Book Review: Evolutionary Psychology

Book Author: David M. Buss

This is one of my favorite books. I think of the material in here on a weekly basis if not daily.

It gives you a view into human behavior backed up by why behavior is like that. Knowing these defaults is powerful because it let’s you change that behavior.

For example, the differences in the sexes both physically and mentally are well described by mechanics of reproduction. It makes sense to be more risk averse as a female (you have much to lose if reproduction fails). But for males it makes sense to be status seeking because even if there is a possibility of death it could result in many mating opportunities. This implies if we want more female founders, more females doing risk/status based work we need to train and condition accordingly.

Also, there is a strong argument that male sexual reproduction is the origination of warfare (due to greater sexual access).

On the parenting side there is clear evidence that not having two natural parents is a disadvantage. Why? Because by default animals (including us) don’t care as much for children that aren’t genetically us. Step parents and adoptive parents are more likely abuse children that aren’t theirs by an order of magnitude compared to natural parents.

Makes complete sense. If we want to continue to disrupt the nuclear family we need to work around these disadvantages.

Anyway, these are just memorable points. There is much more practical information for your day to day.

This is a must read for everybody.