psychology

#488 Erik Kimbrough: Norms, Institutions, Impersonal Exchange, Specialization, and Organ Donation

Jun 28, 2021

Dr. Erik Kimbrough is an associate professor of economics at the Smith Institute for Political Economy and Philosophy in the Argyros School of Business and Economics at Chapman University. His research uses experiments to explore the underpinnings of prosociality, cooperation and conflict resolution and to identify the origins of economic institutions such as property rights. He has also worked on finding ways to increase the supply of transplantable organs, measuring the spitefulness of individuals, understanding the sources of asset price bubbles, evaluating individual theory of mind, and capturing the discovery process underlying specialization and trade, among other topics. More»
#486 Kevin Mitchell: Psychological Epigenetics, and Other Fads in Neuroscience

Jun 24, 2021

Dr. Kevin Mitchell is Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He is interested in the development of connectivity in the brain, specifically in how this process is controlled by genes and how mutations in such genes affect the connectivity of neuronal circuits, influence behavior and perception and contribute to disease. His research group uses genetic approaches in the mouse to address these questions, and they are also involved in collaborative research looking at the genetics and phenotypic manifestations of synaesthesia and schizophrenia in humans. He’s the author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are. More»
#484 David Bjorklund - How Children Invented Humanity: The Role of Development in Human Evolution

Jun 18, 2021

Dr. David F. Bjorklund is a Professor of Psychology at Florida Atlantic University where he teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in developmental and evolutionary psychology. His books include The Origins of Human Nature: Evolutionary Developmental Psychology (with Anthony Pellegrini), Origins of the Social Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and Child Development (edited with Bruce Ellis), Why Youth is Not Wasted on the Young: Immaturity in Human Development, Child and Adolescent Development: An Integrative Approach (with Carlos Hernández Blasi), and Children's Thinking: Cognitive Development and Individual Differences, now in its fifth edition. His new book is How Children Invented Humanity: The Role of Development in Human Evolution. More»
#480 Vibeke Ottesen: The Evolution of Homicide, Filicide, and Neonaticide

Jun 10, 2021

Dr. Vibeke Ottesen is a Norwegian criminologist with an interest in how nature and nurture combined create human behavior. She has a popular science blog – Biosocial - where she comments on news, scientific findings and literature relevant to her subject – more often than not with an evolutionary informed approach to understanding the subject matter. She has held numerous lectures on the benefits of an evolutionary informed approach to understanding the cross-cultural sex and age differences in anti-social and criminal behavior. More»
#478 Cari Goetz: Mate Preferences, Mate Value, the EEA, and Evolutionary Mismatch

Jun 4, 2021

Dr. Cari D. Goetz is Associate Professor of Psychology at California State University, San Bernardino. She does research in Evolutionary Psychology, specifically human mating strategies and mating-related psychology. More»
#474 Andrew Norman - Mental Immunity; Reason, Critical Thinking, Beliefs, and Morality

May 27, 2021

Dr. Andrew Norman teaches philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University. He works on the conceptual and historical foundations of humanism. He has published widely on the nature of reason and the teaching of wisdom, and written books on critical thinking and the structure of dialogue. Dr. Andrew Norman is the former Director of CMU’s Ethics, History and Public Policy program, and is interested in constructive engagement with the religious and in developing naturalistic alternatives to destructive religious mythologies. He speaks regularly on such topics as reason and faith, science and religion, the foundations of ethics, and the evolutionary, cultural, and attitudinal roots of prosocial behavior. He is the author of Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think. More»
#472 Aiyana Koka Willard: Religion, Cognition, Culture, and Human Universals

May 21, 2021

Dr. Aiyana Koka Willard is a Lecturer in the Centre for Culture and Evolution at Brunel University London. Her research focuses around the culture and cognitive origins of supernatural and religious beliefs. She is particularly interested in how thinking about minds and causal reasoning is related to supernatural beliefs. Her current research focuses on witchcraft, karma, and evil eye beliefs. More»
#471 Darcia Narvaez: Moral Development, and Flourishing

May 20, 2021

Dr. Darcia Narvaez is a Professor of Psychology Emerita at the University of Notre Dame. She has written extensively on issues of character and moral development. Dr. Narvaez’ research explores questions of species-typical and species-atypical development in terms of wellbeing, morality, and sustainable wisdom. She examines how early life experience (the evolved nest) influences moral functioning and wellbeing in children and adults. She integrates evolutionary, anthropological, neurobiological, clinical, developmental and education sciences in her work. Her 2014 book - Neurobiology and the Development of Human Morality - won the 2015 William James Book Award from the APA and the 2017 Expanded Reason Award for research. She also writes a popular blog for Psychology Today called “Moral Landscapes.” More»
#470 Olivier Sibony - Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment

May 17, 2021

Dr. Olivier Sibony is Associate Professor at HEC Paris. He is a writer, educator and consultant specializing in strategy, strategic decision making and the organization of decision processes. His research interests center on the effect of heuristics and biases in strategic decision making and procedures to improve the quality of decisions. He is the author of Cracked It!, You're About to Make a Terrible Mistake, and, more recently, Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. More»
#467 David Barash - Threats: Intimidation and Its Discontents; Nuclear Deterrence

May 10, 2021

Dr. David P. Barash is Professor of Psychology Emeritus at the University of Washington. He has written, edited or co-authored 40 books, including ones on human aggression, peace studies, and the sexual behavior of animals and people. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and has been the recipient of several honors. His books include “Homo Mysterious – Evolutionary Puzzles of Human Nature”, “Buddhist Biology: Ancient Eastern Wisdom Meets Modern Western Science”, “Approaches to Peace: A Reader in Peace Studies”, and “Through a Glass Brightly: using science to see our species as we really are”. His most recent book is “Threats: Intimidation and Its Discontents”. More»