergence of the human form\, preceding all other major morphological adaptations. Yet\, while the end result is apparent in the fossil record\, the process by which bipedalism arose is unclear. Numerous hypotheses have been proposed for the shift to bipedal locomotion. Many have been discarded while others have withstood the test of time. One such hypothesis\, commonly referred to as the “energetics hypothesis”\, posits an energy savings associated with bipedalism in an ecological context. I review the current state of our knowledge of the shift to bipedal locomotion in early hominids and give reasons for considering the energetics hypothesis as crucial to understanding that shift.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/michael-sockol-investigating-the-origins-of-hominid-bipedalism/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041122T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041122T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213647Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231354Z
UID:3974-1101081600-1101081600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:William Rice - Reproductive interactions between the sexes: arms-race or mutualistic coevolution?
DESCRIPTION:William Rice: UCSB Department of Ecology\, Evolution & Marine BiologyThe empirical foundation for sexual conflict theory is the unequivocal data from many different taxa demonstrating that females are harmed while interacting with males. But the interpretation of this keystone evidence has been challenged because females may more than compensate the direct costs of interacting with males by the indirect benefits of obtaining higher quality genes for their offspring. A quantification of this trade-off is critical to resolve the controversy. Here I present results from 3 experiments that show that\, at least in the D. melanogaster model system\, indirect benefits do not off-set direct harm to females due to their interactions with males. I also present evidence\, using hemiclonal analysis\, that an ongoing arms race between the sexes can be directly measured in this model system.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/william-rice-reproductive-interactions-between-the-sexes-arms-race-or-mutualistic-coevolution/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041115T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041115T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213646Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231354Z
UID:3972-1100476800-1100476800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Francis Steen - The role of consciousness in learning from simulations
DESCRIPTION:Francis Steen: UCLA Department of Communication StudiesI argued in Steen & Owens (2001) that play is a behavioral and cognitive simulation whose biological function is learning. In this presentation\, I address the question of how such learning takes place\, focusing on the role of consciousness. I present some preliminary data from an experiment on strategy-learning in a solitaire game\, and a cognitive model of the large-scale architecture of the mind required to support learning from simulations.http://cogweb.ucla.edu/crp/Papers/Steen_Paradox.html
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/francis-steen-the-role-of-consciousness-in-learning-from-simulations/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041108T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041108T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213646Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231355Z
UID:3971-1099872000-1099872000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Fiona Cowie - Language Genes\, Language Organs and Language Evolution
DESCRIPTION:Fiona Cowie: California Institute of Technology Division of the Humanities and Social SciencesThe recent identification of the so-called ‘grammar gene\,’ FOXP2\, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the numerous psychological mechanisms involved in language acquisition\, raise a number of conceptual and empirical issues that are vital to our understanding of language evolution. In what sense\, if any\, can a gene like FOXP2 be called a ‘gene for language’? In what sense\, if any\, can a congeries of multi-functional psychological mechanisms be called a ‘language organ’? In light of our answers to these questions\, how are we to conceive the role of biological evolution in the evolution of language?
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/fiona-cowie-language-genes-language-organs-and-language-evolution/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041101T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041101T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213645Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231355Z
UID:3970-1099267200-1099267200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Alan Grafen - Do animals really maximise their inclusive fitness?
DESCRIPTION:Alan Grafen: University of Oxford Department of ZoologyMost fieldworkers and empirical biologists studying whole organisms use as a working hypothesis that organisms have been designed by natural selection to maximise their inclusive fitness. They have used this approach to great effect since the work of Hamilton (1964) became widely known in the 1970s. On the other hand\, population geneticists have mostly consistently denied that natural selection causes any quantity to be maximised\, and have in general been critical of Hamilton’s work. It is an established part of the Modern Synthesis that the basis for natural selection must be found in population genetics models\, which in mathematical terms are expressed in equations of motion. The modern way to represent design\, used in economics though little in biology\, is through optimisation programs. Recent unpublished work is outlined which\, by making formal links between the mathematics of motion and optimisation programs\, begins to provide a rigorous justification for the maximisation of inclusive fitness. Previous work relating to non-social behaviour can be found in the following references (available at http://users.ox.ac.uk/~grafen/):
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/alan-grafen-do-animals-really-maximise-their-inclusive-fitness/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041025T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041025T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213644Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231355Z
UID:3969-1098662400-1098662400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Yaniv Hanoch - Emotions\, boundedly rational agents and the fast and frugal perspective
DESCRIPTION:Yaniv Hanoch: UCLA School of Public Health\, Department of Health ServicesHerbert Simon has warned us that an explanatory account of human rationality must identify the significance of emotions for choice behavior. Customarily emphasizing the cognitive dimensions of decision making\, relatively few researchers have paid close attention to specifying the complex ways in which emotion may shape human thinking and decisions. Accordingly\, this paper is an attempt to follow Simon’s suggestion and specify how emotions can enter into the theory of bounded rationality. To accomplish our task\, we capitalize on Rom Harré’s work on causal powers\, from which we propose a strategy to study the significance of emotion in decision-making processes. In an attempt to elaborate on an explanation of behavior by mechanism\, we discuss a version of bounded rationality recently put forward by Gigerenzer\, Todd\, and the ABC Research Group (Gigerenzer et al. 1999; Gigerenzer & Selten 2001)\, the so-called adaptive toolbox of fast and frugal heuristics. Coupled with insights from evolutionary psychology and neuroscience\, this version of bounded rationality gives us a better grasp of the functional role of emotions within the human decision machinery.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/emotionalmechanismBEC.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/yaniv-hanoch-emotions-boundedly-rational-agents-and-the-fast-and-frugal-perspective/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041018T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041018T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231355Z
UID:3967-1098057600-1098057600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Andrew Shaner - Schizophrenia: What's Love Got To Do With It?
DESCRIPTION:Andrew Shaner: David Geffen UCLA School of MedicineSchizophrenia should not exist. It crushes sexual relationships and reproductive success and thus should have been eliminated long ago by selection. Yet it persists at a global prevalence far too high to be due to new mutations at a few loci. This has convinced scientists that many loci must be involved. But what evolutionary basis might there be for mutations at so many loci to produce the same disorder?\nIn a paper to be published in Schizophrenia Research\, my coauthors and I propose an answer using one of the most recent and provocative developments in evolutionary theory: costly signaling theory and its application to sexually selected traits such as bright feathers and mating calls. According to costly signaling theory\, only individuals with the best genes can grow the most attractive versions of sexually selected traits. Consequently\, these traits serve as fitness indicators. Individuals who prefer mates displaying the most fully developed forms of these traits increase the fitness of their offspring.\nBased on this theory\, we propose that schizophrenia persists because it is the unattractive extreme of sexually selected fitness indicator — that it is analogous to a small\, dull peacock’s tail. We suspect that the indicator trait itself-the human equivalent of a peacock’s tail — is the uniquely human capacity for verbal courtship (e.g.\, telling stories and jokes to potential mates) and the symptoms of schizophrenia are aberrant and unsuccessful versions of verbal courtship. This speculation helps illustrate our hypothesis\, yet is unnecessary for our explanations and predictions. These depend only on a few general properties of sexually selected traits. \nIn this talk\, I review sexual selection and fitness indicators\, introduce our new model of schizophrenia\, discuss its explanatory power\, explain how it resolves the evolutionary paradox\, discuss its implications for gene hunting\, and identify some empirically testable predictions as directions for further research.http://bec.ucla.edu/papers/Shaner2004.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/andrew-shaner-schizophrenia-whats-love-got-to-do-with-it/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041011T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041011T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213550Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231355Z
UID:3966-1097452800-1097452800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Ted Bergstrom - On the Economics of Polygyny
DESCRIPTION:Ted Bergstrom: UCSB Department of EconomicsAbout 80% of all societies recorded by anthropologists are polygynous (men have many wives).  Even our own society is less monogamous than claimed.  This paper attempts to explain  such mysteries as why  bride prices and dowries are not “opposites”\, why polygamous societies are usually characterized by positive bride prices and dowry is mainly confined to monogamous societies\,  why polyandry (women having multiple husbands) is rare\, but not extinct\, and why the more you have to pay for a wife the better you will treat her.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/polygyny3.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/ted-bergstrom-on-the-economics-of-polygyny/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041004T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20041004T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213549Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231356Z
UID:3965-1096848000-1096848000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Martie Haselton - Ovulatory Shifts in Women's Desires
DESCRIPTION:Martie Haselton: UCLA Department of Communication StudiesOvulatory cycle research reveals a hidden side of female desire. Near ovulation\, women feel increased attraction to extra-pair mates\, and they place a premium on “sexy” characteristics in men. Their primary mates respond with increased jealousy. Ovulatory shifts in women’s desires are expressed conditionally–for example\, they are stronger in women mated to high investing but low attractiveness men. These findings suggest antagonistically coevolved strategies in men and women\, and they provide support for the good genes hypothesis of multiple mating by women.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/martie-haselton-ovulatory-shifts-in-womens-desires/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040607T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040607T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213548Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231356Z
UID:3964-1086566400-1086566400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:David Funder - The Personality Judgment Instinct
DESCRIPTION:David Funder: UC Riverside Dept. of PsychologyThe Realistic Accuracy Model (RAM) describes the four stage\, social-behavioral process necessary for the achievement of accuracy in personality judgment. A judgmental target must emit (1) relevant information in a context where it is (2) available to the judge\, who must then (3) detect and correctly (4) utilize this information. This model implies that accuracy is a difficult attainment\, and yet useful levels of accuracy are routinely observed\, which suggests there may be a sort of instinct for personality judgment\, akin to the “language instinct\,” that allows the cognitive system to go beyond the information given.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Funder_6-7-04.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/david-funder-the-personality-judgment-instinct/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040524T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040524T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213548Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231356Z
UID:3963-1085356800-1085356800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Laura Baker - Risk Factors for Antisocial Behavior: Genes and Environment
DESCRIPTION:Laura Baker: USC Dept. of PsychologyHuman aggression and antisocial behavior are known to be the product of both social and biological risk factors. What is not yet understood is how environment and genetic factors may mediate the interrelationships among these risk factors and antisocial outcomes. A study of twins and their families provides the ideal opportunity to answer the critical question in this regard: Do measured social and biological variables relate to antisocial development for genetic or environmental reasons? Our ability to develop effective and efficient interventions for antisocial behavior rests critically upon the answer to this question. \nPreliminary results will be presented from the 1st wave of an ongoing longitudinal study of antisocial and aggressive behavior in 600 twin pairs (both male and female)\, aged 9-10 years old during an initial assessment. The study provides the first opportunity to investigate the environmental and genetic underpinnings of important social and biological risk factors for unlawful\, antisocial\, and aggressive behavior in boys and girls on the brink of adolescence. Social risk factors include aspects of the family environment\, such as socio-economic status\, emotional climate\, cohesion\, parental warmth and affection\, parental supervision\, discipline and control. Specific environmental factors for each twin are also studied\, including individual relationships with each family member\, as well as peer-group characteristics. Biological risk factors include psychophysiological indicators of arousal (both electrodermal and cardiovascular channels)\, electrocortical measures of brain activity (using both EEG and ERP measures) as well as neuropsychological and cognitive testing. Both the social and biological risk factors studied will be shown to distinguish between children exhibiting varying levels of aggressive and antisocial behavior. Biometrical analyses of twin similarity for ASB and a selected group of these risk factors will be presented.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/laura-baker-risk-factors-for-antisocial-behavior-genes-and-environment/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040517T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040517T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213545Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231356Z
UID:3957-1084752000-1084752000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Lynn Fairbanks - Adolescent Impulsivity and Adult Male Dominance in\nVervet Monkeys
DESCRIPTION:Lynn Fairbanks: UCLA Neuropsychiatric InstituteAdolescence is characterized by behavioral and physiological changes that prepare individuals for the transition to adulthood. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of behavioral\, morphological\, neurobiological and developmental characteristics of adolescent male vervets in predicting later dominance attainment. The results indicated that males that were high in impulsivity as adolescents and low in 5-HIAA prior to introduction were more likely to achieve stable alpha male status one year following introduction. These two factors\, combined with body weight prior\, resulted in correct prediction of rank attainment for 92% (33/36) of the males. Two other factors\, maternal dominance rank and a measure of social anxiety from the Intruder Challenge test\, were not related to adult dominance attainment in this sample. These results provide support for benefits of a high-risk\, high-gain strategy by adolescent and young adult male vervets. They also demonstrated that adolescent impulsivity is age-limited. Males that achieved high rank moderated their behavior as adults\, and no longer scored high in impulsivity relative to their age peers.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/lynn-fairbanks-adolescent-impulsivity-and-adult-male-dominance-invervet-monkeys/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040510T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040510T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213544Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231356Z
UID:3956-1084147200-1084147200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Shelly Gable - Approaching affiliation and avoiding rejection: A motivational perspective on the formation and maintenance of social bonds
DESCRIPTION:Shelly Gable: UCLA Dept. of PsychologySocial bonds are potent sources of both pleasure and pain; yet despite the precarious balance of interpersonal incentives and threats\, across the life span people are tenaciously motivated to form and maintain strong and stable social bonds. Although myriad evidence supports the existence of a need for relationships\, proportionately little work has investigated the regulatory processes involved in establishing\, maintaining\, and dissolving social bonds from a motivational or goal theory perspective. A critical dimension of motives and goals is their focus. Social motives and goals can be focused on the incentives and desired end-states of relational bonds—approach—or social motives and goals can be focused on the threats and undesired end-states of relational bonds—avoidance. And\, work on motives and goals has shown that the approach/avoidance distinction has important implications for behavior\, affect\, well-being\, and health\, but this research has not focused explicitly on social motives and goals. And\, close relationships research has often targeted either the incentives (e.g.\, intimacy) or the threats (e.g.\, insecurity) associated with social bonds\, but rarely has examined them in tandem. Given that interpersonal relationships present us with both threats and incentives\, research on motives\, goals\, and the regulation of social behavior needs to simultaneously address the approach dimension and the avoidance dimensions of social behavior. In this talk I will present data from several studies in which we test aspects of approach—avoidance model of social motivation in an effort to understand how humans weigh social incentives and threats and how approach and avoidance motivation influence attention\, cognition\, affect\, and behavior in the context of social bonds.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/shelly-gable-approaching-affiliation-and-avoiding-rejection-a-motivational-perspective-on-the-formation-and-maintenance-of-social-bonds/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040503T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040503T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213543Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231356Z
UID:3955-1083542400-1083542400@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Michael Gurven - Determinants of Time Allocation Across the Lifespan
DESCRIPTION:Michael Gurven: UCSB AnthropologyThis paper lays the groundwork for a theory of time allocation across the life course. It first develops a parametric model of rates of return on time allocated to productive activities as a function of age. The model is based on the idea that strength and skill vary as a function of age\, and that return rates for different activities vary as a function of the combination of strength and skills involved in performing those tasks. The model is then extended to explain time allocation to different activities through the life course from childhood to old age. In addition to age effects on efficiency or productivity\, the model includes danger and mortality risks\, future benefits of learning\, relative efficiencies of different family members and joint execution of tasks\, as inputs into time allocation decisions. We then apply the model to traditional human subsistence patterns. The model predicts that young children would engage most heavily in low strength/low skill activities\, middle-aged adults in high strength/high skill activities\, and older adults in low strength/high skill activities. Data on time allocation and productivity among Machiguenga and Piro forager-horticulturalists of southeastern Peru are used to evaluate the model.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/michael-gurven-determinants-of-time-allocation-across-the-lifespan/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040426T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040426T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213543Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231357Z
UID:3954-1082937600-1082937600@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Christine Harris - Did Men and Women Evolve Different Jealousy Mechanisms?
DESCRIPTION:Christine Harris: UC San Diego Dept. of PsychologyThe specific innate modular theory of jealousy (JSIM) hypothesizes that men are innately prone to upset over a mate’s sexual infidelity and women\, over a mate’s emotional infidelity. This view claims that natural selection has shaped sexual jealousy as a mechanism to prevent cuckoldry and emotional jealousy as a mechanism to prevent resource loss. Three lines of evidence have been offered as support: 1) psychophysiological reactions when imagining the two forms of infidelity\, 2) responses to hypothetical scenarios\, and 3) rates of domestic violence and morbid jealousy. This talk will re-examine each line of work and present evidence that questions the extent to which there are robust sex differences. An alternative theory of jealousy will be discussed which proposes a more domain general mechanism that may show little sexual dimorphism.http://www.bec.ucla.edu/papers/Harris_4-26-04.pdf
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/christine-harris-did-men-and-women-evolve-different-jealousy-mechanisms/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040419T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040419T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213542Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231357Z
UID:3953-1082332800-1082332800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Stephen Stich - Why Moral Philosophers Need LOTS of Help from Psychologists\, Anthropologists and Other Social Scientists
DESCRIPTION:Stephen Stich: Rutgers Dept. of PhilosophyThe talk has three parts: \nIn Part I\, I will sketch a hotly debated question in moral philosophy. Roughly stated\, the issue in dispute is whether moral disagreement is fundamental or superficial; disagreement is fundamental if it would persist even under “idealized” circumstances in which the parties to the dispute are fully rational\, impartial\, and agreed on all non-moral issues. I’ll then explain why moral many moral philosophers think the answer is of enormous importance. \nIn Part II\, I’ll review two empirical studies that suggest moral disagreement is indeed fundamental. One study\, rarely cited by social scientists\, is Richard Brandt’s philosophically motivated moral ethnography of the Hopi. The other is drawn from the work of Richard Nisbett and his colleagues on cultures of honor. These studies are hardly conclusive\, however\, and even if issues of interpretation are put to one side\, those who do not believe that moral disagreement is fundamental might argue that the examples of moral disagreement on which they focus are outliers\, and that in general moral views will converge under idealized circumstances. To address these concerns\, we need an empirically supported theory of the psychological mechanisms underlying the acquisition & utilization of moral norms and of how those mechanisms might have evolved. \nIn Part III\, I will provide an overview of a collaborative project aimed at developing an empirical theory of the psychology & evolution of moral norms. I will focus on two crucial issues that the theory must address:\n• What sort of psychological mechanisms subserve the acquisition and implementation of norms?\n• What constraints (if any) are there on the sorts of norms that can be acquired?\nThough the existing empirical literature provides some very important clues\, there are many crucial questions for which\, as far as we have been able to discover\, there is little or no relevant data available. My goal\, in this part of the talk\, is to provide a framework which makes clear what we need to know about the psychological mechanisms subserving moral norms. My hope is that some people in the audience will know of relevant findings that have escaped our notice\, or (better still) that they can be tempted to design new studies that will help answer or reconfigure some of the most important and most venerable questions in moral theory.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/stephen-stich-why-moral-philosophers-need-lots-of-help-from-psychologists-anthropologists-and-other-social-scientists/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040412T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040412T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213540Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231357Z
UID:3952-1081728000-1081728000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Nancy K. Dess - Violence and Its Antidotes: Promises and Pitfalls of Evolutionarily Aware Policy Development
DESCRIPTION:Nancy K. Dess: Occidental CollegeGlimpses at our primate relatives and diverse human cultures provide prima facie evidence that as a species\, we are capable of far more benevolent\, just\, and healthful living than exists in many places. Illuminating human nature through evolutionary reasoning has great potential to make public policy more effective and more humane. To fulfill this promise\, historical and political realities that constrain or are conducive to evolutionary reasoning must be appraised. In addition\, five unhelpful habits must be broken: analysis by false dichotomy; anthropodenial; perpetuation of aggression myths; oversimplification; and wishful thinking. Understanding the kind of animal we are may be as helpful to overcoming these obstacles as it will be to the formulation of good policy.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/nancy-k-dess-violence-and-its-antidotes-promises-and-pitfalls-of-evolutionarily-aware-policy-development/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040405T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040405T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231357Z
UID:3951-1081123200-1081123200@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Lynn Stout - Other-Regarding Behavior and the Law
DESCRIPTION:Lynn Stout: UCLA School of LawLegal scholars have become keenly interested in behavioral approaches to lawthat recognize that real people do not always behave in a selfishly rational fashion: numerous recent papers examine how human choice can be distorted by endowment effects\, anchoring effects\, availability biases\, and other cognitive deficiencies. There is a curious imbalance to this “behavioral law and economics” literature\, however. Contemporary critiques of the selfish rationality model of human behavior tend to focus far more on the\nsecond modifier – the assumption of rationality – than on first – the assumption of self interest. \nThis article reverses that emphasis. It argues that the human tendency to act in an other-regarding fashion (to sacrifice in order to help or harm others) is far more pervasive and important than generally recognized. In support of this claim\, it reviews the extensive empirical evidence that has been accumulated over the past five decades on human behavior in experiments known as social dilemma games\, ultimatum games\, and dictator games. These experiments have consistently found that under certain circumstances\, subjects routinely behave as if they care about costs and benefits to others. In the parlance of economics\, they predictably “reveal”\nother-regarding preferences. Moreover\, this other-regarding behavior seems driven primarily by social context – subjects’ perceptions of what others believe\, what others expect\, and how others are likely to behave. \nThese findings are of importance not only to our understanding of individual behavior\, but also to our understanding of a wide variety of social institutions\, including the social institution known as law. To illustrate\, this Article offers a simple model of other-regarding behavior derived from the experimental evidence. It then explores how the model sheds light on three basic areas of legal doctrine: tort\, contract\, and criminal law. As will be seen\, incorporating other-regarding behavior into the analysis offers to explain a number of puzzles in these three areas that cannot be resolved by using the homo economicus model of selfish rationality. It also promotes a better appreciation of the essential role “conscience” may play in ensuring a functioning legal system\, as well as the myriad\, subtle\, and sometimes counterintuitive ways in which state and private actors employ law to change behavior.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/lynn-stout-other-regarding-behavior-and-the-law/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040315T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040315T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213539Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231357Z
UID:3950-1079308800-1079308800@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Alan Dixson - Sperm competition\, mammalian reproduction\, and human evolution
DESCRIPTION:Alan Dixson: Center for Reproduction of Endangered Species\, Zoological Society of San DiegoThis talk focuses upon the structure and functions of the reproductive organs of mammals\, as viewed from the perspective of sexual selection and sperm competition. The living collections of the Zoological Society of San Diego contain many rare and unusual species; valuable anatomical material becomes available whenever necropsies are performed. Comparative studies have allowed us to demonstrate effects of sexual selection upon sperm morphology\, structure of the vas deferens\, accessory sexual glands\, and oviductal morphology in a variety of mammals. Inclusion of measurements of the human reproductive system in these studies has also provided some useful insights into the evolution of human sexuality.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/alan-dixson-sperm-competition-mammalian-reproduction-and-human-evolution/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040308T000000
DTEND;TZID=America/Los_Angeles:20040308T000000
DTSTAMP:20260504T213508
CREATED:20200922T213538Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20201006T231357Z
UID:3949-1078704000-1078704000@bec.ucla.edu
SUMMARY:Greg Bryant - Social and linguistic functions of prosodic cues in speech: an \nevolutionary approach
DESCRIPTION:Greg Bryant: UCSC Dept. of PsychologyDuring speech communication\, conversationalists produce and understand many simultaneous pieces of information through prosodic features of the voice (i.e.\, pitch\, loudness\, and duration properties). Prosodic variations provide cues to lexical and grammatical units (linguistic prosody)\, as well as emotional and intentional information (affective prosody). But prosody may also be used by conversationalists to signal social information not necessarily linked to the meaning of the words used. In this talk I will present various research examining prosody production and perception in both linguistic and social contexts. I will then discuss related ideas concerning linguistic and affective prosodic distinctions\, functional dissociations in pitch production including potential laryngeal specializations\, and evidence for pitch perception differences between tone and non-tone language speakers. I will argue that prosodic communication systems are functionally organized and future research should examine correspondences between production systems and perceptual response biases.
URL:https://bec.ucla.edu/event/greg-bryant-social-and-linguistic-functions-of-prosodic-cues-in-speech-an-evolutionary-approach/
CATEGORIES:Past Presentation,Presentation
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR