Rocked by a steady stream of failed replications and allegations of outrageous fraud, behavioural science stands at a crossroads. Ironically, the field of psychology finds itself slumped in a period of piercing introspection, being forced to answer tough questions. Diagnoses abound, with blame being placed on perverse incentives in academia, statistical methods in dire need …
Whether it’s the tragic death of Willy Loman in A Death of A Salesman, or Lester Burnham’s midlife crisis in American Beauty, a persistent theme in popular culture is a gnawing sense of alienation people feel running the modern day rat race. If you’ve ever felt this way, you’re not alone. Given that we spend …
Continue reading The Social Brain, by Tracey Camilleri, Samantha Rockey & Robin Dunbar
Whether weddings, national parades or religious festivals, rituals present a puzzle. We stress their importance, reflecting on these services as some of life’s most cherished moments. And yet, when prompted, most of us can’t explain why we perform them. What explains their persistence, and this apparent contradiction? In his new book Ritual: How Seemingly Senseless Acts …
The pandemic has been a stark reminder of just how much we rely on one another. Like plagues of the past, the novel coronavirus has exploited our social nature. But our sociality is also our Get Out of Jail Free card. Billions of people complying with strict lockdowns and the race to roll-out COVID-19 vaccines …
One of the defining attributes of humans is that we are champion cooperators, surpassing levels of cooperation far beyond what is observed in other species across the animal kingdom. Understanding how cooperation is sustained, particularly in large-scale societies, remains a central question for both evolutionary scientists and policy makers. Social scientists frequently use behavioural game …
Continue reading Why anti-corruption strategies may backfire
One of the defining features of human psychology is our extraordinary prosociality. How can cooperation and prosocial behaviour be maintained, despite the immediate temptations to free-ride and deflect? In a paper published in the September edition of the journal Evolution & Human Behavior, organisational psychologists Allen Grabo and Mark van Vugt explore the origins and functions of charismatic leadership. Charismatic …
Continue reading Charismatic Leadership Through the Lens of Evolution
What follows is an overview of Michael Price (Brunel University, London) and Dominic Johnson's (Edinburgh University) 'Adaptionist Theory of Cooperation in Groups', as outlined in Gad Saad's (2011) Evolutionary Psychology in the Business Sciences. -- To help explain organizational cooperation from an evolutionary perspective, Price and Johnson developed the 'Adaptionist Theory of Cooperation in Groups'- abbreviated …
Continue reading ATCG: Evolutionary Predictions for Organizational Cooperation
Darwinian Business 