Here's my conversation with
@profdavidbuss
, an evolutionary psychologist at UT Austin & one of the founders of evolutionary psychology. We talk about sex, dating, and sex differences. This was fascinating & fun. Thank you
@hubermanlab
for connecting us.
Apologies for the retweet, but I enjoyed my conversation with
@lexfridman
tremendously. It has also exceeded half a million 'views.' As an introverted academic, I'm happy to reach a wider audience.
Here's my conversation with
@profdavidbuss
, an evolutionary psychologist at UT Austin & one of the founders of evolutionary psychology. We talk about sex, dating, and sex differences. This was fascinating & fun. Thank you
@hubermanlab
for connecting us.
Excellent article in
@Quillette
taking apart the latest absurd anti-sex difference book. When will science actually triumph over ideology in this domain?
Glad to see replicability when so many findings fail to replicate. My question: How many empirical refutations of social role theory will be needed before it is abandoned?
Sex differences in mate preferences are no smaller in more gender-equal nations, contrary to the idea that these differences are a product of socially-imposed gender roles.
My paper on mate preferences across cultures just passed 5,000 Google Scholar citations, a record for me. An unknown number of citations come from people who hate it or its findings. Some found the paper worthy. If interested, here is a link:
Even in the most gender‐equal society in the world, women give more weight to earning potential in the opposite sex and are far more likely to marry up than men.
I'm excited that the new edition 'Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind (7-e)' is finally published. It's been 5 years since the last edition. Here is a link for those interested:
...
I love the new cover; it features 'Darwin's Arches.'
In an age of replication crisis, these sex differences have stood the test of time-replicable across cultures and times, and by dozens of independent researchers.
@ogiehart
theory was tested across 37 cultures (total N: 10,047) by
@ProfDavidBuss
which results:
1. Females were found to value cues to resource acquisition in Potential Mates more highly than Males.
2. Reproductive capacity were valued more by Males than by Females.
Please reply: What is the single most powerful/significant choice a human being can make in their life?
I was recently asked this question and will address, with Dubner, on a future episode of
@NSQ_Show
“Wolves infected with a parasite that commonly infects cats were 46 times more likely to become pack leaders and 11 times more likely to start a new pack…
“The parasite, Toxoplasma gondii, makes its hosts bold — a mechanism that increases its survival.”
It still seems odd to me that so many people get so upset about the idea that, on average, men and women differ in certain ways. Who convinced them that the sexes are psychologically identical? Who persuaded them it'd be a really terrible thing if they're not?
My department has granted me a slot to accept one new graduate student in evolutionary psychology for the fall of 2022. We fully fund graduate students for 5 years. If interested, here is our lab website:
My conversation with
@jordanbpeterson
was wide-ranging, multidimensional, and terrific on all counts. Patriarchy is only one of many topics we touched on under the umbrella of 'Strategies of Human Mating'
"If the conditions were right, would you consider having sexual intercourse with someone you viewed as desirable if you had known that person for 1 minute?"
Women: 5%
Men: 35%
Nice photo and good points. The standard social science treatment of sex differences is an embarrassment, and will be viewed as such by historians of science.
"Men are not better than women; women are not better than men. Women & men are different; men & women are equal. Let’s stop being afraid of ourselves. Who's afraid of sex differences? Not these women
@InezFeltscher
@DrDebraSoh
@CHSommers
@PsychRabble
@IWF
In case you missed it, this
@joerogan
interview a year ago with
@BretWeinstein
and
@HeatherEHeying
includes some brilliant points about how sexual evolution can illuminate current ideological debates over gender,
#MeToo
, trans issues, masculinity, etc.
Invalid responses to a scientific finding:
- "That's can't be true because it's not true for me."
- "I'm offended by that finding, so it can't be true."
“That finding must be wrong because people could use it for a nefarious purpose.”
It continues to amaze me that people think that 'jealousy' is an immature emotion that needs to be tamed:
Rather than understanding it's adaptive functions in detecting infidelity and mate poachers:
There seems to be some question about whether evolutionary psychological hypotheses can be tested and potentially falsified. Well-formulated ones can indeed. Here is one referencesthat summarizes a handful: '
Which is precisely the opposite of the predictions made by social role theory of sex differences; I wonder how many outright falsifications of social role theory it will take before its proponents admit that their theory does not hold up?
List of 50 most influential living psychologists in the world:
Honored to be on this list, and happy to see so many evolutionary psychologists on it, starting with Leda Cosmides.
GUIDELINE X - Most psychologists do not understand the impact of evolution, sexual selection, genes, and mating strategies on the development of boys and men.
This is such a cool paper. A great demonstration of how evolutionary hypotheses can predict cultural variation as well as universal sex differences...in this case in the powerful emotion of jealousy.
Our cross-cultural paper on jealousy is out today in Nature Human Behaviour! We show variation in jealous response is associated with the level of paternal investment across populations, while also showing strong support for a classic sex difference.
The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (2002/2016). 16+ years later, the case that there is such a thing as human nature still needs to be made.
I just finished reading Blueprint, by
@NAChristakis
; the book is terrific start to finish. It should be required reading for everyone, especially for social scientists.
Here's my podcast interview with
@NAChristakis
, authoer of the EXCELLENT book "Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society." Among other subjects, we talk about the question of how optimistic everyone should be about human nature
Reversals in Psychology: A list of famous psychological findings that are now in doubt. Includes the Stanford prison experiment, implicit bias, Pygmalion effect, stereotype threat, power posing, multiple intelligences, brain training, learning styles, etc.
Like all traits, Agreeableness has pluses and minuses. In my studies of it, positives include 'I attempted to arrive at a solution that was satisfactory to all involved.' Negatives include 'I accepted verbal abuse without defending myself.'
Agreeable people are also those most likely to regard an emotive empathy as the highest (or only) virtue. But a virtue in excess or in imbalance can easily become a vice. Hence the Freudian devouring mother. "Anything you do is ok, dear."
@h_mich_l
@ProfDavidBuss
This is on my list next 😌
I’ll add ‘how the mind works’ to my reading list. Thanks for the recommendation. Kinda hard finding books of the same caliber as professor Buss’
Paper Bill von Hippel and I wrote on how ideological bias impedes understanding the logic of evolutionary psychology; based on actual survey of 300+ social psychologists:
Beggars belief that an elite university could outlaw discussion of one of the most important scientific theories (indeed, most important ideas) of all time.
I'm so proud of Courtney Crosby, a graduate student in our EP Lab, for winning the best student presentation award. Title of her talk: "Six Dimensions of Sexual Disgust"
Yet more evidence refuting 'sex role' theory; how much more evidence do we need before this archaic theory is consigned to a mere footnote in the history of the field?
Multivariate effect sizes for sex differences in moral judgements across 67 countries. "These multivariate effect sizes of sex differences were substantially
larger in individualist and gender-equal countries."
By
@MohammadAtari90
et al.
Charles Darwin's voyage on the Beagle began
#OnThisDay
in 1831. The five year trek around the world shaped his ideas about the natural world; he later said that the journey was "by far the most important event in my life."
#histSTM
Thanks for tweeting this. My writings on love are typically overshadowed by some of my other work. Not complaining, but good to see some coverage of the important emotion of love in long-term mating.
If a partner chooses you for rational reasons, he or she might leave you for the same rational reasons: finding someone slightly more desirable on all of the “rational” criteria. Commitment might be more robust when the person is blinded by an uncontrollable love.
@ProfDavidBuss
Teaching people about how evolutionary processes created human nature and our shared humanity likely reduces prejudice, ethnocentricism and racism. Darwin knew this. We are one species. We need more education on human nature & evolution not less.
@NAChristakis
@StevenHeine4
Out today, a book for our time: When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault, by the leading evolutionary psychologist of sex, David Buss.
Just got my updated copy of
@ProfDavidBuss
's "Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind" It's technically a textbook, but really the best primer, in readable language, for anyone looking to understand ev psych.
@Routledgepsych
Still my favorite argument for the importance of evolutionary psychology. Written by
@sapinker
, Foreword to the 2nd edition of "The Handbook of Evolutionary Psychology" edited by
@ProfDavidBuss
.
Excited to see that my Evolutionary Psychology 7-e book is now at the top of new releases in this category:
Hope this link works for those who might be interested.