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Title details for The Rational Animal by Vladas Griskevicius - Available

The Rational Animal

How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think

by Vladas Griskevicius
Douglas T. Kenrick, PhD
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Why do three out of four professional football players go bankrupt? How can illiterate jungle dwellers pass a test that tricks Harvard philosophers? And why do billionaires work so hard—only to give their hard-earned money away?
When it comes to making decisions, the classic view is that humans are eminently rational. But growing evidence suggests instead that our choices are often irrational, biased, and occasionally even moronic. Which view is right—or is there another possibility?
In this animated tour of the inner workings of the mind, psychologist Douglas T. Kenrick and business professor Vladas Griskevicius challenge the prevailing views of decision making, and present a new alternative grounded in evolutionary science. By connecting our modern behaviors to their ancestral roots, they reveal that underneath our seemingly foolish tendencies is an exceptionally wise system of decision making.
From investing money to choosing a job, from buying a car to choosing a romantic partner, our choices are driven by deep-seated evolutionary goals. Because each of us has multiple evolutionary goals, though, new research reveals something radical—there's more than one "you" making decisions. Although it feels as if there is just one single "self" inside your head, your mind actually contains several different subselves, each one steering you in a different direction when it takes its turn at the controls.
The Rational Animal will transform the way you think about decision making. And along the way, you'll discover the intimate connections between ovulating strippers, Wall Street financiers, testosterone-crazed skateboarders, Steve Jobs, Elvis Presley, and you.

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    October 1, 2013

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781469056425
      • File size: 251309 KB
      • Duration: 08:43:33

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 24, 2013
      Did you just do something stupid? Don’t worry—psychology prof Kenrick (Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life) and “decision scientist” Griskevicius have some good news: even your worst decisions are rational—at least as far as evolution is concerned. The authors structure their argument around two key “insights”: “human decision making serves evolutionary goals,” and “human decision making is designed to achieve several very different evolutionary goals.” They assert that each person has seven “subselves” (the “self-protection,” “disease-avoidance,” “affiliation,” “status,” “mate-acquisition,” “mate-retention,” and the “kin-care subself”), each of which can be forced to react to environmental conditions in ways that are honed by evolutionary pressures to increase the chances of biological reproduction. Kenrick and Griskevicius present some interesting psychological studies to support their thesis, but their near-Panglossian view of human decision-making—one that could be marshaled to justify nearly any action according to an evolutionary standard that fails to take ethics into account—is distressing. They posit, for example, that overconfidence is favored by evolution to ensure that people “persist in the face of failure”—never mind the fact that this attitude “has been blamed for World War I, the Vietnam War, the war in Iraq.” Ultimately, their study is as readable as it is simplistic. 4 b&w illus.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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