The Nature & Nurture Podcast (Adam Omary)

In this episode I interview Dr. Vera Gluscevic, Gabilan Assistant Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Southern California. We discuss her background in astrophysics and her research in cosmology, the beginnings of our Universe, the mysteries of dark matter and dark energy, and touch briefly on metaphysics and the probabilistic nature of the quantum world.

Dr. Paul Bloom is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Toronto, and the Brooks and Suzanne Ragen Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. Paul studies how children and adults make sense of the world, with special focus on language, pleasure, morality, religion, fiction, and art. He is the author of seven books, including his latest Psych: The Story of the Human Mind. In this episode, we sample some of the many, many topics covered in Psych, including Freud, evolutionary psychology, language development, moral development, and social cognition. We also talk about Paul’s early research on language development and moral cognition, my own research on pubertal hormones and brain development, and the meta-psychology of what makes podcasts interesting. 0:00:02 Introduction to Dr. Paul Bloom and his research 0:01:10 The story behind the article "Natural Language and Natural Selection" 0:05:20 The connection between developmental psychology and evolutionary psychology 0:08:20 The concept of ontogeny recapitulating phylogeny 0:11:41 Transition from language development to moral development 0:13:42 The relationship between disgust and morality 0:16:18 The parallels between physical traits and moral traits 0:19:23 The connection between free will and moral responsibility 0:25:04 The nature-nurture debate and the role of genetics in psychology 0:31:06 The continuum of traits and the question of determinism 0:34:07 The influence of Freud and the shift towards empirical psychology 0:45:06 The history of psychology and the influence of old theories 0:55:20 The role of clinical psychology and the question of mental illness1:01:21 The psychological tendency to rationalize silver linings and find upsides in negative traits 1:06:17 Paul's role as an editor for a journal and prioritizing what to read in psychology 1:08:02 The social intimacy and connection of podcasts

Dr. Jakub Szymanik is an Associate Professor in the Institute for Logic, Language and Computation at the University of Amsterdam. 

In this episode we discuss natural language processing, artificial intelligence, and Jakub's research on forms of linguistic cognition such as quantifiers and categorical reasoning. 

Dr. Rob Henderson is a psychologist best known for his research on luxury beliefs. 

In this episode, we talk about risk and resilience factors for success in America, including growing up in stable two-parent households. Rob shares how his experience growing up in the foster care system and his military service primed him for identifying luxury beliefs of the upper class during his studies at Yale and Cambridge. We discuss how luxury beliefs confer status upon elites, but disproportionately harm people in poor and working-class communities. As a case-study, we talk about changing norms surrounding monogamy and casual sex. Lastly, we talk about evolutionary pressures for and against monogamy, cooperation, and different moral values.

0:00:02Introduction to Dr. Rob Henderson and his research on luxury beliefs and social status0:00:47Discussion on the deteriorating state of young men in America0:03:21The differential effects of family structure on boys and girls0:04:56The interaction between nature and nurture in determining life outcomes0:06:08The impact of environmental inputs on cognitive ability and personality0:08:38The importance of stable and decent childhoods for children's well-being0:11:54The different ways in which "Lost Boys" manifest their struggles0:14:35The role of the military in providing structure and stability0:16:26The cultural shock experienced by Dr. Henderson at Yale0:20:22The concept of luxury beliefs and their role in conferring status0:25:21The moralization of luxury beliefs and the language treadmill0:28:08The harms caused by luxury beliefs, particularly in relation to monogamy0:36:56The impact of luxury beliefs on lower status people0:45:40The impact of luxury beliefs on mating psychology and relationships0:53:49The consequences of polyamory and the importance of monogamy for children1:00:08The potential consequences of a society-wide shift towards polyamory1:05:04The frustration of entitled attitudes towards income and education1:05:40The complexity of evolutionary forces and moral norms1:06:41The limitations of grounding morality solely in evolutionary models1:08:11The influence of economic education on selfish behavior in games1:09:21The importance of reputation and belonging in human psychology1:11:30Dr. Henderson's book and its exploration of personal experiences and social commentary

Dr. Tal Ben-Shahar is a psychologist, best-selling author of the books Happier and Being Happy, and co-founder of the Happiness Studies Academy.

In this episode we talk about the science of happiness, its roots in positive psychology, and what psychology commonly gets wrong about happiness. We talk about how happiness is neither synonymous with pleasure nor the “just fine” state of not being unhappy. We talk about mismatches between our current environment and our ancestral environment, and how lack of exercise, poor nutrition, and poor social bonds contribute to the epidemic of unhappiness. We talk about anti-fragility, meaning, delay of gratification, and how an optimal level of stress and scarcity is necessary for happiness. Lastly, we talk about how Tal founded the Happiness Studies Academy, and how happiness studies has emerged as an interdisciplinary new science.

Dr. Robin Nusslock is a neuroscientist and Associate Professor of Psychology at Northwestern University. He is an expert on the interactions between the brain and the immune system, including the role of neuroinflammation in regulating positive emotion, negative emotion, and mental health. 

In this episode, we discuss Robin’s research on the brain and immune system in the context of diet, stress, and lifestyle choices. We discuss Robin’s research on Tibetan Buddhist monks, what monastic lifestyles reveal about mindfulness, sleep, and how the brain processes rewards and concepts of self and other. We also discuss the neurobiology of reward processing, including hedonistic vs. eudaimonic rewards, and the role of narrative and reinforcement learning in shaping the brain’s ability to delay gratification as exemplified by monastic life, religious sacrifice, and the practice of delayed gratification in pursuing an education. 

Dr. Jorge Morales is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at Northeastern University, where he directs the Subjectivity Lab. In this episode, we discuss Jorge’s research on the neuropsychology and philosophy of visual perception, introspection, and theory of mind as lenses through which to study consciousness.

We discuss the neural and computational building blocks of perception, the evolution of self-awareness, consciousness in simple organisms, and the plausibility of panpsychism and other theories of consciousness. We also discuss brain damage and psychiatric illnesses, such as blindsight agnosia and schizophrenia hallucinations as windows into how our brain constructs or misconstructs the reality in front of us. Lastly, we discuss philosophical questions of ontology and epistemology: do objects really exist in the way that our mind perceives them?

Dr. Lindsey Powell is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of California, San Diego, where she runs the Social Cognition and Learning (SoCal) Lab. 

In this episode we talk about how brain activity is measured in infants and toddlers using methods such as fNIRS, and what neuroimaging research tells us about social cognitive development above and beyond behavioral research. Learn more about Lindsey’s work at: https://socallab.ucsd.edu/ 

Dr. Walter Veit is a Lecturer in Philosophy at the University of Reading and author of A Philosophy for the Science of Animal Consciousness. He is an expert in philosophy of mind, cognitive and biological sciences, applied ethics, and animal welfare.

In this episode, we talk about philosophy of mind and the evolution of consciousness in animals. Walter outlines his theory of the evolution of phenomenological complexity and affective experience in animals, its similarities and differences with computational theories of consciousness outlined by past podcast guests Kevin Mitchell and Mark Solms, and the diversity of consciousness ranging from humans, to other mammals, to octopuses and fish, to plant life and single cellular organisms. We discuss how animals’ capacity for experiencing pleasure and pain contribute to sentientist morality, whether human morality is anthropocentric, and how Walter’s research informs his views on animal welfare ethics.

Dr. Gary Laderman is the Goodrich C. White Professor of American Religious History and Cultures at Emory University, and the author of numerous books on death, spirituality, and culture, including Don’t Think About Death.

In this episode we talk about Gary’s research on cultural perspectives on death throughout American history, including throughout the Civil War and after the development of the funeral industry. We discuss the role spirituality and religion play in conceptions of death, cross-culturally, and how conceptions of what is sacred extend beyond the traditionally religious. We also talk about how psychedelics and other drugs influence our perceptions on life and death, which will be the subject of Gary’s next book Sacred Drugs.

Dr. Stephanie Bugden is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at the University of Winnipeg, and an expert in the psychology and neuroscience of children's math learning. In this episode we discuss the nature versus nurture debate in math ability and the genetic and environmental influences on math learning. Dr. Bugden explains that both genetics and early learning experiences play a role in individual differences in math ability, verbal IQ, and visuospatial IQ. We also discuss whether there are sex differences in math ability at various ages, and how these differences might be confounded by math anxiety. Dr. Bugden also shares her research on the neurobiological processes involved in math learning and the challenges of studying dyscalculia, a math learning disability analogous to dyslexia. Lastly, we discuss the impact of COVID-19 on math learning and the potential exacerbation of socioeconomic inequalities in education.

Dr. Jennifer Silvers is an Associate Professor of Psychology and the Bernice Wenzel and Wendell Jeffrey Term Endowed Chair in Developmental Neuroscience at UCLA, where she runs the Social Affective Neuroscience and Development Lab. She is an expert in adolescent brain, cognitive, and emotional development, particularly in the development of emotion regulation strategies. 

In this episode, we talk about Jen’s background in developmental neuroscience, the use and limitations of animal models for understanding human brain development, and how adolescence is a particularly exciting window of brain development both due to puberty and other social and environmental changes. We talk about the role of stress and adversity influencing brain development, temperamental factors in emotion processing, emotion regulation as a learned skill, and how puberty interacts with all of these processes. We then discuss relatively recent effects on social and emotional development, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, social media use, and the influence of online dating apps in young adults’ sexual development. Lastly, we talk about other windows of rapid change influencing socioemotional processing, such as pregnancy, and future directions linking our shared interests in hormones and brain development in large-scale consortium-based studies.

Dr. Karl Friston is a Professor of Neurology at University College London and one of the world's most influential neuroscientists. He invented statistical parametric mapping, voxel-based morphometry, and dynamic causal modeling, and has authored or co-authored hundreds of scientific publications detailing out these theoretical and methodological advancements in neuroscience, and is also the mind behind the theory of Active Inference: The Free Energy Principle in Mind, Brain, and Behavior. The brain is a fantastic organ, not only because it is amazingly complex, but because it is constantly generating fantasies. In this episode we talk about active inference, what Dr. Friston has called “the physics of belief,” which states that the brain is fundamentally predictive. We discuss the theory of active inference and the mathematics behind the free energy principle, which states that the brain aims to minimize “free energy” or entropy by optimizing to minimize prediction error and maximize expected information gain. We discuss how active inference is inherently tied to motivation, and that consciousness, emotion, and strategic decision making can all be framed in terms of monitoring and minimizing prediction error. We also compare and contrast active inference with other theories of consciousness such as integrated information theory. Lastly, we discuss the neurobiology of active inference and its parallels to cybernetic intelligence, such as how activational and organizational effects of hormones on brain development are analogous to manipulating numeric inputs or weights in an artificial neural network.

Dr. Sergio Pellis is a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Lethbridge and one of the world’s leading experts in the neurobiology of play. 

In this episode, we discuss how play behavior across mammals relies on the same neural reward circuitry, the evolutionary origins and benefits of play, and how hormones contribute to sex differences in aggression, sexual, and play behavior. We also discuss connections between play across species and empathy, its impact on the development of social skills in children, and the impacts of social isolation on brain and cognitive development. 

00:15 The Neuroscience of Play: A Historical Perspective

04:01 The Evolutionary Purpose of Play

06:37 The Role of Reward Systems in Play

15:36 The Developmental Stages of Play in Animals

27:20 The Social Functions of Play

34:29 The Neurobiology of Play and Its Impact on Brain Development

35:54 The Impact of Play on Brain Development

36:41 Exploring Sex Differences in Play

37:49 The Role of Hormones in Play Behavior

39:20 The Influence of Rearing Environment on Play

39:40 The Shift in Play Tactics at Puberty

41:23 The Complexity of Sex Differences in Play

45:14 The Impact of Social Isolation on Brain Development

46:26 The Importance of Play for Both Sexes

50:11 The Influence of Play on Executive Functions

01:00:30 The Role of Pheromones in Social Interactions

01:08:15 The Impact of Play Deprivation on Brain Development

01:10:05 The Psychological Training Aspect of Play

01:11:08 The Empathy Developed Through Animal Research

Dr. Alexey Tolchinsky is a licensed psychologist and an adjunct professor at the George Washington University. 

In this episode, we discuss Alexey’s clinical experience as a therapist, our shared research interests in neuropsychoanalysis, chaos theory as a way to measure complexity in neuroscience and psychology, narrative fallacy in research, and the importance of specifying the right level of analysis for psychological problems. As case studies we discuss personality traits, anxiety, core affects within basic emotion theory, and their connections to evolutionary psychology and analytic psychology.

Dr. Colin DeYoung is a personality neuroscientist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Minnesota, where he directs the DeYoung Personality Lab. 

In this episode we talk about the science of personality, including the Big Five (Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism) and their neural correlates. We discuss how personality is measured, genetic and environmental influences on personality and its development over time, and the Big Five traits’ connections to areas of my own research on the neuroendocrinology of reward sensitivity and inhibitory control.  

Dr. Anita Collins is an award-winning educator, researcher and writer in the field of brain development and music learning. She is the author of The Lullaby Effect: The Science of Singing to Your Child and The Music Advantage: How Learning Music Helps Your Child’s Brain and Wellbeing.

In this episode we talk about the neuroscience of music education, and the brain and cognitive benefits of musical training in children and adults. Anita describes how music is unique in that it combines multiple modalities of the brain including auditory processing, visual processing, fine motor control, strategic planning, and creativity. We also discuss music as a means of social and mother-infant bonding, and evolutionary theories as to how music has emerged as an adaptation across every human culture.

Dr. Manoj Doss is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Psychedelic and Consciousness Research at Johns Hopkins University. In this episode we discuss his background in neuropsychopharmacology and his research studying the effects of psychedelic drugs on episodic memory and cognition. 

Dr. Mark Moffett is an ecologist and author of several books including Adventures Among Ants and The Human Swarm. 

In this episode we talk about social behavior in species ranging from ants, to lizards, to chimpanzees, to humans, and their similarities and differences. We talk about intelligence as typically individually-defined, as well as distributed “hive mind” intelligence in simple species like ants, where each ant can function like a neuron in a whole-brain network. We also discuss the evolution of human sociality and compare our propensity for peace and aggression to chimpanzees and bonobos, and our unique social intelligence. Lastly, we talk about cultural evolution and cross-cultural diversity in human societies, and how we both learn and can transcend group biases.

Dr. Nilam Ram is a Professor of Psychology and Communication at Stanford University, and one of the founders of the field of screenomics: the new interdisciplinary field of research based on the time-series analysis of screens and digital behavior. 

In this episode, we discuss Nilam's background in finance and quantitative psychology, the use of longitudinal research methods to examine changes in behavior and cognition throughout the lifespan, and the use of experience sampling methods in developmental science. As smartphones became more pervasive, Nilam describes the rise of mobile sensing methods in psychology, eventually leading to the birth of screenomics. We finally discuss the broad goals and potential applications of screenomics research, including interactive media which predict behavior, and the precautions taken to ensure smartphone data is analyzed with ethical and privacy concerns in mind. 

Dr. Dorsa Amir is a psychologist, anthropologist, and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.

In this episode we talk about child development and decision-making through the interdisciplinary lenses of anthropology, psychology, evolutionary biology, and behavioral economics. We talk about some of Dorsa’s theoretical research on how human environments have changed across cultural and evolutionary histories, and how plasticity in child development allows humans to adapt to various forms of environmental threat, deprivation, and uncertainty. We also talk about Dorsa’s experimental and cross-cultural research on child decision-making, and how these adaptive behaviors also vary across environments, resource availability, and uncertainty. Dorsa describes how the field of developmental psychology is slowly moving away from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) assumptions in order to gain a richer understanding of the full scope of child development across cultures.

Dr. Robert Barton is a Professor of Anthropology at Durham University who studies primate brain evolution and cognition.

Dr. Larry Young is the William P. Timmie Professor of Psychiatry at Emory School of Medicine, where he directs the Center for Translational Social Neuroscience and the Silvio O. Conte Center for Oxytocin and Social Cognition at Emory University. He is the author of The Chemistry Between Us: Love, Sex, and the Science of Attraction explores the latest discoveries of how brain chemistry influences all aspects of our relationships with others. Dr. Young’s research focuses on the role of oxytocin and vasopressin in mediating social bonding and sexual behavior across a wide range of species, with emphasis on understanding the evolution and neural circuit mechanisms underlying love, attachment, and social bonding in humans. 00:27 A Childhood Fascination with Animal Behavior

01:11 From Biochemistry to Behavioral Biology: A Scientist's Journey

02:14 Exploring the Sexual Behavior of Lizards

05:25 The Red Queen Hypothesis and Evolutionary Biology

08:02 Diving into Human Hormones and Brain Development

08:58 The Complex World of Gender and Sexuality in Nature

15:14 Unraveling the Mysteries of Love and Bonding in Voles

18:42 Oxytocin: The Hormone of Birth, Bonding, and Beyond

22:06 The Science of Touch and Social Connection

26:59 Understanding Love as a Form of Addiction

30:08 The Impact of Losing a Partner on Prairie Voles

31:56 Exploring Love and Addiction Through Oxytocin Studies

32:27 Debating Love: Chemical Reaction or More?

34:09 The Science of Attraction: Oxytocin's Role

37:01 Understanding Love and Bonding Across Species

41:28 The Intricacies of Sexual Behavior and Attraction

47:42 The Evolutionary Mechanisms of Mating and Bonding

59:41 Utilizing Science to Strengthen Relationships

Dr. Edouard Machery is a Distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh and Director of the Center for Philosophy of Science. He's published over 150 articles and book chapters on a diverse range of topics including the philosophy of cognitive science, moral psychology, the utility of evolutionary theory and neuroscience for understanding cognition, folk psychology, and experimental philosophy. 

In this wide-ranging episode we talk about Edouard’s research on cross-cultural differences in conceptions of free will and determinism, free will and moral responsibility, and how we define a rational agent. We also talk about neuropsychological research on value and decision making, the free energy principle as a theory of cognition, and how statistical reasoning requires us to create probabilistic cutoffs for action, both in science and in decision making. Lastly, we talk about the development of cognition and emotion both within human lifespans and across our evolutionary phylogenetic tree. 

Dr. Holly Bowen is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Southern Methodist University.             Dr. Bowen’s research focuses on how affective states, specifically emotion and motivation, influence how we form memories and remember past experiences. She is also interested in how the links between emotion, motivation and memory are impacted by age-related cognitive changes, using multiple methods including behavioral paradigms, computational modeling, and neuroimaging with event-related potentials (ERP) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

In this episode Holly and I discuss emotion and motivation’s impact on memory encoding and consolidation, the differences between emotional valence verses arousal and their neurophysiology, and their connections to the reward system, the amygdala, and the hippocampus. We talk about dual-systems models of reward processing, cognitive control, and decision-making, the role of dopamine in facilitating learning and memory, the role of norepinephrine and cortisol in threat processing and fear conditioning, and paradoxes in how brain activity and behavior changes with age. Lastly, we discuss the negativity bias in memory, the positivity bias in nostalgia, and how socioemotional selectivity and changes in emotion regulation skills may explain age-related changes in these phenomena. 

Dr. Edward Hagen is a Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Washington State University. In this episode we discuss the field of anthropology, evolutionary approaches to studying mental health and substance use, and the evolution of leadership.   

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DW3g4ElSF3c&lc=UgzzkXB9wQ24E2OZYgx4AaABAg

Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:26 - What is anthropology? 4:51 - How Ed became interested in biological anthropology 7:15 - How anthropologists differ from historians 9:33 - Evolutionary approaches to human behavior 17:00 - Studying mental health through the lens of evolutionary psychology 25:12 - The "mismatch hypothesis" of depression  28:36 - Kin selection 31:51 - Evolutionary medicine and infectious disease 36:09 - The evolution of substance use 40:53 - The paradox of drug addiction 43:02 - Why adults like bitter flavors 44:43 - Why some animals deliberately consume toxins 52:04 - Just the right amount of toxin 54:45 - Evolving the enjoyment of drug use 1:00:20 - How humans discovered complex drugs 1:02:00 - The evolution of leadership

Dr. Erik Nook is a clinical psychologist, neuroscientist, and Assistant Professor of Psychology at Princeton University. 

In this episode we discuss the philosophy and early history behind the study of emotions, and outline several schools of thought including constructivism. Erik and I talk about individual differences in emotion processing, how language influences the way we represent and regulate our emotions, emotional development in children and adolescents, and how Erik's personal experiences as a clinician have shaped his research on the interaction between emotion and language. 

In this episode I interview Dr. Frank Manis, Professor of Psychology at the University of Southern California and author of The Dynamic Child. We discuss his early career studying literacy development and dyslexia, his textbook and MyVirtualChild program, and his thoughts on the field of developmental psychology.

Video available at: https://youtu.be/9CLnqbtlhYs

Dr. Megan Peters is a cognitive neuroscientist and an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine, where she directs the Cognitive & Neural Computation Lab. 

In this episode we discuss Megan's background in cognitive science, and a research path which allowed her to combine interests in computation with philosophical questions about human subjective experiences. In a wide-ranging conversation we discuss how consciousness and subjective experience might arise from a collection of neurons, the phenomenology of perception, human perception and decision-making under uncertainty, unconscious perceptions, metacognition and confidence about our subjective experiences, and how metacognition differs from error-correction in artificial intelligence. 

Learn more about Megan's work at: https://faculty.sites.uci.edu/cnclab/

Dr. Samuel Gershman is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University, where he directs the Computational Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. He is also the author of What Makes Us Smart: The Computational Logic of Human Cognition.

In this episode we discuss Sam’s book, and the central argument that human brains are computers that must operate based on both limits of information and limits of computational power. These limits are what lead to biases, but Sam stresses that biases in human cognition, such as falling for optical illusions, are in fact what make us smart. We talk about some of the mechanisms by which we learn, such as statistical learning, and discuss the similarities and differences between human learning and modern artificial intelligence. We also discuss some of Sam’s theoretical research on the computational and neural mechanisms involved in learning and memory, and discuss how this model may apply to animals as simple and diverse as small planarian flatworms.

Dr. Lixing Sun is a Distinguished Professor of Biology at Central Washington University, and author of The Liars of Nature and the Nature of Liars: Cheating and Deception in the Living World. In this episode we talk about the evolution of lying and deception as distinct strategies. Lying organisms actively alter truth by displaying false signals, whereas deception occurs by exploiting cognitive biases to trick others. We talk about lying and deception in a wide range of species, from insects, to fish, to reptiles, to primates, and finally, humans. We discuss the role of deception in sexual selection, evolutionary arms races between innovative methods to cheat and counter-cheating strategies, such as costly signaling and the evolution of human social intelligence, and how large-scale institutions and social media are both particularly threatening and promising to prosociality in humans.

Dr. Joshua Greene is a psychologist, philosopher, Professor at Harvard University, and author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them.

In this episode we talk about Josh’s early research on moral psychology, specifically trolleyology. He describes his empirical research on the famous trolley problem thought experiment in philosophy, and how people generally approach these problems via two different modes of reasoning: slow and rational, and fast and emotional. We talk about the evolutionary origins of these distinct moral cognitive processes, and an alternative framework to utilitarianism known as deep pragmatism. Lastly, Josh talks about his recent research on this pragmatic approach to moral psychology, including The Giving Multiplier which aims to motivate people to donate to more effective charities.

Josh created a special code for viewers of The Nature & Nurture Podcast to use on The Giving Multiplier. Use The Giving Multiplier to donate to charities of your own choice as well as highly effective charities identified by Josh’s lab. With this code, an extra 50% will be matched and added to any amount you donate:

https://givingmultiplier.org/invite/NATURENURTURE

Code: NATURENURTURE

Dr. Susana Monsó is a philosopher, animal ethicist, and author of Playing Possum: How Animals Understand Death. 

In this episode, we discuss how different animals grieve, how opossums fake death, why predators play with their prey, why dogs sometimes eat their deceased owners as a sign of love, and human rituals surrounding death. We discuss how this topic connects to interdisciplinary areas in philosophy, including animal sentience, the ethics of factory farmed food, moral utilitarianism and its pitfalls, the neuroscience of care and pain, and the moral responsibility that co-evolves with social intelligence. 

Dr. Ben Smith is a neuroscientist and postdoctoral research fellow in the Social Affective Neuroscience Lab at the University of Oregon.

In this episode we talk about Ben’s research on the social neuroscience of risky decision-making, computational modeling of the reward and punishment system during decision-making, the abstract-concrete tangibility axis of the prefrontal cortex, moral and ideological decision-making, and how decision neuroscience connects to habits, health, and effective altruism.

Steve Rathjay is a Psychologist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Social Identity and Morality Lab of New York University. He is an expert in the psychology of social media use and one of the leaders of the Global Social Media Experiment, an international collaboration examining the causal impact of social media usage in 76 countries around the world. Dr. Rathje received his PhD from the University of Cambridge as a Gates Cambridge Scholar, and completed his undergraduate education in Psychology and Symbolic Systems at Stanford University. He has received numerous grants and awards for his research, and runs the science communication channel @stevepsychology with more than 1 million followers on TikTok. 00:07 Exploring Social Media's Impact on Political Polarization

02:15 The Paradox of Virality: Why Negative Content Spreads

10:17 Evolutionary Perspectives on Social Media Behavior

14:50 The Creator's Dilemma: Navigating Virality and Authenticity on TikTok

36:07 The Science of Clickbait: Understanding What Captivates Us

40:41 The Power of Podcasts: Fostering Connection in the Digital Age

42:39 Exploring Parasocial Relationships and Social Media Dynamics

46:06 The Impact of Negativity Bias and Climate Doomerism

51:46 Social Media's Role in Global Connectivity and Cultural Evolution

01:14:11 The Power of Inoculation Theory Against Misinformation

01:22:13 Navigating the Complex Landscape of Social Media Regulation

01:28:50 Concluding Thoughts on Social Media's Societal Impact

Dr. Arik Kershenbaum is an evolutionary biologist and lecturer at the University of Cambridge with expertise in studying animal communication. In this episode we discuss his book, The Zoologist's Guide to the Galaxy, and the many universal features of evolution and communication that we might expect to find in alien life. 

Dr. Robert Chavez is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at the University of Oregon, where he directs the Computational Social Neuroscience Lab. https://csnl.uoregon.edu/

In this episode, Rob and I discuss our shared background in cognitive science and statistics, our mutual interests in neuroscience, evolutionary psychology, social cognition, personality, behavioral genetics, artificial intelligence, and philosophy, and the divergence in research. Where my interests turned more developmental, Rob’s turned computational. We discuss Rob’s research using a variety of advanced neuroimaging analysis and machine learning techniques in order to understand individual differences in social cognitive traits, how to interpret diffusion MRI, white matter structure, and connectivity. We also discuss how evolutionary theory and animal research informs our understanding of social cognition, introspection, and consciousness, and speculate about these traits in artificially intelligent systems. 

Dr. Ellen Langer is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University and one of the pioneers of the positive psychology movement, known as the Mother of Mindfulness. Dr. Langer has won numerous awards including 3 Distinguished Scientist Award, the Staats Award for Unifying Psychology, and the Liberty Science Genius Award. She is the author of 13 books on mindfulness, including 5 on mindfulness, most recently The Mindful Body.

Dr. Webb Keane is the George Herbert Mead Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Michigan.  He is an expert in the anthropology of religion and ethics; semiotics and language; material culture; gifts, commodities, and money; and media. He is the author of Animals, Robots, Gods: Adventures in the Moral Imagination.

In this episode we discuss Webb’s central argument that ethical dilemmas posed by interactions with non-humans and near-humans, including animals and AI, share common themes reflected in narrative and mythology cross-culturally. We discuss these findings in relation to cultural anthropology, evolutionary psychology, AI and large language models, and video games. 

00:23 Exploring the Book's Themes

01:04 AI and Moral Imagination

04:51 Religious Language and AI

08:29 Human-AI Interaction

17:32 Moral Dimensions of Hunting

22:01 Animal Emotions and Morality

31:10 AI as a Moral Entity

34:45 The Fear of AI and Human Intentions

35:38 The Moral Implications of AI Decisions

38:34 Ethics and Social Interaction

41:04 Language and Perception

47:19 Cultural Differences in Language

52:48 The Intersection of Technology and Identity

59:46 Mythology and Technology in Popular Culture

Dr. Scott Grafton is a Distinguished Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He directs the Action Lab, which focuses on the neuroscience of goal-directed movement. 

In this episode we discuss Dr. Grafton’s background in neurology research, and the historical progression of integrating the neuroscience of movement, perception, and goal-setting. We talk about how modern neuroimaging techniques replicated and expanded upon findings from early neuropsychological studies of brain damage, and how Dr. Grafton uses dense-sampling techniques to scan individual’s brains repeatedly over short intervals, to study how learning changes the structural and functional organization of brain regions involved in perception and motor control. Lastly, we talk about Dr. Grafton’s ongoing research of how the brain interacts with the rest of the body during physical activity to maintain allostasis, and the implications this has for our understanding of the links between perception, action, and brain health. 

Dr. Ogi Ogas is a mathematical neuroscientist and author several books including Consciousness: How It’s Made, and A Billion Wicked Thoughts. He writes about autism, mathematical neuroscience, consciousness, and more on his Dark Gift blog: https://www.ogiogas.com/ 

In this episode Ogi and I discuss the history of mathematical neuroscience, competing computational views of consciousness and why Ogi favors dynamical theories over statistical and deterministic theories of mind, how consciousness evolved, and how human consciousness differs from other species. We also discuss human sexuality and his book A Billion Wicked Thoughts, reflecting on sex differences in online sexual behavior and media consumption. Lastly, we discuss the neuroscience of autism, the subjective experience of autism, its diagnostic history, and how a mathematical and biological account can improve clinical psychology.

Dr. Kevin Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. He's the author of Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are, and Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. In this episode, we talk about Free Agents and the question of free will. We discuss what we mean by freedom, how living organisms have inherent biological constraints which actually define ourselves as causal agents. We also discuss the common scientific view of reductionist determinism and its limitations, and how causal agents use the inherent indeterminacy and forward motion of time in our universe as "causal slack" to make predictions and control their behavior in a meaningful way. We talk about the role entropy plays in life and computation, how free will grows as computational and cognitive complexity grows, and how these realities should define our ethical and legal conceptions of moral responsibility. Lastly, we talk about how individual differences in genes, environment, and brain development shape our personalities and constrain us in some ways, but also offer opportunities for unique identity, character development, meaning, and purpose.

Dr. Adam Green is a cognitive neuroscientist and the Provost's Distinguished Associate Professor of Psychology at Georgetown University, where he directs the Lab for Relational Cognition. He is the Founder and President of the Society for the Neuroscience of Creativity, and Editor-In-Chief of the Creativity Research Journal. 

In this episode we discuss Adam's expertise in creativity research, the extent to which creativity is innate or can be learned, whether creativity is a unidimensional or multidimensional construct, and how creativity manifests in the brain. We additionally discuss some of Adam's recent and ongoing work on the neuroscience of belief, including how religious believers and non-believers create representations of God. Lastly, we touch on the subject of belief in free will, and whether the brain is truly a deterministic system.

I hope to continue the conversation on free will and neurophilosophy with Adam sometime soon. In the meantime, learn more about his work at: https://cng.georgetown.edu/home

Dr. William Ngiam is a cognitive neuroscientist and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Chicago, where he studies visual working memory. Learn more about his work at: https://williamngiam.github.io/

In this episode we discuss William's background in neuroscience, the neural mechanisms behind visual working memory, and what cognitive psychology tells us about the philosophy of perception. Additionally, we discuss William's involvement in the open science movement and the reproducibility crisis in science, better termed the "credibility revolution." 

Dr. Massimo Pigliucci is a philosopher and evolutionary biologist, the K.D. Irani Professor of Philosophy at the City College of New York, a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, a prolific author of over 100 academic papers, 16 books including Evolution: The Extended Synthesis, and the best-selling How to Be a Stoic, as well as thousands of posts and short clips of wisdom on his Stoic Meditations and Practical Wisdom podcasts and Rationally Speaking blog. His research interests include the philosophy of science and evolutionary biology, the nature of psueoscience, and practical philosophies like Stoicism and Neoskepticism.

Dr. David McKemy is a Professor of Biological Sciences at the University of Southern California. He is an expert in the neurobiology of pain. 

Dr. Fiery Cushman is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Moral Psychology Research Lab at Harvard University.

In this episode, we talk about the distinction and overlap between moral psychology and experimental moral philosophy research, universalist vs. relativist moral values, the evolution of cooperation, whether individuals look to themselves or the state to punish moral transgressors, aggression as it relates to moral virtue, and virtue signaling. We also discuss topics of Fiery's own research including motivation for punishment of moral transgressions, the phenomenon of moral luck, and punishment of bad luck outcomes as used to teach moral lessons.

Dr. Dan Conroy-Beam is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dan uses an evolutionary and computational perspective to understand mate choice and mating relationships. Specifically, he is interested in how mate preferences are integrated with one another computationally in order to make mating decisions as well as the decision rules people use to navigate their mating markets and their relationships. Dan's work combines agent-based modeling of mate choice with studies of real couples to compare and explore candidate models for how people evaluate potential mates, pursue partners, and regulate their relationships. Learn more about Dan's work at: https://www.danconroybeam.com/

In this episode we cover a wide range of topics including Dan's research on computational mate choice, the theory and history of sexual selection, different reproductive strategies and status signaling in humans and other animals, and environmental factors influencing mate choice ranging from sex ratio, to resource availability, to modern dating app environments. 

Dr. Jason Storm is a philosopher, historian, and the Francis Christopher Oakley Third Century

Professor of Religion at Williams College. Dr. Storm is the author of several books including Metamodernism: The Future of Theory.

In this episode, Jason and I talk about the history of modernism and postmodernism in philosophy and the arts, the concept of paradigm shifts in science and the humanities, and the most recent paradigm shift from postmodernism to metamodernism. We discuss Jason’s book Metamodernism, its central themes and refutations of postmodernist claims, grounding theories about human language and subjectivity in evolutionary biology and computational neuroscience, and more. Lastly, we discuss the philosophy of religion in relation to evolutionary psychology, memetic and cultural evolution, and neuropsychoanalysis. 

In this episode I interview Dr. Megan Herting, neuroscientist and professor of Preventive Medicine at the University of Southern California. We discuss her early career and transition from behavioral neuroscience in rats to humans, recent studies in neuroimaging and environmental neuroscience, and the importance of science education and holism.

Papers discussed:

Cserbik, D., Chen, J. C., McConnell, R., Berhane, K., Sowell, E. R., Schwartz, J., ... & Herting, M. M. (2020). Fine particulate matter exposure during childhood relates to hemispheric-specific differences in brain structure. Environment International, 143, 105933.

Campbell, C. E., Mezher, A. F., Eckel, S. P., Tyszka, J. M., Pauli, W. M., Nagel, B. J., & Herting, M. M. (2021). Restructuring of amygdala subregion apportion across adolescence. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 48, 100883.

Timestamps: 

0:00 - Introduction 0:35 - How Megan first became interested in psychology & neuroscience 3:25 - Megan's research experiences as an undergraduate 6:38 - Learning to read scientific jargon in academic journals 8:30 - How Megan decided to pursue graduate school 10:45 - Navigating graduate school as a first-generation student 12:44 - How Megan's research interests developed in graduate school 15:07 - Megan's PhD dissertation on how exercise influences brain health in adolescents 19:26 - Switching focus post-PhD and searching for faculty jobs 22:50 - Teaching in addition to doing research 26:38 - Research in the Herting Neuroimaging Laboratory from 2016-2020 28:15 - The national Adolescent Brain & Cognitive Development (ABCD) study 33:13 - How air pollution impacts the developing brain 37:30 - Environmental neuroscience as a means for public policy intervention 40:42 - Why does the brain get more attention than the body?  44:40 - Sex differences in the amygdalae of adolescents 50:05 - The role visual learning plays in understanding the brain 53:11 - Megan's ongoing and future work 55:29 - The importance of science communication

Dr. Jack Schultz is a Professor of Anthropology at Concordia University and an expert in the cultural anthropology of religion and sociology of knowledge.

Dr. Adriene Beltz is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Michigan, where she directs the Methods, Sex Differences, and Development Lab.

Dr. James Roney is a Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he runs the Human Behavioral Endocrinology Lab. In this episode we talk about the proximate and ultimate evolutionary explanations of different sex hormones’ roles in coordinating motivated behavior, such as testosterone’s influence on aggression and sex drive, and ovarian hormones’ influence on sex and food drive. We discuss how testosterone leads to sex differentiation in the brain and body both prenatally and during puberty; threshold effects, rather than continuous relationships, between testosterone and motivation; the opposite effects of estradiol and progesterone on women’s sex and food motivation across the menstrual cycle. We also discuss genetic differences in the receptors to different hormones, their interactions with other hormones, and how these subtle differences may predict traits ranging from morphology to sexuality. Lastly, we discuss Jim’s recent research using daily diaries and saliva hormones to test whether daily hormonal fluctuations influence sex drive and other motivated behavior, how smell and pheromones influence attraction in males and females, and how sex hormones influence reward processing in the brain, particularly during puberty. Timestamps: 0:00:51 Hormones act as coordinators in the body 0:02:06 Example of testosterone's input and output relationships 0:05:41 Importance of understanding the inputs and outputs of hormones 0:07:43 Conservation of hormone functions from non-human species to humans 0:09:35 The role of hormones in motivated behaviors 0:11:19 Time lag between stimulus event and hormone response 0:15:19 Evolutionary theories and mating behavior tied to sex hormones 0:18:23 Evolution and psychological functions of testosterone and oxytocin 0:20:08 Understanding hormone inputs and context for coordinated effects 0:21:58 Oxytocin paradox and effects on maternal aggression 0:23:33 Confounding effects of multiple signals on hormone outputs 0:25:14 Individual variability and receptor sensitivity to testosterone 0:26:47 Genetic polymorphism and developmental calibrators of individual differences 0:28:10 Prenatal testosterone and sexual orientation 0:38:21 Threshold effects of testosterone 0:41:06 Continuous relationship between estradiol, progesterone, sex drive, and food drive in women 0:53:01 Testosterone's effect on reward may be more generalized than estradiol and progesterone 0:54:47 Estradiol may affect satiety mechanisms, not just reward systems. 0:56:56 Theoretical framework for risk taking and impulsivity. 0:58:26 Research on anxiety and depression in females during puberty. 0:59:58 Effects of testosterone on motivation and individual differences 1:08:08 Study on concealed ovulatory timing, pheromones, and scent attractiveness during ovulation

Dr. Camilla Nord is a neuroscientist, leader of the Mental Health Neuroscience Lab at the University of Cambridge, and the author of The Balanced Brain: The Science of Mental Health.

In this episode we talk about The Balanced Brain, prediction error as the source of positive and negative emotion, how dopamine controls motion, motivation, and pleasure, how serotonin regulates mood and response to the social world, and how anti-depressants and anti-anxiety medications work on the brain. We also talk about the neuroscience of hallucinations in schizophrenia and on psychedelics, the role of homeostasis and the gut microbiome in regulating mood consciously and unconsciously, interactions between the brainstem and cortex in producing consciousness, the role of mindfulness in mental health, and much more. 

00:20 Understanding Emotions and Brain Processes

01:40 Exploring the Impact of Novelty and Curiosity

02:10 Introversion, Extroversion, and the Pandemic

03:16 Understanding Anxiety and its Role in Academia

05:05 The Balanced Brain: A Discussion on the Dynamic Nature of the Brain

06:56 The Influence of Predictive Processing on Mental Health

16:54 Exploring the Role of Psychedelics in Mental Health

21:22 The Interplay of Biology and Social Factors in Mental Health

23:22 Understanding the Role of Disgust in Mental Health

33:52 The Impact of Social Hierarchy on Mental Health

37:20 The Impact of Social Hierarchy on Academics

40:30 The Role of Dopamine in Motivation and Action Planning

42:11 Understanding Parkinson's Disease and Dopamine's Role

44:14 Differences Between Dopamine and Serotonin in Mental Health

45:30 The Effect of Antidepressants on Perception and Mood

47:55 The Role of Serotonin in Depression and Its Treatment

55:38 The Potential of Non-Invasive Brain Stimulation in Treating Depression

01:02:32 The Continuum of Mental Disorders and the Role of Genetics

01:11:37 The Role of Spirituality and Rationality in Mental Health

#neuroscience #mentalhealth #Medication #SSRIs #serotonin #dopamine #depression #psychopathology #society #videogames #brainbodyinteraction #CamillaNord #anxiety #schizophrenia #antidepressants #cognitivetherapy

Dr. Mark Solms is a neuropsychologist, Professor at the University of Cape Town, and author of The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. In this episode we discuss Dr. Solms' background in neuropsychology, the overlap between modern neuropsychology and psychoanalysis, and Dr. Solms' early research on dreaming. We then discuss the illusive nature of consciousness, Dr. Solms' central arguments in The Hidden Spring that consciousness is evolutionarily ancient and grounded in feeling, and modern attempts of using quantitative methods to tackle the mystery of consciousness. 

0:00:04 Introduction to Dr. Mark Solms and his interest in consciousness 0:03:22 Dr. Solms' background in psychoanalysis and its influence on his research 0:06:56 The importance of studying subjective states in neuroscience 0:10:48 The shift towards appreciating subjectivity in the field of neuroscience 0:15:20 The study of dreams and their connection to emotion and memory 0:18:58 The transition from studying dreams to studying consciousness 0:22:48 The relationship between feeling and consciousness 0:30:56 Collaboration with Karl Friston and the exploration of consciousness 0:39:27 The emergence of feeling from non-feeling and the study of artificial consciousness 0:46:33 The discussion on panpsychism and the limits of consciousness 1:00:14 The connection between free will, feeling, and probabilistic choices

Dr. Willem Frankenhuis, he's an Associate Professor of Evolutionary and Population Biology at the University of Amsterdam, a Senior Researcher at the Max Planck Institute for the Study of Crime, Security, and Law, and Director of the Research Network on Communicating Strength-Based Approaches to Child Development and Learning in Adverse Conditions. He studies how cognition and behavior develop in harsh and unpredictable conditions. 

The episode delves into what constitutes a typical human childhood, drawing on insights from the intersection of human development, evolutionary biology, and cultural anthropology. 

We discuss 'hidden talents', abilities that adversity can enhance, and 'reasonable responses', behaviors that are adaptive strategies among individuals living in poverty. Dr. Frankenhuis also discusses his theoretical work involving mathematical modeling to study the evolution and development of plasticity – the ability to adjust development in response to different environmental conditions.

Dr. Oriel FeldmanHall is a social affective neuroscientist and an Assistant Professor at Brown University, where she studies the neural basis of human social behavior, with a focus on morality, altruism, and socio-emotional decision-making. Learn more about Oriel's work at: http://www.feldmanhalllab.com/

In this episode we discuss Oriel's background in psychology, her research on moral decision-making and altruism, and how these subjective constructs are operationalized and measured in neuroscience. We also discuss her current and future work of studying the neural basis of social cognitive mapping. 

Dr. Alan Levinovitz is an Associate Professor of Religion at James Madison University, and author of Natural: How Faith in Nature's Goodness Leads to Harmful Fads, Unjust Laws, and Flawed Science.

In this episode we talk about Alan’s book Natural, and attempt to understand why people gravitate towards assuming what is natural is good, what is unnatural is bad, and how people come up with ideas of naturalness in the first place. We contrast examples such as “unnatural” foods and medicines improving our lives, and “natural” diseases harming us, to make the case that what is natural may not be good, and what is unnatural may not be bad. We discuss historical and evolutionary reasons, including reducing uncertainty, for why humans tend to deify the natural and associate it with the good, as well as the philosophical implications of these differing worldviews, and how to cope with uncertainty.

Dr. Lee Cronin is a Professor and the Regius Chair of Chemistry at the University of Glasgow, where he leads research on the chemical origins of life, computerized chemistry, and assembly theory. In this episode, we explore how assembly theory, analogues between chemistry and computation, the origins of life, the concepts of entropy and time, quantum mechanics, consciousness, simulation theories of the universe, and much more. 

00:32 Understanding Assembly Theory

01:47 Bridging the Gap: Physics, Chemistry, and Biology

03:27 The Role of Information Processing

04:24 Complexity in Biology and Neuroscience

06:02 Applying Assembly Theory to Molecules

08:57 Exploring the Origins of Life

18:16 Entropy and Complexity

22:21 Time and Selection

32:45 Quantum Mechanics and Uncertainty Principle

37:47 Heat Death State and Space as an Emergent Property of Time

39:07 Emergence of Space and Time

41:28 Randomness, Free Will and Consciousness

42:27 Panpsychism and Consciousness

52:45 Free Energy Principle and Neuroscience

58:38 Simulation Theories and Combinatorial Explosions

01:03:15 Scientific Anarchy and Progress

#Chemistry #Physics #Biology #AssemblyTheory #Consciousness #Simulation #Entropy #Time #Quantum #Selection #Evolution #FreeWill

Dr. Helen Joyce is a journalist, mathematician, women’s right advocate, and author of Trans: When Ideology Meets Reality. 

In this episode, we talk about Helen’s background in mathematics and transition into journalism, and eventually the so-called gender culture war. We discuss sex differences in personality, why gender nonconformity is normal, and why the transgender debate has turned into such a contentious and politicized topic. We trace this story back to both the complex biology of sex differentiation, and postmodern philosophical problems surrounding identity, and how these decision points become difficult to enshrine into law. We discuss what social and legal norms should be surrounding protected gendered spaces, freedom of speech and pronoun use, intersex populations, libertarianism, and whether adults should be free to choose medical sex reassignment. Helen offers sound and practical advice for individuals wanting to navigate these contentious waters with an open mind, and do right by people when trying to both remain respectful to individuals struggling with gender dysphoria and not invalidate the truths of biological sex.

Dr. Beth Smith is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Southern California where she directs the Infant Neuromotor Control Laboratory. Dr. Smith's research focuses on the development of neural control of movement during infancy and evaluates interventions for neural and functional development in infants with or at risk for developmental delay.

Dr. Judith Fan is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Stanford University, where she runs the Cognitive Tools Lab: https://cogtoolslab.github.io/
In this episode, Dr. Fan discusses the concept of reverse engineering the human cognitive toolkit, which involves uncovering the principles and constraints that shape our thinking and the tools we use to support our cognitive processes. She explains that cognitive tools are material artifacts, such as numbers, pictures, and language, that help us think and communicate. Dr. Fan highlights the importance of understanding the mechanisms behind these tools and how they interact with our brains.She explores the use of pictures as a cognitive tool and how they have been used throughout history to encode and communicate knowledge. Dr. Fan also discusses the convergence between artificial neural networks and the human brain in understanding visual inputs, such as faces. She explains that these systems can approximate the behaviors of real neurons and provide insights into how our brains process visual information.Dr. Fan emphasizes the role of education in shaping our cognitive toolkit and the importance of providing learners with multiple modalities for engaging with information. She also discusses the potential of emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, in supporting rich and generative forms of learning. 0:00:02 Introduction to Dr. Judy Fan and her research 0:00:30 Definition of reverse engineering and cognitive toolkit 0:02:06 Examples of cognitive tools like accounting devices and pictures 0:08:50 Connection between cognitive tools and advancements in computer vision 0:17:51 Discussion on the similarities between artificial neural networks and human brain 0:22:04 The use of AI systems like DALL·E to create images 0:25:26 The influence of historical and cultural context on cognitive toolkits 0:27:21 The role of education in shaping cognitive toolkits 0:32:15 The potential genetic component of cognitive toolkits 0:37:15 The debate on visual learners and individual differences in learning 0:40:24 The interaction between cognitive tools and unlocking new abilities 0:44:20 Dr. Judy Fan's excitement about future research at Stanford 0:47:14 The potential of screens and technology in education 0:49:41 The importance of scaffolding activities and avoiding drawbacks 0:52:51 The significance of statistics and data science education 0:56:16 The need for more people to think in shades of gray

Dr. Iris Berent is a Professor of Psychology and Director of the Language & Mind Lab at Northeastern University. She is also the author of several books including The Blind Storyteller: How We Reason About Human Nature.

In this episode we discuss Iris’ early work on language development, and how innate capacities for language inspired Iris to study our beliefs about innate parts of human nature. We talk about intuitive dualism, the tendency for us to separate mind from body in how we reason about our own cognition and behavior, and essentialism, our tendency to believe that our bodies have innate and immutable characteristics. Putting these two pieces together, the central thesis of The Blind Storyteller is that we are blind to our own human nature, because we tend to discount innate theories of mind.

Dr. Deon Benton is an Assistant Professor of Psychology and Human Development at Vanderbilt University, where he runs the Computational Cognitive Development Lab.

In this episode we talk about the interacting forces of nature and nurture that give rise to human children’s tremendous ability for learning, language development, causal reasoning, and social cognition. Deon describes his past and future research on cognitive development in infants and young children, as well as experimental paradigms for how to measure infant attention, such as through eye-tracking. We talk about how infant statistical learning can be modeled computationally, and the difficulties of decoupling innate knowledge about the physical and social world from learning in the postnatal or even prenatal environments. Lastly, Deon advocates for the importance of designing effective early-intervention studies to improve life outcomes for young children exposed to adversity.

Learn more about Deon’s work at: https://theccdlab.com/

Dr. Kim Meidenbauer is a social, cognitive, and environmental neuroscientist, Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Chicago, and incoming Assistant Professor at Washington State University. Her research focuses on how the physical environment influences brain development, and in turn, our cognition, emotion, and social behavior.   

In this episode we talk about Kim’s research on how physical environmental stressors, such as heat exposure, influence our brains and predict social behavior, including crime rates. Additionally, we talk about the positive effects of greenspace, spending time in nature, on development and mental health, and how these effects can be measured using data gathered from smartphones and social media posts.   We talk about the question of free will: how free are we really, if our brains and behaviors are shaped by environmental and genetic influences? Lastly, we talk about the important policy implications of Kim’s research, especially as climate change accelerates and as we become more aware of the influence of the physical environment on our mental well-being.

In this episode I interview Dr. Cecilia Heyes, Professor of Psychology at Oxford University, about her book Cognitive Gadgets: The Cultural Evolution of Thinking. We discuss her background in animal research, the nature vs. nurture debate, culture as an evolutionary process, and discuss various "cognitive gadgets" such as literacy and imitation, which Heyes argues are not biologically programmed, but culturally evolved feats of cognition.

Find her book at: https://www.amazon.com/Cognitive-Gadgets-Cultural-Evolution-Thinking/dp/0674980158

Dr. Daniel Schacter is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University where he runs the Schacter Memory Lab, and author of The Seven Sins of Memory.

In this episode we talk about the history of memory research over the last 100+ years, beginning with simple behavioral tasks and up to modern neuroimaging. Dr. Schacter overviews different dimensions of memory scientists have identified, including episodic vs. semantic, implicit vs. explicit, and the processes of encoding, consolidation, retrieval, and reconsolidation. We then discuss each of The Seven Sins of Memory: Transience, Absent-Mindedness, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias, and Persistence. Lastly, Dr. Schacter describes some of his more recent research on the relationship between episodic memory and imagination and creativity.

Dr. John Delony is a mental health and wellness expert with over two decades of experience working as a researcher, educator, and crisis responder. He is the host of the wildly successful, and live-changing advice-giving Dr. John Delony show, and bestselling author of Own Your Past, Change Your Future: A Not-So-Complicated Approach to Relationships, Mental Health, and Wellness. In this episode, John and I have a wide-ranging conversation centered around the neuropsychology research and personal anecdotes covered in Own Your Past, Change Your Future. We discuss big questions concerning nature and nurture, free will and determinism, child development and parenting, puberty and hormones, finding a balance between motivation and perfectionism, and the neuropsychology of anxiety, and hear a sneak preview of John’s next book.

Dr. Bailey is a psychologist, behavioral geneticist, and Professor at Northwestern University specializing in the etiology of sexual orientation, sexual preferences and paraphilias, and gender diversity.

In this episode, we discuss the history of transexualism in clinical psychology and its relation to modern transgender identifying people, the science and ethics of gender affirming care in adults and children, and the different manifestations of gender dysphoria across children, men, women, and comorbidity with autogynephilia. We also discuss the heritability of sexual orientation, the role of prenatal hormones in determining sexual orientation, gender identity, and psychological gender differences, and arousal patterns. Lastly, we discuss the politics of sexology as a field, and how to conduct effective and impartial research on politically charged topics such as researching gender dysphoria, its causes, and evidence bases.

Dr. Mark Solms is a neuropsychologist, Professor at the University of Cape Town, and author of The Hidden Spring: A Journey to the Source of Consciousness. 

In this episode, we discuss The Hidden Spring - core areas within the brainstem which are the root of all feeling and consciousness in all vertebrates - and pioneering discoveries from affective, cognitive, and computational neuroscience that bridge together to build this theory. We discuss connections to philosophy of mind, active inference and predictive processing theories of consciousness, the (im)plausibility of panpsychism, whether memory is necessary for consciousness, the difference between metacognition and consciousness, how brain damage influences consciousness, feeling, and decision-making, whether invertebrates or even single cellular life can learn and possess consciousness, and where cognitive neuroscience has gone astray in being overly reductionist and dismissive of the complexity of animal subjective experience. We also talk about core differences between basic emotion theory, which states that we evolved with core brain systems dedicated to innate qualitatively distinct emotions, and constructed emotion theory, which argues that all emotions are cognitive contextual interpretations of affective valence and arousal. Finally, we discuss Dr. Solms’ early research on dreams, the connection between dreams, memory consolidation, imagination, and problem-solving, and the history and legacy of psychoanalysis in shaping modern neuropsychology.

Dr. Nadia Chernyak is an Assistant Professor of Cognitive Sciences at the University of California, Irvine. In this episode we discuss her research on children's moral development, conceptions of fairness and inequality, and the role numeracy skills play in these conceptions. Learn more about Dr. Chernyak's research at: https://www.dosclab.com/   

Video available at: https://youtu.be/MOjgJGU-KW4

Timestamps: 0:00 - Introduction 0:35 - How Nadia became interested in studying moral and social development 1:48 - Psychology vs. philosophy  2:48 - Conducting psychological experiments with young children  4:06 - Inequalities perceived by young children and even monkeys  8:55 - When and how children begin to apply moral stances to inequality 10:42 - Nadia's research on children's moral cognition 14:24 - Is the motivation for sharing innate?  15:28 - How temperament influences moral values  16:37 - Why Nadia focuses her research on children  17:45 - Looking at numeracy development in the context of fairness and morals  22:18 - How perceptions of inequality scale 25:26 - Cognitively advanced but selfish children  27:05 - Merit vs. equality  28:30 - Practical implications of Nadia's research 31:01 - The difficulty of comparing unquantifiables   32:18 - Cognitive mechanisms behind the development of high-level reasoning 34:00 - Moral stage theory  34:53 - Moral thought experiment  36:32 - Fairness vs. prosociality  40:09 - Group biases in prosocial behavior 42:20 - Overlap between moral psychology and moral philosophy  46:02 - Creating quantifiable scales of unquantifiables  49:00 - Evaluating ulterior motives 51:18 - Nadia's plans for future research 55:10 - How stereotypes influence cognition

Dr. Andrew Knoll is the Fisher Professor of Natural History at Harvard University, and author of A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters. In this episode, we further condense those four billion years into one introductory-level conversation. Dr. Knoll walks us through Earth's early history and the evolution of life on Earth, his background in geology, and research examining what Earth's early history can tell us about how life evolved. For more in-depth coverage of these topics, see Dr. Knoll's book: https://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Earth-Billion-Chapters/dp/0062853910

Dr. Anna Lembke is a Professor of Addiction Medicine at Stanford University, Program Director of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Fellowship, and Chief of the Stanford Addiction Medicine Dual Diagnosis Clinic. She is a diplomate of the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology, a diplomate of the American Board of Addiction Medicine, and the bestselling author of the books Drug Dealer, MD – How Doctors Were Duped, Patients Got Hooked, and Why It’s So Hard to Stop, and Dopamine Nation: Finding Balance in the Age of Indulgence.

In this episode we talk about what dopamine is and how it governs the brain’s systems of pleasure and pain, how dopamine causes addiction (both with drugs and behaviors), how addiction has become a public health crisis in the United States, and what we can do about it. We talk about addictive technologies such as smartphones, and how this impacts today’s youth, and strategies for dopamine detoxification in order to promote happiness and well-being. Lastly, we discuss the difference between biological and sociological problems, and discuss Dr. Lembke’s warning against doctors overprescribing drugs and attempting to “biologize” non-biological problems.

Dr. Richard Tremblay is an Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Psychology at the University of Montreal and one of the world's leading experts on childhood aggression. In 2017 he received the Stockholm Prize in Criminology for his work on studying the developmental origins of aggression in children and his intervention studies meant to improve the developmental trajectories of delinquent children.

In this episode we discuss Dr. Tremblay's background in psychology and his large-scale longitudinal studies of the development of aggression in children which showed that aggression is most frequent in toddlers, and declines with age. We additionally discuss his use of twin studies to examine what proportion of aggression is due to genetic vs. environmental factors, sex differences in aggression, environmental risk factors for criminality, and interventions which can be made to improve developmental trajectories in high-risk children. 

In this episode I interview Dr. Toby Mintz, Professor of Psychology and Linguistics at the University of Southern California. We discuss language in the context of cognitive science: from artificial intelligence to human language development, and discuss his research on language acquisition in infants and children.   

Video available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQoO1KopuLM

Papers discussed:  

Mintz, T. H. (2003). Frequent frames as a cue for grammatical categories in child directed speech. Cognition, 90(1), 91-117.  

Mintz, T. H. (2005). Linguistic and conceptual influences on adjective acquisition in 24-and 36-month-olds. Developmental Psychology, 41(1), 17.

Dr. David Geary is a cognitive developmental and evolutionary psychologist and Curators' Distinguished Professor and a Thomas Jefferson Fellow at the University of Missouri. He is an expert in children's mathematical development and the evolution of human sex differences. 

Dr. Andy Norman is a philosopher, Director of the Humanism Initiative at Carnegie Mellon University, Founder of the Cognitive Immunology Research Collaborative, and author of Mental Immunity: Infectious Ideas, Mind-Parasites, and the Search for a Better Way to Think.

In this episode we discuss Andy’s book and the concept of mental immunity, the evolved system in our mind used to combat mind-parasites, much like the body’s immune system combats physical pathogens. We cover a variety of topics including mental heuristics, ingroup-outgroup bias, cultural selection of memes, conspiracy thinking, truth seeking, fixed vs. growth mindsets, and the role of science and rationality in public discourse.

Dr. Michael Serra is an Associate Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at Texas Tech University. Learn more about his research in the Learning and Metacognition Lab here: http://webpages.acs.ttu.edu/mserra/ 

In this episode we discuss the cognitive and neural basis behind learning and memory, Michael's work researching metacognition in the context of education, and what cognitive psychology teaches us about how to be better learners. 

Dr. Barry Giesbrecht is a Professor of Psychological & Brain Sciences at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he directs the Attention Lab. https://attentionlab.psych.ucsb.edu/

Dr. Brad Duchaine is a Professor of Psychology at Dartmouth College, where he runs the Social Perception Lab. Sarah Herald is a Psychology PhD Student working in the Social Perception Lab. In this episode we talk about the neuropsychology of social perception, facial recognition, and face processing disorders including prosopagnosia (the inability to recognize faces) and prosopometamorphopsia (PMO; distortions in face perception). Learn more about their research, and get in contact for a research study if you or someone you know has a face processing disorder at: https://lab.faceblind.org/index.html

Dr. Kevin Mitchell is an Associate Professor of Genetics and Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. In this episode we discuss his background in genetics and neuroscience, the evolution of cognition, and the interplay of genes and environment in shaping human behavior, philosophy of mind, and his book Innate: How the Wiring of Our Brains Shapes Who We Are. Learn more about Kevin's work at: https://www.kjmitchell.com/

Dr. Bill von Hippel is an evolutionarily social psychologist and a Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland, Australia. He is also the author of The Social Leap: The New Evolutionary Science of Who We Are, Where We Come From, and What Makes Us Happy. 

In this episode we discuss The Social Leap, a journey through over 6 million years of human evolution: from our moderately intelligent, moderately social chimpanzee-like ancestors, to the hyper-intelligent, hyper-social species we are today. Bill and I discuss a number of revolutions and selection pressures that led to our evolution, including environmental changes, the rise of bipedalism and tool use, long-distance hunting, mastery of fire and cooking, and most importantly, the social intelligence necessary to communicate and cooperate. 

Dr. Michael Bernstein is an experimental psychologist, Assistant Professor

at Brown University Medical School, and the author of The Nocebo Effect: When Words Make You Sick. Dr. Bernstein’s research is focused on the overlap between cognitive science and medicine, studying the role of expectation in healthcare and leveraging the placebo effect to improve patient outcomes. 

In this episode, we explore the mechanisms, implications, and ethical dilemmas of the placebo and nocebo effects in healthcare. Dr. Bernstein explains that the nocebo effect is essentially the opposite of the placebo effect, where negative expectations can lead to worsening symptoms. He shares examples from randomized trials and addresses ethical challenges in medical disclosure. We also discuss the impact of patient expectancy, anxiety, and media influence on symptom manifestation, along with considerations for future research and practical applications in medicine.

00:27 Understanding the Nocebo Effect

02:11 Ethical Dilemmas in Medical Disclosure

04:38 The WebMD Effect and Media Influence

08:20 Psychological Mechanisms of Nocebo and Placebo

17:28 Conditioning and Expectation in Healthcare

18:34 Evolutionary Perspectives on Placebo

23:16 Trust, Authority, and the Placebo Effect

29:04 Understanding Negativity Bias in Behavioral Economics

29:46 Environmental Factors and Nocebo Effects

31:54 Recency Bias in Medical Procedures

33:47 The Role of Cognitive Biases in Healthcare

35:46 The Placebo Effect in Surgeries

43:24 AI in Medicine: Ethical Considerations and Future Directions

51:52 Open Label Placebos and Pain Management

53:44 The Importance of Ritual in Healing

55:30 Exploring Placebo Effects in Animals

Dr. Imac Zambrana is an Associate Professor of Education at the University of Oslo, and an expert in the study of children’s language development, social cognition, and social learning. She is also the Chief Scientific Officer at Nordic Neurotech, which aims to use virtual reality to help with psychological and medical research.

In this episode we discuss Imac’s research on childhood language development, and how this process is influenced by social learning, such as through the pointing gestures of parents. We also discuss children’s learning more broadly, including intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for learning, breadth vs. depth of knowledge, and how digital media has shaped children’s learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Lastly, we discuss Imac’s work with Nordic Neurotech, including how virtual reality technology can be used to improve children’s educational outcomes, and how neuroimaging technology can be used in therapeutic medicine.

Dr. Courtney Hilton is a cognitive scientist and postdoctoral research fellow at The Music Lab at Harvard University.

In this episode we talk about Courtney’s background as a musician and transition into cognitive science, and how musical cognition is studied in humans. We discuss evolutionary theories of whether music evolved for socially adaptive purposes or as a byproduct of language, how certain universal acoustic patterns such as higher pitch during play and in speaking to children, and lower pitch to signal dominance during conflict, may have given rise to the different emotions music can elicit, and how we find an optimal level of complexity in enjoying music. Additionally, we talk about Courtney’s recent work on cross-cultural patterns of music, such as singing to infants, as well as how music and musical cognition differs across cultures.

Dr. Roy Baumeister is a renowned social psychologist and Professor of Psychology at the University of Queensland. In this episode we explore a variety of topics about Roy's research on self-control and decision-making, human sexuality, and the need for social belongingness.

Dr. Abigail Marsh is a Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at Georgetown University, where she directs the Laboratory on Social and Affective Neuroscience. She is also the author of The Fear Factor: How One Emotion Connects Altruists, Psychopaths, and Everyone In-Between.

In this episode, we discuss Abby's background in social psychology, and a life-changing experience of hers that motivated inquiry into the nature of costly altruism. In a wide-ranging conversation we discuss the neural correlates of empathy (or lack thereof) in psychopaths and altruistic kidney donors, animal research on care and evolutionary theories of empathy, the role of oxytocin in governing care, how social media hijacks our systems of reward and fear, and how mindfulness and in-person interactions may improve trust and well-being. 

In this episode I interview Dr. Zlatan Damnjanovic, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. We discuss his research in logic and the philosophy of mathematics, the epistemological of whether the languages of logic and math are universal or man-made, and the historical development of formal systems of logic and mathematics. Additionally, we discuss the paradox logical systems necessarily being either incomplete or inconsistent without the fundamental axiom of truth-preservation (i.e., not contradicting oneself).

Video available at: https://youtu.be/pfLqUJvIBLI 

Angel Millar is a hypnotist, martial artist, and author of The Path of the Warrior-Mystic: Being a Man in an Age of Chaos.

In this episode we discuss the balance between masculine and feminine traits, discipline and creativity, mind and body, and tradition and modernity. The warrior-mystic, Angel explains, represents the ideal balance between these traits, and we discuss historical examples including Greek philosopher-athletes, Japanese samurai-artists, and English knight-poets. We discuss the virtues of discipline and delayed gratification, how they apply to modern life amidst our panoplies of temptation, their relation to evolution and sexual selection, and the archetypal symbols in each of these motifs and in mythology. Lastly, we discuss Angel’s career as a hypnotist, and our formative experiences leading to our shared interests in psychology, mysticism, and traditional masculinity. 

00:24 Exploring Masculinity and Spirituality

02:14 The Warrior Mystic: Balancing Masculine and Feminine

03:07 Historical Shifts in Masculinity and Femininity

03:45 Impact of World Wars on Gender Roles

06:22 The Role of Archetypal Patterns in Culture

09:30 The Power of Anticipation and Delayed Gratification

12:15 Exploring the Benefits of Meditation

15:00 The Journey into the Unknown: Sir Gawain's Story

16:32 The Role of Boredom in Creativity

18:54 The Impact of Social Media on Honesty

23:13 The Intersection of Video Games and Personal Growth

25:17 The Importance of Balance in Personal Development

28:00 The Role of Risk-Taking in Personal Growth

30:24 The Power of Diverse Interests in Innovation

33:12 The Role of Creativity in Leadership

37:52 The Role of Masculinity in Modern Culture

38:32 The Dichotomy of Gender Roles

41:03 The Symbolism of Beheading in Art

43:43 The Phoenix Motif and Its Connection to Christ

45:50 The Influence of Past on Self-Improvement

52:27 The Role of Hypnotism in Self-Improvement

57:53 The Influence of Attractiveness on Self-Improvement

Dr. Babak Hemmatian is a cognitive scientist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Beckman Institute of the University of Illinois. His research focuses on using natural language processing techniques to analyze natural discourse, such as social media posts, as they relate to personal and political beliefs. In this episode we discuss Babak's background in computational cognitive science, his PhD research analyzing how Reddit and Twitter users' perspectives on the legalization of gay marriage and marijuana use changed over time, and the ethics of collecting data from social media users. 

Dr. Mahzarin Banaji is the Richard Clarke Cabot Professor of Social Ethics in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University and co-author of the New York Times Bestseller Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People. She is the recipient of countless awards including being one of APA’s William James Fellows for outstanding contributions to psychology and a member of the National Academy of Sciences. 

In this episode we talk about Mahzarin’s career in cognitive and social psychology, and the development of the Implicit Association Test (IAT). We discuss myths and facts about implicit bias, including how the brain forms automatic implicit associations based on statistical learning, and how these biases can be formed entirely independently of conscious prejudice. We discuss examples of this research ranging from moral psychology, to racial bias, and how IAT results differ cross-culturally. Lastly, we discuss Mahzarin’s ongoing research combining natural language processing research and geospatial data to estimate how regional IAT scores correlate with different biases expressed on social media posts coming from different areas. 

Dr. Rob Henderson is a Psychologist, Air Force Veteran, and author of Troubled: A Memoir of Foster Care, Family, and Social Class. Expanding on our past episode, in which we discuss luxury beliefs, social status, and classism at length, this time our discussion is much more personal. In this episode, Rob and I discuss formative experiences written in his memoir, the impacts of childhood poverty on health and future success, the importance of self-discipline, the politics of diversity and inclusion in academia, trickle-down meritocracy, and much more. 

Dr. Wolfram Schultz is a Professor of Neuroscience at the University of Cambridge and one of the world’s leading experts on dopamine. In this episode, we discuss the dopamine system's role in reward processing, evolutionary fitness, the functioning of dopamine neurons, the interplay between reward vs punishment, and the complexity of neurons. Dr. Schultz overviews core mechanisms of value-guided decision-making, risk-taking, addiction, the role of prediction error in shaping reinforcement learning, how these are all explained by dopamine, and the differences between dopamine and serotonin 00:18 Understanding Reward Processing in Animals 01:29 Evolutionary Role of Reward System 03:31 Complexity of Reward System and Dopamine Neurons 04:31 Differentiating Reward and Avoidance Systems 05:35 Role of Emotion in Reward Processing 08:07 Exploring Consciousness and its Measurement 08:49 Dopamine Firing in Different Scenarios 11:41 Understanding the Complexity of Neurons 18:23 Exploring the Concept of Prediction Error 27:36 Understanding the Role of Dopamine in Depression 30:52 Understanding the Role of Serotonin and Dopamine 33:55 Exploring the Concept of Metacognition 43:28 Understanding the Development of Reward System in Humans 43:59 Understanding the Reward System in Infants 45:36 The Maturation of the Reward System 46:41 The Role of Neural Connections in Reward System 47:23 The Concept of Reward Sensitivity During Adolescence 48:44 The Importance of Exploration in Reward System 54:53 The Role of Dopamine in Reward System 01:02:41 Understanding Addiction and Dopamine's Role 01:02:45 The Impact of Modern Day Environment on Reward System 01:13:04 The Role of Risk in Assessing Subjective Reward Value 01:18:06 Understanding Individual Differences in Reward Sensitivity 01:20:14 The Never-Ending Journey of Incentive Reward #Neuroscience #Dopamine #RewardProcessing #BehavioralEconomics #Addiction #RiskTaking #NatureandNurture

Dr. Randy Thornhill is an evolutionary biologist and a Distinguished Professor of Biology Emeritus at the University of New Mexico. He is a pioneering researcher of parasite-stress theory, which describes how pathogens have throughout history shaped our behavior and values. 

In this episode we discuss parasite-stress theory and the behavioral immune system, and how conservative values are cross-culturally associated with regional parasite prevalence. Additionally, we discuss these findings in the context of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, and how advancements in sanitation throughout history may have given rise to more liberal ideals. 

Daniel Quintana is an Associate Professor at the Department of Psychology, University of Oslo. He leads a lab investigating biological systems that link psychological and social factors to health, with a focus on neuroendocrine systems (e.g., oxytocin) and the autonomic nervous system. His lab uses various research approaches, including intranasal oxytocin studies, large-scale genetics studies, neuroimaging, and the collection of autonomic nervous system data (e.g., heart rate variability). Learn more about Daniel’s work at: https://www.dsquintana.com/

Dr. Mark Ho is a Cognitive Scientist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow at Princeton University. His research provides insights into human planning and social cognition by developing computational theories (e.g., using probabilistic models, reinforcement learning, neural networks) and testing those theories experimentally with people.

Learn more about Mark’s work at: https://markkho.github.io/

In this episode we discuss Mark’s recent research on value-guided construals (https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04743-9), and how the problem of navigation relies not just on devising a path to your destination, but also how detailed to construct your mental map. Value-guided construals refer to dynamically adjusting the detail of our mental representations necessary to achieve our value-guided goals.

We then talk about mental representation more broadly, both in humans and artificial intelligence, and discuss the role of intentionality and agency in humans and machines, using examples such as natural language processing algorithms and autonomous vehicles.

Lastly, we talk about free will and how value-guided construals may also be utilized in social cognition, how our value-guided construals relate to other aspects of cognition such as attention, and Mark’s future research plans.

Dr. Edward Hagen is a Professor of Evolutionary Anthropology at Washington State University, where he directs the Bioanthropology Lab. 

In this episode, Ed and I discuss the recent controversy of the American Anthropological Association’s decision to censor a conference panel on sex differences, the reality and importance of understanding sex differences in evolutionary anthropology and biology research, and the complexity of sex beyond the binary, such as in the case of intersex disorders and different and conflicting gender norms cross-culturally. We then move on to discuss Ed’s research on the evolution of substance use, including humans’ bizarre taste for spices and bitter plant toxins such as coffee and tobacco. We also talk about the evolutionary advantages and disadvantages for the use of other psychoactive drugs, such as hallucinogens, the evolution of human intelligence, and modern computational neuroscientific theories of consciousness.

Dr. Joseph Henrich is an anthropologist and Chair of the Human Evolutionary Biology Department at Harvard University, where he runs the Culture, Cognition, and Coevolution Lab. Joe is also the author of the WEIRDest People in the World and The Secret of Our Success.

Timestamps:0:00:46 Environmental factors leading to cultural evolution0:03:19 Cultural adaptations, rituals, and technological advancements0:05:11 Cultural adaptations operating outside of conscious awareness0:07:04 The role of religion in cultural transformations0:09:40 Impact of religious prohibitions on social ties0:10:59 Exploring the spread of monotheistic religions0:12:01 The expansion of gods and competition among groups0:13:55 Transition to monotheism and personification of social awareness0:16:18 Intergroup competition and tension between small and large group cooperation0:17:37 Individualistic guilt vs collectivist shame0:19:18 Variation in use of mental state terms in folktales0:23:00 Patterns in cooperation and moral judgment from human nature and cultural evolution0:24:44 Cultural evolution and species differences0:25:56 Intersection of biology and culture in sex and gender differences0:26:24 Culture changes our biology and brain0:28:28 Male inclination towards violence observed in every human society0:29:50 Testosterone levels and aggression linked to social hierarchy0:30:28 Gender paradox: greater gender equality, bigger personality/morality differences0:32:06 Sex differences observed in primates0:35:15 Fathering dynamics in human societies0:37:26 Genetic fitness and hunter-gatherer societies0:41:28 Sex ratio, crime rates, and marriage markets[0:43:32 Dating apps, competition, and inequality0:46:14 Zero sum games, land, and cultural differences0:53:18 Demographic changes and the impact on parenting styles.0:55:07 Adversity-exposed brain and its relation to life history theory.0:57:37 Using surname diversity as a proxy for diversity of thought and experience in a society.1:01:50 Linking surname diversity to occupational diversity, trust, and innovation1:04:32 Christianity's impact on scientific revolution and analytic thinking1:06:11 Bias towards progress and the concept of progress emerging

Dr. Alan Fiske is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, where he co-directs the Kama Muta Lab, and the author of several books including Structures of Social Life, Virtuous Violence, and Kama Muta: Discovering the Connecting Emotion.

In this episode we talk about Alan’s career as an anthropologist, the research which led to his books, and the social mechanisms which give rise to both peace and violence in human societies. Finally, we talk about Alan’s research on kama muta.

Kama muta is Sanskrit for “being moved by love”. Alan defines kama muta as “Kama muta is the sudden feeling of oneness, love, belonging, or union with an individual person, a family, a team, a nation, nature, the cosmos, God, or a kitten.” Learn more about kama muta, and experience it for yourself, at: https://kamamutalab.org/

Dr. C. Sue Carter is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and Distinguished Research Scientist at Indiana University, where she also holds an Emerita position as Rudy Professor of Biology and was formerly Director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. She is a Fellow and past President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, and is known for her pioneering work on oxytocin, the love hormone, and its role in parental care and romantic pairbonding.  

In this episode we discuss how neuroendocrinology research has evolved over the course of Dr. Carter’s career, and how oxytocin became known as “the love hormone”. We discuss her early research examining oxytocin’s role in parental care, pairbonding, and sex drive in prairie voles, and contrast these findings to early evolutionary theories centered around testosterone and other sex hormones. We also talk about vasopressin, a hormone related to oxytocin, and discuss its role in more nuanced forms of care such as defensive aggression. Dr. Carter introduces the term of “sociostasis” as a social form of homeostasis which oxytocin and vasopressin are central to regulating. Lastly, we talk about oxytocin’s interactions with sex and stress hormones prenatally, during infancy, and during puberty, and how the early environment may epigenetically our oxytocin receptors and have lifelong impacts.