In 2015, the revelation that Volkswagen had been gaming emissions tests shook the corporate world. The deception involved 11 million diesel cars being fitted with a ‘defeat device’, which masked the emissions released by these vehicles when they detected they were undergoing testing, but otherwise polluted at levels flagrantly beyond legal limits. Since being busted, …
Do you ever get a niggling feeling that other people are doing better than you? Don't worry, we all do. In his new book The Status Game: On Social Position and How We Use It, Will Storr reveals the hidden force that triggers much of our anxiety: social status. From our hunter-gatherer ancestors who roamed …
Here’s a podcast episode I recorded with Nigel Nicholson, for the Evolution Institute. Nigel Nicholson and I discuss the application of evolutionary psychology to business and management. We cover Nigel Nicholson’s academic career, and his books Managing the Human Animal, Family Wars and The “I” of Leadership. We also explore the impacts of the pandemic on the world of work. We …
Continue reading Managing the Human Animal, with Nigel Nicholson
It’s a well-established fact that size influences our choice of leaders. For example, CEOs of Fortune 500 companies are disproportionately over 6 feet tall. Similarly, the height of presidential candidates can partially predict the outcome of an election. Since the start of the 20th century, over 70% of US elections between the two parties have …
Here’s a podcast episode I recorded with Mark van Vugt, for the This View of Life podcast. Mark van Vugt and I discuss his book Mismatch, coauthored with Ronald Giphart. We then delve into the science of evolutionary mismatches, and how this knowledge can help us understand human behaviour in modern settings, such as the workplace. We recorded this …
Continue reading Evolutionary Mismatch in the Workplace, with Mark van Vugt
Ranking people by their social status seems to come naturally to us humans. Indeed, social hierarchies are ubiquitous across cultures and throughout human history. Social hierarchies have allowed humans to coordinate effectively, and enabled large groups to make decisions and address collective action problems. Whether small-scale societies or industrialised nations, one can think of various …
Almost 63 million Americans voted for Donald Trump in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Trump's victory defied experts' predictions, and shocked the world. How could a man widely dismissed as a joke, a conspiracy theorist and an impulsive narcissist with no political experience whatsoever, capture the world’s most powerful political position? Not only did Trump …
Continue reading The Appeal of the Primal Leader: Human Evolution and Donald Trump
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
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
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
Darwinian Business 