Category Archives: Adaptation
Fireside Trance drives Selection for Enhanced Attention & Working Memory via Baldwin Effect
Fireside hypnotizability Following up on a previous post tracking down the original sources for the December Smithsonian piece about hearth fires & cognitive evolution, evolutionary psychologist Matt Rossano’s “Did Meditating Make Us Human?” spins out a model similar to & … Continue reading
Cosmetics Enhance Appearance of Femininity, Lack of Cosmetics Increases Appearance of Masculinity
Research by neuroscientist Richard Russell of the Gettysburgh Perception Lab suggests that sexual dimorphic differences between male and female faces, especially under circumstances of minimal sexual dimorphism, is all about contrast. Males have darker skin except for eyes and lips. … Continue reading
The Psychophysiology of Fireside Relaxation
Following is a draft of the abstract I am working on for a poster I will propose to present at the 2013 Human Biology Association meeting in Knoxville, TN (yay, I can drive there!). Feedback is welcome. The psychophysiology of … Continue reading
HBES 2012 Roundup 4: Father’s Day & the Parasite-Driven Wedge
So I blew Father’s Day. Totally didn’t realize I’d booked myself to go to HBES on Father’s Day. And much as I love my dad, it wasn’t because I wasn’t going to be with him. It was because my wife … Continue reading
HBES 2012 Roundup 1: Joint Day with the Animal Behavior Society
The Human Behavior & Evolution Society (HBES) 2012 Annual Meetings took place this past weekend in Albuquerque, NM, in conjunction with the Animal Behavior Society, hosted by Steve Gangestad & others. I’ve only been to HBES one other time & … Continue reading
Religious Ecology Study (in Costa Rica & Tuscaloosa)
In a few weeks I’ll be heading to Limón province in Costa Rica to begin the first phase of what I hope will be a multi-site study of religious ecology. We (my students in the Human Behavioral Ecology Research Group [HBERG] … Continue reading
Penis Diversity is our Business
Actually, penis diversity is not our business. In fact, one of the student evaluations for the Anthropology of Sex course I taught this past semester said I talked too much about animal diversity & not enough about humans. I’m not sure … Continue reading
Towards a Bottom-Up Approach to Self-Deception
As I read John Hartung’s 1988 chapter on “self-deceiving down,” I am further convinced of the nonsense of arguing about theoretical distinctions & that we are considering the issue at too high a conceptual level to understand the influence of … Continue reading