Adaptive Biases

2020 ◽  
pp. 12-28
Author(s):  
Dominic D. P. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Scientific Theory ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Relative Influence ◽  
Rational Actor ◽  
Sources Of Variation ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Better Than

This chapter explores the notion of adaptive biases and strategic instincts in more detail and compares social science and life science approaches to understanding human behavior. It explains why cognitive biases evolved in the evolutionary past, whether they continue to be adaptive today, and why a bias can be better than accuracy. It also mentions that historians disagree on the relative influence of individual human actors in how history unfolds, while other historians dispute the fact that many or a majority of the most important figures across the ages do not fit the model of a perfectly rational actor. The chapter offers insights, predictions, and sources of variation that unifies a scientific theory to understand the origins, causes, and consequences of human cognitive and behavioral biases. It draws on evolutionary psychology to make two core arguments: cognitive biases are adaptations and cognitive biases are strategic.

Economics and Epicycles

2020 ◽  
pp. 174569162095378
Author(s):  
Satoshi Kanazawa
Keyword(s):  
Behavioral Economics ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Behavioral Economic ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
Human Actors ◽  
Economic Studies

I aver that standard economics as a model of human behavior is as incorrect in 2017 (after Thaler) as geocentrism was as a model of celestial behavior in 1617 (after Galileo). Behavioral economic studies that have exposed the paradoxes and anomalies in standard economics are akin to epicycles on geocentrism. Just as no amount of epicycles could salvage geocentrism as a model of celestial behavior because it was fundamentally incorrect, no amount of behavioral economic adjustments could salvage standard economics as a model of human behavior because it is fundamentally incorrect. Many of the cognitive biases exhibited by humans are shared by other species, so not only are human actors Humans (as opposed to Econs), but nonhuman animals as phylogenetically distant from humans as ants and locusts are also Humans. Evolutionary biology as a model of human behavior can explain many of the hitherto unexplained cognitive biases and provide a unifying model of human behavior currently lacking in behavioral economics.

Cognitive biases and limitations

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marc J. Stern
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Basic Assumptions ◽  
Human Thinking

This chapter summarizes some of the most common cognitive biases and limitations in human thinking and provides specific strategies for what we can do about them in various contexts. It serves as a baseline for understanding the flaws in some of our basic assumptions about human behavior and for approaching the rest of the theories discussed in the book with an appropriate dose of humility.

Integrating Mechanisms and Functions to Understand Behavior

2019 ◽  
pp. xiv-9
Author(s):  
Lisa L. M. Welling ◽  
Todd K. Shackelford
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Reproductive Behavior ◽  
Affective Behavior ◽  
Behavioral Endocrinology ◽  
Human Psychology ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
Underlying Mechanisms ◽  
Influence Behavior ◽  
Evolutionary Perspectives

Evolutionary psychology and behavioral endocrinology provide complementary perspectives on interpreting human behavior and psychology. Hormones can function as underlying mechanisms that influence behavior in functional ways. Understanding these proximate mechanisms can inform ultimate explanations of human psychology. This chapter introduces this edited volume by first discussing evolutionary perspectives in behavioral endocrinology. It then briefly addresses three broad topic areas of behavioral endocrinology: (1) development and survival, (2) reproductive behavior, and (3) social and affective behavior. It provides examples of research within each of these areas and describes potential adaptations. The chapter concludes with a discussion on the importance of integrating mechanisms with function when investigating human behavior and psychology.

scholarly journals Modeling human behavior in economics and social science

2017 ◽  
Vol 22-23 ◽  
pp. 1-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Dolfin ◽  
L. Leonida ◽  
N. Outada
Keyword(s):  
Social Science ◽  
Human Behavior

scholarly journals Evolutionary Psychology in the Modern World: Applications, Perspectives, and Strategies

2012 ◽  
Vol 10 (5) ◽  
pp. 147470491201000 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Craig Roberts ◽  
Mark van Vugt ◽  
Robin I. M. Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Social Problems ◽  
Evolutionary Approach ◽  
Modern World ◽  
Darwinian Medicine ◽  
New Directions ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Economics And Politics

An evolutionary approach is a powerful framework which can bring new perspectives on any aspect of human behavior, to inform and complement those from other disciplines, from psychology and anthropology to economics and politics. Here we argue that insights from evolutionary psychology may be increasingly applied to address practical issues and help alleviate social problems. We outline the promise of this endeavor, and some of the challenges it faces. In doing so, we draw parallels between an applied evolutionary psychology and recent developments in Darwinian medicine, which similarly has the potential to complement conventional approaches. Finally, we describe some promising new directions which are developed in the associated papers accompanying this article.

scholarly journals Inference and search on graph-structured spaces

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charley M. Wu ◽  
Eric Schulz ◽  
Samuel J Gershman
Keyword(s):  
Human Behavior ◽  
Bayesian Model ◽  
Learning Curves ◽  
Reward Learning ◽  
Function Learning ◽  
Sampling Behavior ◽  
Complex Graph ◽  
Human Function ◽  
Better Than

How do people learn functions on structured spaces? And how do they use this knowledge to guide their search for rewards in situations where the number of options is large? We study human behavior on structures with graph-correlated values and propose a Bayesian model of function learning to describe and predict their behavior. Across two experiments, one assessing function learning and one assessing the search for rewards, we find that our model captures human predictions and sampling behavior better than several alternatives, generates human-like learning curves, and also captures participants’ confidence judgements. Our results extend past models of human function learning and reward learning to more complex, graph-structured domains.

A Protest-Cycle Resolution of the Repression/Popular-Protest Paradox

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 457-484 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Brockett
Keyword(s):  
At Risk ◽  
Collective Action ◽  
Social Science ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Central American ◽  
Political Elites ◽  
Human Beings ◽  
Ordinary People ◽  
State Terrorism

Many people [in Guatemala] did begin to join the guerrillas, while many more were sympathetic or quietly supportive. The guerrillas are the only remaining source of defense left to a community or family. I know of villages that experienced actual massacres against innocent campesinos, who were not even members of coops. The survivors of these massacres would often turn to the guerrillas. With all their anger about the murders of their kin and neighbors, there was nowhere else to turn.—quoted in S. Davis and J. Hodson, Witnesses to Political Violence in GuatemalaCentral american events of recent decades show human behavior at both its most courageous and its most barbaric. The opposing phenomena of popular mobilization and state terrorism pose some of the most profound questions that can be asked by social science. How can we explain the willingness of political elites and their agents to slay thousands—tens of thousands—of their fellow human beings, even when their victims are unarmed? Conversely, how do we account for ordinary people undertaking collective action under circumstances so dangerous that even their lives are at risk?

Evolutionary Psychology: The Impact of Evolution on Human Behavior

2012 ◽  
pp. I-258-I-266
Author(s):  
Gordon G. Gallup ◽  
Jeremy Atkinson ◽  
Daniel D. Moriarty
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Psychology ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
The Impact
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document