Dr. Max Krasnow is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at Harvard University. His research interests include: evolutionary psychology, evolution of sociality, psychology of cooperation and punishment, ecological rationality, and psychology of foraging. Dr. Krasnow’s primary line of research focuses on the evolutionary origins and computational design of the mechanisms underlying human cooperation and social behavior. Why are we more generous, trusting and cooperative, but also vengeful and punitive than an otherwise rational analysis would predict? He has been exploring how the answers to these questions neatly fall out by considering reliable features of the ancestral ecology and simple cognitive mechanisms that could evolve to benefit from them.

In this episode, we talk about different aspects of human sociality. We first discuss how we evolved to be so generous, trusting and cooperative. We address the different types of natural selection, namely, sexual selection and social selection, and also if we need group selection to explain things like strong reciprocity. We then talk about uncertainty in human interactions, and why we cooperate in one-shot interactions. We refer to the social role of vengeance and punishment; the evolution of honesty; the importance of social reputation; and how deterrence works in human societies.

Follow Dr. Krasnow’s work:

Faculty page/website: http://bit.ly/2m8HutZ

Evolutionary Psychology Laboratory (Harvard): http://bit.ly/2kk9HO6

ResearchGate profile: http://bit.ly/2kKxJln

Twitter handle: @mmkrasnow

A HUGE THANK YOU TO MY PATRONS/SUPPORTERS: KARIN LIETZCKE, ANN BLANCHETTE, SCIMED, PER HELGE HAAKSTD LARSEN, LAU GUERREIRO, RUI BELEZA, ANTÓNIO CUNHA, CHANTEL GELINAS, JERRY MULLER, FRANCIS FORDE, HANS FREDRIK SUNDE, YEVHEN BODRENKO, SERGIU CODREANU, ADAM BJERRE, AIRES ALMEIDA, BERNARDO SEIXAS, HERBERT GINTIS, RUTGER VOS, RICARDO VLADIMIRO, BO WINEGARD, VEGA GIDEY, CRAIG HEALY, OLAF ALEX, PHILIP KURIAN, JONATHAN VISSER, DAVID DIAS, ANJAN KATTA, JAKOB KLINKBY, ADAM KESSEL, MATTHEW WHITINGBIRD, ARNAUD WOLFF, TIM HOLLOSY, HENRIK AHLENIUS, AND JOHN CONNORS!

A SPECIAL THANKS TO MY PRODUCERS, YZAR WEHBE, ROSEY, AND JIM FRANK, AND ŁUKASZ STAFINIAK!

AND TO MY EXECUTIVE PRODUCER, MICHAL RUSIECKI!

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