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When danger is in the eye of the beholder

By Guest PostJanuary 7, 2014Scienceaggressive, beholder, big wave surfing, byproduct, colin holbrook, danger, dangerous sports, daniel fessler, dunedin nz, dynamometer, evolution, eye, fictional adventurers, fijian island, formidability, freestyle motorcycling, hostile intentions, human behavior, human nature, imagination, journal, los angeles, Media, middle eastern man, mindful decisions, phenomenon, photo, public settings, risk seekers, terrorist, ucla anthropologist, western civilization, yasawa

UCLA anthropologists study how, why we read into potential peril

They went boating alone without life vests and gave no thought to shimmying up very tall coconut trees.

And although they were only figments of a writer’s imagination, the fictional adventurers helped provide new insight into how humans, especially men, gauge the threat of a potential adversary. Those reading the stories — dozens of residents of a small village on the Fijian island of Yasawa — judged the characters to be risk-seekers. (more…)

Climate Change is not an All-or-Nothing Proposition, Researcher Says

By Guest PostFebruary 25, 2013Environmentamericans, climate, climate change, climate model, climate research, data accumulates, earth, extreme disasters, high tides, human difficulty, human nature, mark berliner, mitigation strategies, model, negative impacts, ohio state university, periodic floods, statistician

BOSTON — An Ohio State University statistician says that the natural human difficulty with grasping probabilities is preventing Americans from dealing with climate change.

In a panel discussion at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting on Feb. 15, Mark Berliner said that an aversion to statistical thinking and probability is a significant reason that we haven’t enacted strategies to deal with climate change right now. (more…)

Human Prejudice Has Ancient Evolutionary Roots

By Guest PostMarch 19, 2011Sciencecoast of puerto rico, common ancestor, evolution, evolutionary theorists, human, human culture, human nature, iat, implicit attitudes, ingenious experiments, island, laurie santos, mahzarin banaji, margaret martinez, monkeys, natashya gutierrez, neha mahajan, primate, psychologist, sequence of photos, us versus them

The tendency to perceive others as “us versus them” isn’t exclusively human but appears to be shared by our primate cousins, a new study led by Yale researchers has found.

In a series of ingenious experiments, Yale researchers led by psychologist Laurie Santos showed that monkeys treat individuals from outside their groups with the same suspicion and dislike as their human cousins tend to treat outsiders, suggesting that the roots of human intergroup conflict may be evolutionarily quite ancient. (more…)

Tag Archives: human nature

When danger is in the eye of the beholder

Climate Change is not an All-or-Nothing Proposition, Researcher Says

Human Prejudice Has Ancient Evolutionary Roots