Nicholas Christakis, a Sterling Professor at Yale and author of 'Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society,' explores the complexities of human nature. He discusses how despite our flaws, we're biologically wired to cooperate and empathize. The conversation covers fascinating social experiments, contrasting shipwreck survival strategies, and the significance of mild hierarchies in promoting social order. Christakis emphasizes the importance of love and inclusivity, offering an optimistic view of humanity's potential to evolve positively.
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insights INSIGHT
Good outweighs Bad
Natural selection shaped humans for good qualities like love, friendship, and cooperation, not just bad qualities.
These good qualities must have outweighed the bad for humans to have evolved as social creatures.
insights INSIGHT
Social Suite
The "social suite" describes uniquely social human traits requiring interaction, like love or in-group bias.
These core social features are shaped by evolution, differentiating them from individual traits like risk aversion.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Forbidden Experiment
Christakis discusses a thought experiment of abandoning babies on an island to observe societal development.
While unethical, this "forbidden experiment" highlights his interest in how social order emerges.
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Released on September 11, 2001, *The Blueprint* is widely regarded as one of the greatest hip-hop albums of all time. It was created during a tumultuous period in Jay-Z's life, including legal issues and feuds with other rappers. The album features a soul-based soundscape, with notable tracks like 'Izzo (H.O.V.A.)' and 'Takeover.' Despite its release coinciding with the September 11 attacks, it debuted at number one on the US charts and has since been selected for preservation in the United States National Recording Registry for its cultural and historical significance.
The big picture
Derek Monsey
It’s easy to be cynical about humanity’s present state and future prospects. But we have made it this far, and in some ways we’re doing better than we used to be. Today’s guest, Nicholas Christakis, is an interdisciplinary researcher who studies human nature from a variety of perspectives, including biological, historical, and philosophical. His most recent book is Blueprint: The Evolutionary Origins of a Good Society, in which he tries to pinpoint the common features of all human societies, something he dubs the “social suite.” Marshaling evidence from genetics to network theory to accounts of shipwreck survivors, he argues that we are ultimately wired to get along, despite the missteps we make along the way. Support Mindscape on Patreon or Paypal. Nicholas Christakis received an M.D. from Harvard Medical School and a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently Sterling Professor of Social and Natural Science in the Department of Sociology, with additional appointments in the Departments of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology; Statistics and Data Science; Biomedical Engineering; Medicine; and in the School of Management. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Yale web page Google scholar page Amazon.com author page Wikipedia Twitter
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