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The Evolution of Cooperation, Punishment, Honesty, and Deterrence w/ Max Krasnow
Hello, everybody! This Friday, I have an interview with Dr. Max Krasnow for you. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His research interests include: evolutionary psychology, evolution of sociality, psychology of cooperation and punishment, ecological rationality, and psychology of foraging. Dr. Krasnow’s primary line of research focuses on the evolutionary origins and computational design of the mechanisms underlying human cooperation and social behavior. Why are we more generous, trusting and cooperative, but also vengeful and punitive than an otherwise rational analysis would predict? He has been exploring how the answers to these questions neatly fall out by considering reliable features of the ancestral ecology and simple cognitive mechanisms that could evolve to benefit from them.
Hello, everybody! This Friday, I have an interview with Dr. Max Krasnow for you. He is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His research interests include: evolutionary psychology, evolution of sociality, psychology of cooperation and punishment, ecological rationality, and psychology of foraging. Dr. Krasnow’s primary line of research focuses on the evolutionary origins and computational design of the mechanisms underlying human cooperation and social behavior. Why are we more generous, trusting and cooperative, but also vengeful and punitive than an otherwise rational analysis would predict? He has been exploring how the answers to these questions neatly fall out by considering reliable features of the ancestral ecology and simple cognitive mechanisms that could evolve to benefit from them.
In this episode, we talk about different aspects of human sociality. We first discuss how we evolved to be so generous, trusting and cooperative. We address the different types of natural selection, namely, sexual selection and social selection, and also if we need group selection to explain things like strong reciprocity. We then talk about uncertainty in human interactions, and why we cooperate in one-shot interactions. We refer to the social role of vengeance and punishment; the evolution of honesty; the importance of social reputation; and how deterrence works in human societies.
https://youtu.be/6Vtfu9lM-bU
Link to podcast version (Anchor): http://bit.ly/2svS2qC
https://youtu.be/6Vtfu9lM-bU
Link to podcast version (Anchor): http://bit.ly/2svS2qC
