logo
episode-header-image
Sep 2014
1h 15m

Episode 53: The Psychology People Love t...

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro
About this episode

Dave and Tamler take a shot at answering the question: what is an evolutionary psychologist? Is it just a psychologist who believes in evolution? (No.) Is it a psychologist who embraces a computational, modular theory of the mind? (No. Well, maybe…we’re not sure.) Are they psychologists who are part of a cult that fanatically endorse evolutionary explanations for every aspect of human judgment and behavior? (No! Well, most of them aren’t, anyway.) So what are they? And why do they generate so much hostility?

Plus, we go back to Genesis (the real story of how we evolved) to offer another thought experiment: what is it like to be Adam and Eve before eating the forbidden fruit? What is it like not to know good and evil? And we give our aspiring playwright listeners a perfect idea for a one-act play: Abraham and Isaac walking down the mountain after the aborted sacrifice.

Links

Support Very Bad Wizards

Up next
Jul 1
Episode 311: The Way to Dusty Death (Shakespeare's "Macbeth")
David and Tamler screw their courage to the sticking place and talk about their first Shakespeare play – The Tragedy of Macbeth. Plus we select 16 topics for our first VBW topic tournament suggested and voted by our beloved Patreon patrons. 
1h 26m
Jun 10
Episode 310: Bayes, Brains, and Buddhists
David and Tamler try to wrap their heads around the predictive processing theory of the mind and brain function and talk about a paper that applies the framework to meditation practices. But first a new Psychological Science article expresses skepticism about the existence of peo ... Show More
1h 14m
May 27
Episode 309: Dissolving Into the One
David and Tamler heed the call to journey into the realm of Joseph Campbell. What are the unifying elements shared by myths and religions across time and culture? Does myth give us a portal into the hidden cosmic forces of the universe? Can it take us into depths of our unconscio ... Show More
1h 23m
Recommended Episodes
Jul 2023
#254 — The Mating Strategies of Earthlings
Sam Harris speaks with David Buss about the differential mating strategies of men and women. They discuss the controversy that surrounds evolutionary psychology, the denial of sex differences, cross-cultural findings in social science, the replication crisis in psychology, the bi ... Show More
39m 32s
Nov 2000
Evolutionary Psychology
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Evolutionary Psychology. Richard Dawkins redefined human nature in 1976, when he wrote in The Selfish Gene: “They swarm in huge colonies, safe inside giant lumbering robots, sealed off from the outside world, communicating with it by tortuous indir ... Show More
28m 18s
Jul 2021
David Buss || The Evolution of Sexual Conflict
Today we have David Buss on the podcast. David is a professor of psychology at University of Texas, Austin, and is one of the founders of the field of evolutionary psychology. His primary research focus is on strategies of human mating, particularly the dark side of human mating ... Show More
1h 9m
Sep 2021
E148. Bret Weinstein & Heather Heying Think Humans Actually Want A Challenge
Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying join Bridget to discuss their latest book A Hunter-Gatherer's Guide to the 21st Century . They have a fascinating conversation covering how so much in evolutionary biology is obvious in retrospect, why an explicitly scientific and evolutionary un ... Show More
2h 3m
Mar 2022
235. Evolution, Sex & Desire | David Buss
This episode was recorded on October 26, 2021. As an alternative for those who would rather listen ad-free, sign up for a premium subscription to receive the following:• All JBP Podcast episodes ad-free• Monthly Ask-Me-Anything episodes (and the ability to ask questions)• Presale ... Show More
1h 46m
Jun 2022
Belief, Habit & Religion
For evolutionary scientists studying religion, it's more fruitful to examine what people do in religious contexts, rather than listen to what they say they believe. There's a new recognition that as well as looking at behaviour, people studying religion must take account of the r ... Show More
44m 44s
May 2023
David M. Buss
David M. Buss is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Texas at Austin. Buss previously taught at Harvard University and the University of Michigan. He is considered the world’s leading scientific expert on strategies of human mating and one of the founders of the field ... Show More
1h 31m
Oct 2023
#91 — The Biology of Good and Evil
Sam Harris speaks with Robert Sapolsky about the brain and human behavior. They discuss the relationship between reason and emotion, the role of the frontal cortex, the illusion of free will, punishment and retributive justice, neurological disorders and abnormal behavior, the re ... Show More
1h 38m
Oct 2021
My Chat with Dr. David Buss, Author of When Men Behave Badly (The Saad Truth with Dr. Saad_295)
Topics covered include evolutionary psychology, sexual variety, sexual conflict, human mating, infidelity, sex differences, social constructivism, science denialism, the dark triad of personality, gift giving, intellectual variety, nomological networks of cumulative evidence, pub ... Show More
1h 17m