Robert Frank: CornellNote: this talk will begin at 3:30pm. Economists since Adam Smith have insisted that competition produces the greatest good for the greatest number. But as Charles Darwin emphasized, individual and group interests do not always coincide. And when they clash, individual interests tend to trump, often resulting in wasteful arms races. The Darwinian […]
Sergey Gavrilets: University of TennesseeHumans exhibit strong egalitarian syndrome, i.e. the complex of cognitive perspectives, ethical principles, social norms, and individual and collective attitudes promoting equality. The universality of egalitarianism in hunter-gatherers suggests that it is an ancient, evolved human pattern. The evolutionary emergence of this syndrome is one of the most intriguing unsolved puzzles […]
Colin Holbrook: UCLAHumans are inclined to cherish their communities and derogate groups regarded as alien, particularly during times of threat. The capacity for threatening circumstances to exacerbate group prejudice holds both social relevance and theoretical interest, and has been widely discussed within psychology and evolutionary anthropology. Perhaps the most intensively studied experimental measure of group […]
