Since the financial crash of 2008 the field of economics has been in a state crisis, where a paradox lies at the heart of the issue. On the one hand markets are remarkably rational and efficient, displaying allocation and foresight that prediction scientists are only beginning to fully grasp. Efficient markets are powerful, practical tools …
We make our mind up about people after seeing their faces for barely a fraction of a second. Far from being trivial, these impressions impact our decision making and have real world implications. For example, politicians that simply appear more competent are more likely to win elections. Can we reliably discern character from people's faces, …
Most things are complicated, even things that appear rather simple. Take the toilet as an example. As a thought experiment, would you be able to explain to someone else how a toilet works? If you're fumbling for an answer, you're not alone. Most people cannot either. This not just a party trick. Psychologists have used several …
All organisations have problems, and nearly all of them concern people. These include how to manage employees and motivate them; who to promote, and who to fire. To address these issues, billions have been spent on interventions to attract and retain the right people. Yet despite these efforts, the majority of employees remain disenchanted with their careers. …
Continue reading Overview: The Talent Delusion, by Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic
Dean Karnazes started his professional running career relatively late in life. As a teenager, Dean had been a top runner at his school’s cross-country team. However, the joys and demands of modern life later took hold. Karnazes went to university, got married, and pursued a business career—quickly rising ranks in his sales job. But something …
Continue reading A Virtuous Sin: An Overview of ‘Take Pride’ by Jessica Tracy
How can evolutionary theory be applied to and influence the ways in which we research and practice human resource management (HRM)? In No Best Way, Professor Stephen Colarelli notes that the theory of evolution has been the theoretical bedrock of the life sciences for well over a century, yet it is has only just begun making inroads …
Continue reading No Best Way: An Evolutionary Perspective on Human Resource Management
Whilst on holiday I decided to read a book telling the life story of one of the world's most influential evolutionary theorists. Despite it not being about the application of evolutionary psychology to the workplace, I thought this post would be of value regardless. The scientist in question is Robert Trivers. Robert Trivers is an American evolutionary biologist, who has …
Continue reading A Wild Life: An overview of Robert Trivers’ autobiography
Malcom Gladwell polled Fortune's top 500 companies for his 2005 book Blink, and found the average height of male CEOs was just under 6 ft, but the average American male is 5 ft 9 inches. Around 58% of these CEOs were 6 ft or taller, whereas 14.5% of men in the US population are this tall. Approximately 30% of …
Continue reading Naturally Selected: The Evolutionary Science of Leadership
How did we evolve from small-scale societies of foragers and hunter-gathers into large-scale industrial societies, in an evolutionary blip of 10,000 years? In Ultrasociety, historian Peter Turchin advances a scientific approach to history to identify the causal mechanisms that enabled large-scale society- a strand of research Turchin calls Cliodynamics. Through quantitative analysis and modelling, Turchin …
Continue reading Cooperate To Compete: An Overview of ‘Ultrasociety’, by Peter Turchin
How have we humans become the Earth's dominant species- through our innate intelligence and our superior mental abilities? Not so, says Harvard's Joe Henrich in The Secret of Our Success. Surprisingly, primates such as chimpanzees actually eclipse humans in many forms of fluid intelligence, including working memory and information processing speed. Primates also perform better in various behavioural game theory …
Continue reading Collective Brains: An Overview of Joseph Henrich’s ‘The Secret of Our Success’
Darwinian Business 