Geoffrey Miller on Signaling, Mating, and Morality || The Psychology Podcast

[@pascalbercker7487]

I read The Mating Mind over 20 years ago and it helped completely change my perspective on human nature - but I was already primed for if from reading many other things in evolutionary psychology, and in sociobiology before that, going all the way back to E.O. Wilson's book On Human Nature. I'm re-reading it now in conjunction with The Handicap Principle by Amot Zahavi, which is a real page turner and keeps stunning me every 2 or 3 pages. I would recommend reading The Handicap Principle even before the Mating Mind before the first half is completely devoted to non-human animals where the the handicap principle is shown to apply again and again in all sorts of surprising and unsuspected ways. It's the twisted logic of evolution that makes the handicap principle so initially counter-intuitive because it shows how signalling can evolved precisely because it imposes a costly burden on the most fit and be a true signal of superiority that the less fit animal cannot pay.

[@02edward027433]

Part 2 please!!! Thanks Barry!

[@julias.6658]

One thing I would be interested in knowing: Miller claims that having a greater knowledge of evolutionary psychology can help former pickup artists gain a greater respect for women’s drives and motives. However, couldn’t this just lead to an over justification of their current objectification/simplification of women?

[@lsugyen6267]

he tells people to be honest, which is the key to mutual respect.

[@SSSyndrome214]

Great interview. Thank you both.

[@amoghdharbal6386]

How to watch video version?

[@OMAR-vq3yb]

He's essentially a player in the academic/scientific arena and uses the polyamory label to insulate himself from being called immoral. A sex addicted intellectual is on another level.

[@DJSTOEK]

🖤

[@giorgiosironi6221]

I appreciate evolutionary biology but it often tends to try to explain*everything* in terms of it. Our culture and environment are incredibly different to thousands of years ago yet we are biologically the same.

[@nickshelbourne4426]

Evolutionary psychology talks about evolving mechanisms, rather than configurations of those mechanisms. What does this mean? For instance, we have evolved to be cultural animals, and we see lots of mechanisms to facilitate this -- e.g. early birth, long childhood, social mimesis, etc. etc. So we have evolved mechanisms that allow us to be cultural. Some things change cross-culturally and some things don't. An important part of establishing a mechanism as being heritable/evolved is establishing cross-cultural validity. In pop-science talks like this, they don't go into methodology because people don't find that interesting. If you study evolutionary psychology, these are key areas of debate and research.

[@manso306]

That take on political orientation being an outcome of sexual strategies is just... so completely unfounded. CORRELATION DOES NOT IMPLY CAUSATION HOW ARE YOU A PROFESSIONAL RESEARCHER

[@Skelfi]

It's not unfounded. It can be described by models that show predicable results.