Show for Jan 29, 2012: Pulling the Wool Over Our Own Eyes—Robert Trivers on the Evolution of Self-Deception
Robert Trivers is a widely influential evolutionary thinker (as these tributes from Steven Pinker et. al. attest). His theoretical work on the genetic trade-offs underlying altruism, parent-child relationships and other social interactions are a cornerstone of behavioral ecology and evolutionary psychology. His new book, The Folly of Fools, applies an evolutionary framework to another set of behaviors: deception and especially self-deception. Subjects discussed in our interview include: self-deception in nature, our capacity to simultaneously know and blind ourselves to the truth, the field formerly known as sociobiology, and Robert’s own life and career, including his friendship with the late Black Panther leader Huey Newton.
Click the Play arrow above to listen to the show, or you can download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for Oct. 30, 2011. Cognitive Psychologist Steven Pinker on the Decline of Violence
Steven Pinker, celebrated for his books on language and the workings of the mind, ventures into big history with his latest volume, The Better Angels of Our Nature: Why Violence Has Declined. He presents a truckload of evidence to argue that humans have been getting more peaceful, more cooperative and less murderous, on scales large and small, for quite some time. Among the reasons: civilization really has made us more civil. That might seem a surprising conclusion for a card-carrying evolutionary psychologist, but Pinker hasn’t gone all liberal artsy on us. Historicity has a role to play, he says, but so do biology and game theory.
You can download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for October 2, 2011. The Life Unconscious: Psychologist Brian Nosek
Just how well do we know our own minds? For the last 15 years, Brian Nosek has been studying the hidden biases, preferences and thought patterns that lurk just below the threshold of self-awareness. Those unconscious attitudes are often at odds with our conscious account of ourselves, yet they may influence our outlook, our choices and even our actions. One of the tools Nosek and colleagues have used to expose latent racial preferences and other forms of bias is a simple online test, the Implicit Association Test, or IAT. In this edition of the show, I take the test myself and talk to Brian about implications of his research for our understanding of the mind, decisionmaking, politics and society.
Visit Project Implicit and take the IAT yourself.
This diagram is nonsense, but I needed something to put here.
Click the “play” arrow above to listen to the show, or download the MP3 here (if using a Mac, control-click the link and choose “Save Link As…” If using a PC, right-click and choose Save Target As…”)
Show for Aug 7, 2011. How Pleasure Works.
In this re-run from June 2010, psychologist Paul Bloom describes the meaning of pleasure and the pleasure of meaning. More here.
Show for May 1, 2011. Happy Trails: Filmmaker Roko Belic
Thirty years ago, human happiness seemed like a pretty unserious subject for scientific study. These days positive psychology, as happiness research is known, is de rigeur. Filmmaker Roko Belic (Genghis Blues) explores the science of contentment in his latest doc, Happy. Belic traveled to five continents, talking to researchers, comparing the state of satisfaction in various countries and finding some very jolly people. Does happiness depend on our material conditions? Just how much control do we have over our own sense of well-being? And whence the intellectual prejudice—which I confess I shared before this interview—that happiness as a topic lacks gravitas?
Catch a sneak preview of Happy at the Santa Cruz Film Festival on Friday, May 6 and Saturday, May 7. Showtimes and more info here.
Visit the Santa Cruz Film Festival website.
Roko Belic in southern Africa, one of many locations he visited for the new film Happy.
Click the “play” arrow above to listen to the interview, or download the MP3 here.
Show for Oct. 24, 2010: Neuroscientist Daniel Levitin on Musicality and Evolution
The best-selling author of This is Your Brain on Music returns to our show. Neuroscientist, musician and record producer Dan Levitin discusses his most recent book, The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. Levitin contends that music played a key role in human evolution. (Interview originally boradcast in 2008.)
Click the “play” arrow above to listen, or download the MP3 here.
Show for Oct. 10, 2010. Laura Kipnis: Scandals and Why We Love Them
What fuels society’s endless appetite for scandals? And what do public humiliations, meltdowns and flameouts reveal about their participants and the rest of us? The ever-trenchant social critic Laura Kipnis discusses her latest book, How to Become a Scandal: Adventures in Bad Behavior. Those adventures include a lovelorn astronaut, an unhinged judge, a conniving confidant and a confabulating memoirist. What’s not to love?
Click the “play” arrow above to listen, or download the MP3 here.
Show for Sept. 26, 2010. Felix Warneken and Robert Sapolsky on the Nicer Side of Primates
Science has done a lot to expose the darker side of human behavior, and that of our primate relatives, so we thought it was time to highlight some more encouraging studies. In part one of the show, developmental psychologist Felix Warneken looks for and finds evidence of instinctive altruism in young humans and chimps. In part two, neurobiologist Robert Sapolsky discovers that even baboons—long believed to be incorrigibly bellicose—can change their ways and make nice.
Felix Warneken Robert Sapolsky and colleague
To hear the whole show, click the play arrow above, or download the MP3 here.
Check out Robert Sapolsky’s wonderful book, A Primate’s Memoir, about his years studying baboons in Kenya. The book covers the period leading up to the discoveries Robert described on our show.
Children and Chimps: Good for Goodness Sake?
On our Sept 26, 2010 show, we talked to developmental psychologist Felix Warneken about his search for the roots of altruism in humans and apes. He’s conducted experiments showing naturally helpful behavior in both young children and chimpanzees. Time after time, toddlers and chimps go out of their way to help others with no apparent expectation of reward. Skeptical? Check out the videos.
Show for June 27, 2010. On Being Wrong: Kathryn Schulz on “Wrongology”
Writer Kathryn Schulz considers what it means to be wrong, how we feel about it and how we deal with it. In her new book “On Being Wrong,” Schulz examines the sources of human error, and says that rather than try to perfect ourselves, we need to embrace our fallibility.
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Show for June 13, 2010. Psychologist Paul Bloom: How Pleasure Works
Developmental psychologist Paul Bloom investigates the nature of human pleasures, from sex and food to art, music and fantasies. He says that what we like depends on what we think, and there may be no such thing as purely physical pleasure. He discusses his new book, How Pleasure Works: The New Science of Why We Like What We Like.
Click the arrow above to listen. If you don’t have Flash player or have other playback problems, click this link for the MP3.
Show for May 23, 2010. The Moral Life of Babies: Interview with Psychologist Paul Bloom; Aging and Happiness: Psychologist Arthur Stone
Yale University psychologist Paul Bloom discusses recent research on infant morality. He says babies may not be saints, but they’ve got a much more developed sense of right and wrong than previously thought. Then, is youth wasted on the young? A large-scale study indicates that people get happier as they age, especially after 50. Psychologist Arthur Stone of Stoney Brook U. describes the findings.
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Show for May 9, 2010. The Philosophical Baby: an Interview with Alison Gopnik
Well, we wanted to dish up something new on Mother’s Day this
year, but stuff happened. So instead: a second helping of a show from last year—one we’re pretty sure moms will like. Developmental psychologist Alison Gopnik has spent decades studying the minds of infants and young children. Her conclusion: babies are smarter, more aware and more caring than scientists previously realized. Also, inventor Joshua Klein on the surprising intelligence of crows.
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Show for May 2, 2010. Political Scientist Brendan Nyhan; Wealth Reporter Robert Frank
Two entertaining, eye-opening and unsettling conversations highlight the shaky relationship between reality and perception. Political scientist Brendan Nyhan studies the impact of facts on political views, and finds that often, information doesn’t change minds. Wall Street Journal reporter Robert Frank says that despite fears that they’d lose their fortunes during the financial crisis, many of the wealthiest Americans are doing better than ever, the gap between rich and poor has grown and a new class divide may be emerging—between the rich and super-rich.
Click the arrow above to listen to the show. If you lack Flash player or have other playback problems, click this link for the MP3.
Visit Brendan Nyhan’s blog.
Read The Wealth Report by Robert Frank
