Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity Are Revolutionizing Our View of Human Nature

Name: Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life A Psychologist Investigates How Evolution, Cognition, and Complexity Are Revolutionizing Our View of Human Nature
Price: 4.23 USD
Availability: InStock
ISBN: 9780465020447

ISBN-10: 0465020445

ISBN-13: 9780465020447

Edition: 2011

Authors: Douglas T. Kenrick

List price: $31.50

30 day, 100% satisfaction guarantee!

Marketplace

5 new & used from $4.23

what's this?

Rush Rewards U
Members Receive:

You have reached 400 XP and carrot coins. That is the daily max!

Description:

Evolutionary psychology is a powerful tool but can be hackneyed. Cognitive science exposes the many inherent shortcuts and biases we use to think. In Sex, Murder, and the Meaning of Life, social psychologist Douglas Kenrick argues that it is in the fusion of these two fields that we can begin to tell a coherent story of human nature. In his view, many ingrained, apparently irrational behaviors-- one-night stands, prejudice, conspicuous consumption, even art and religious devotion-- are quite explicable and (when desired) avoidable. When combined with insights from complexity theory, Kenrick's argument reveals how simple mechanisms give rise to complex life. Idiosyncratic, controversial, and…

Book details

List price: $31.50
Copyright year: 2011
Publisher: Basic Books
Publication date: 4/26/2011
Binding: Hardcover
Pages: 256
Size: 6.50" wide x 9.50" long x 1.00" tall
Weight: 0.990



Introduction: You, Me, Charles Darwin, and Dr. Seuss



Standing in the Gutter


How did an innocent young student accidentally fall in with a band of intellectual revolutionaries?



Why Playboy Is Bad for Your Mental Mechanisms


When is beauty bad for you?



Homicidal Fantasies


Why have most of us had at least one fantasy about committing murder?



Outgroup Hatred in the Blink of an Eye


Why can't we all just get along?



The Mind as a Coloring Book


Why doesn't cultural variation support the blank-slate view of the mind?



Subselves


The three faces of thee



Reconstructing Maslow's Pyramid


Where are the missing bricks in the classic pyramid of needs?



How the Mind Warps


Why do men and women forget different people and regret different things?



Peacocks, Porsches, and Pablo Picasso


Why do men go out of their way to avoid a Consumer Reports Best Buy?



Sex and Religion


When is godliness just another mating strategy?



Deep Rationality and Evolutionary Economics


Why are behavioral economists only half right when they say that our economic choices are irrational?



Bad Crowds, Chaotic Attractors, and Humans as Ants


Why your parents were right about the company you keep.


Conclusion: Looking Up at the Stars


How does research on unsavory and taboo topics converge into a grand view of human nature and answer the question: What is the meaning of life?


Notes


References


Index