We begin life with some relatively simple starting preferences (e.g. an aversion to noxious stimuli) together with a set of dispositions to acquire additional preferences in response to various possible experiences (e.g. we might be disposed to form a preference for objects and behaviors that we find to be valued and rewarded in our culture). Both the simple starting preferences and the dispositions are innate, having been shaped by natural and sexual selection over evolutionary timescales. Yet which preferences we end up with as adults depends on life events. Much of the information content
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