#351 H. Clark Barrett: Consciousness, Moral Judgment, and Cross-cultural Studies
RECORDED ON JUNE 16th, 2020.
Dr. H. Clark Barrett is Professor in the Department of Anthropology, and the Director of the Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture at UCLA. He is a biological anthropologist specializing in evolutionary psychology, the study of the mind’s evolved mechanisms and processes. In his work he uses methods from anthropology and psychology to examine universals and variation in how thinking develops across cultures. He conducts field research among the Shuar, an indigenous culture in southeast Ecuador, as well as in Los Angeles. His research has focused on learning and conceptual development in several domains, including “theory of mind,” or the ability to make inferences about others’ thoughts and intentions, and learning about danger. He has also collaborated with a variety of anthropologists, psychologists, and other social scientists on a variety of topics ranging from infant-directed speech to the evolution of morality, and supervise graduate projects on the evolution of cognition. He’s the author of the book The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve.
In this episode, we talk about consciousness, theory of mind, moral judgment, and cross-cultural studies of the human mind. We start with consciousness, and we discuss the role that it plays and what functions it might serve from an evolutionary perspective. Then, we talk about theory of mind, and we question if a mentalistic basis of morality, and more specifically moral judgment, is found across all societies, or is culturally variable. In the second part of the talk, we mention the WEIRD problem, and how to improve the science of the human mind, develop a true cognitive science of the human mind, and improve psychological studies.
Time Links:
Consciousness: its evolution and function
Theory of mind
Theory of mind, and cross-cultural moral judgment
Toward a cognitive science of the human mind, and the WEIRD problem
Follow Dr. Barrett’s work!
Follow Dr. Barrett’s work:
Our first talk (On Mental Adaptations And Modularity Of Mind): https://youtu.be/_jGJfPDQXlo
Website: http://bit.ly/3bS7tLT
Faculty page: http://bit.ly/2unzmdO
Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture: http://www.bec.ucla.edu/
Center for Behavior, Evolution and Culture (YT channel): https://bit.ly/37zq0uD
Scientific contributions on ResearchGate: http://bit.ly/38TpDuQ
The Shape of Thought: How Mental Adaptations Evolve: https://amzn.to/2VujGzT