Monogamous Marriage Changes Men's Psychology

Monogamoust marriage shifts men's psychology in ways that tend to reduce crime, violence and zero sum thinking. It also promotes broader trust, long term investments and steady economic accumulation. This form of marriage is neither natural nor normal for human societies but it nevertheless can give religious groups an advantage in inner group competition.

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Joe Henrich is a professor of human evolutionary biology at Harvard University and is the author of the book "The WEIRDest People in the World."

During our conversation, Joe talks about his interest in human nature, how cultures change people biologically, how the mating laws of the Roman Catholic Church and the literacy imperatives of Protestantism changed Western civilization, cultural limitations on the Big 5 Personality traits, monogamy and polygyny, modern dating, objective truth, right and wrong, and what UN parking ticket data tells us about different countries in the world.

WEIRD stands for "Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic," and if you're listening to this episode, you likely fall in that category. Joe is an encyclopedia of information about human beings, who we are, how we're different, and how we got this way. He offers advice for struggling young men, political leaders contemplating foreign intervention, and on how to think clearly about ethics and moral relativism.

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(00:00) Introduction

(03:04) Interest in evolutionary biology and human culture