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They predispose individuals to view the world in a particular innate way and automatically to make certain choices as opposed to others.
epigenetic rules in all categories of behavior direct the individual toward those relatively quick and accurate responses most likely to ensure survival and reproduction. But they leave open the potential generation of an immense array
technically too difficult ever to achieve.
is the best way for the social sciences to gain in predictive
the fundamental theory of the family, developed during the past thirty years by evolutionary biologists
theory with special reference to cooperation and conflict between parents
Cooperation and conflict have evolved as instincts because they improve the survival and reproduction of the individuals displaying them.
were drawn from studies by many independent investigators
controlling high-quality resources.
Dynasties,
arise in territories permanently rich...
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degree of cooperation.
general instinctive avoidance of incest,
economics.
closed system of circulating income.
individual producers and consumers will, when freed to pursue their own best interests, propel the economy forward and thereby work to the best interests of the society as a whole.
movement and change.
economy.” In economics and in the remainder of the social sciences as well, the translation from individual to aggregate behavior is the key analytic problem.
folk psychology has already been pushed way past its limit.
Gary S. Becker of the University of Chicago, awarded the 1992 Nobel Prize in Economic Science for “having extended the domain of economic theory to aspects of human behavior which had previously been dealt with—if at all—by other social science disciplines such as sociology,
He recognized that most of economic reasoning is based on the implicit assumption that people are driven by basic biological needs for food, shelter, and recreation.
the elemental imperatives.
it says simply that people maximize their satisfaction by acts based on calculation.
from folk psychology, and following a series of formal analytical steps,
Their appeal is in the chrome and roar of the engine, not the velocity or destination.
Becker’s words, that “depend on childhood, social interactions, and cultural influences.”
of utility, by asking why people ultimately lean toward certain choices, and being so predisposed,
why and under what circumstances they act upon them.
is the coevolution problem,
human nature, micro-to-macro transition, and the coevolution of genes and culture—require the full traverse from the social sciences to psychology and thence to the brain sciences and genetics.
Needs and opportunities in one category alter the strength of others.
preemptive.
competing emotions,
hereditary and environmental factors.
Do these differences have a genetic basis and thus an evolutionary history? Probably they do, and it is time to start examining them for this possibility
propensities to learn certain options in the first place and then to select particular ones among them.
When resources are few and unstable,
reduction to the elements of human behavior followed by bottom-up synthesis, not from the social sciences by top-down inference and guesswork based on intuitive knowledge.
They examine as best they can all the pertinent factors and weigh the likely outcome of following each potential choice in turn.
The preferred option is that which maximizes utility.
importance in rational choice theory is, how much information is enough? In other words, at what point do people stop reflecting and make up their minds?
A young man ready for marriage is more likely, by satisficing, to propose to the most attractive prospect among the available women of his acquaintance than to search at length for a preconceived ideal mate.
Daniel Kahneman
The correct answer may lie in genetic evolution: Over thousands
Take no chances whatsoever with food poisoning, and stay away from places where others have been recently killed, regardless of what the mathematical laws of probability tell you.
true and beautiful.
where they come from, in both history and personal experience,
how their essential qualities of truth and beauty are to be described through ordinary language.
Interpretation is itself partly an art,
In fact, it is the ultimate goal of science.
