Latest Past Events

Paul Zak – Oxytocin Increases Trust in Humans

Paul Zak: Claremont Graduate University Neuroendocrine Foundations of Trust Department of EconomicsThe traditional view in economics is that individuals respond to incentives, but absent strong incentives to the contrary selfishness prevails. Moreover, this “greed is good” approach is deemed “rational” behavior. Nevertheless, in daily interactions and in numerous laboratory studies, a high degree of cooperative […]

Francisco J. Ayala – Darwin’s Greatest Discovery: Natural Selection versus Intelligent Design

Francisco J. Ayala: UCI Departments of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology and PhilosophyDarwin is deservedly given credit for the theory of biological evolution. He accumulated evidence demonstrating that organisms evolve and diversify through time. Most important, however, is that he discovered natural selection, the process that accounts for the adaptive organization of organisms and their features; […]

Susan Perry – Social learning in wild capuchin monkeys

Susan Perry: UCLA Department of AnthropologyRecently, discoveries of site-specific behavioral patterns such as the use of hammers and anvils or stick tools in extractive foraging have been documented in wild ape populations. Such discoveries have given rise to much speculation regarding the evolution of cultural capacities in humans, and claims have been made that chimpanzees […]