#378 Brian Hare: Survival of the Friendliest
RECORDED ON AUGUST 25th 2020.
Dr. Brian Hare is a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University. He researches the evolution of cognition by studying both humans, our close relatives the primates (especially bonobos and chimpanzees), and species whose cognition converged with our own (primarily domestic dogs). He founded and co-directs the Duke Canine Cognition Center. He’s the author of several books, including the most recent one, Survival of the Friendliest: Understanding Our Origins and Rediscovering Our Common Humanity.
In this episode, we talk about his book, Survival of the Friendliest. First, we go through some of the psychological mechanism that allow for our friendliness, and later we also refer to empathy, self-control, and theory of mind. We discuss the process of self-domestication. We also talk about simianization, Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA), and ways to increase our friendliness toward out-groups.
Time Links:
The psychological ingredients for friendliness
Dog cognition, and domestication
Empathy
Self-control, and the Marshmallow test
Oxytocin, and dehumanization
Theory of mind
Simianization
Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) and Right Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)
Eugenics, and possible ways to increase our friendliness
Follow Dr. Hare’s work!
Follow Dr. Hare’s work:
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/3aSGi3p
Website: https://bit.ly/2EhO1w9
ResearchGate profile: https://bit.ly/32s0BRp
Books on Amazon: https://amzn.to/3hwoY6S
Survival of the Friendliest: https://amzn.to/2EuJ8iS
Twitter handle: @bharedogguy