The Nature & Nurture Podcast

Dr. Alan Fiske is a Distinguished Professor of Anthropology at UCLA, where he co-directs the Kama Muta Lab, and the author of several books including Structures of Social Life, Virtuous Violence, and Kama Muta: Discovering the Connecting Emotion. In this episode we talk about Alan’s career as an anthropologist, the research which led to his books, and the social mechanisms which give rise to both peace and violence in human societies. Finally, we talk about Alan’s research on kama muta. Kama muta is Sanskrit for “being moved by love”. Alan defines kama muta as “Kama muta is the sudden feeling of oneness, love, belonging, or union with an individual person, a family, a team, a nation, nature, the cosmos, God, or a kitten.” Learn more about kama muta, and experience it for yourself, at: https://kamamutalab.org/

Dr. Dan Conroy-Beam is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Dan uses an evolutionary and computational perspective to understand mate choice and mating relationships. Specifically, he is interested in how mate preferences are integrated with one another computationally in order to make mating decisions as well as the decision rules people use to navigate their mating markets and their relationships. Dan's work combines agent-based modeling of mate choice with studies of real couples to compare and explore candidate models for how people evaluate potential mates, pursue partners, and regulate their relationships. Learn more about Dan's work at: https://www.danconroybeam.com/ In this episode we cover a wide range of topics including Dan's research on computational mate choice, the theory and history of sexual selection, different reproductive strategies and status signaling in humans and other animals, and environmental factors influencing mate choice ranging from sex ratio, to resource availability, to modern dating app environments. 

Dr. Rob Henderson is a psychologist best known for his research on luxury beliefs.  In this episode, we talk about risk and resilience factors for success in America, including growing up in stable two-parent households. Rob shares how his experience growing up in the foster care system and his military service primed him for identifying luxury beliefs of the upper class during his studies at Yale and Cambridge. We discuss how luxury beliefs confer status upon elites, but disproportionately harm people in poor and working-class communities. As a case-study, we talk about changing norms surrounding monogamy and casual sex. Lastly, we talk about evolutionary pressures for and against monogamy, cooperation, and different moral values. 0:00:02Introduction to Dr. Rob Henderson and his research on luxury beliefs and social status0:00:47Discussion on the deteriorating state of young men in America0:03:21The differential effects of family structure on boys and girls0:04:56The interaction between nature and nurture in determining life outcomes0:06:08The impact of environmental inputs on cognitive ability and personality0:08:38The importance of stable and decent childhoods for children's well-being0:11:54The different ways in which "Lost Boys" manifest their struggles0:14:35The role of the military in providing structure and stability0:16:26The cultural shock experienced by Dr. Henderson at Yale0:20:22The concept of luxury beliefs and their role in conferring status0:25:21The moralization of luxury beliefs and the language treadmill0:28:08The harms caused by luxury beliefs, particularly in relation to monogamy0:36:56The impact of luxury beliefs on lower status people0:45:40The impact of luxury beliefs on mating psychology and relationships0:53:49The consequences of polyamory and the importance of monogamy for children1:00:08The potential consequences of a society-wide shift towards polyamory1:05:04The frustration of entitled attitudes towards income and education1:05:40The complexity of evolutionary forces and moral norms1:06:41The limitations of grounding morality solely in evolutionary models1:08:11The influence of economic education on selfish behavior in games1:09:21The importance of reputation and belonging in human psychology1:11:30Dr. Henderson's book and its exploration of personal experiences and social commentary

Dr. C. Sue Carter is a Professor of Psychology at the University of Virginia and Distinguished Research Scientist at Indiana University, where she also holds an Emerita position as Rudy Professor of Biology and was formerly Director of the Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction. She is a Fellow and past President of the International Behavioral Neuroscience Society, and is known for her pioneering work on oxytocin, the love hormone, and its role in parental care and romantic pairbonding.   In this episode we discuss how neuroendocrinology research has evolved over the course of Dr. Carter’s career, and how oxytocin became known as “the love hormone”. We discuss her early research examining oxytocin’s role in parental care, pairbonding, and sex drive in prairie voles, and contrast these findings to early evolutionary theories centered around testosterone and other sex hormones. We also talk about vasopressin, a hormone related to oxytocin, and discuss its role in more nuanced forms of care such as defensive aggression. Dr. Carter introduces the term of “sociostasis” as a social form of homeostasis which oxytocin and vasopressin are central to regulating. Lastly, we talk about oxytocin’s interactions with sex and stress hormones prenatally, during infancy, and during puberty, and how the early environment may epigenetically our oxytocin receptors and have lifelong impacts.

Dr. Adam Morris is a cognitive scientist and Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Psychology at Princeton University. In this episode we talk about Adam’s research on the connections between mindfulness, decision-making, and introspection. We talk about the cognitive mechanisms involved involving in weighing pros and cons of your decisions, how various decision-making strategies may be computationally modeled, and how there may be a disconnect between people’s interoceptive beliefs about their decision-making processes, and what they actually do. Lastly, we talk about the science of mindfulness, and Adam’s ongoing research plans of an intervention study to test whether mindfulness training helps people introspect better about their own decision-making.

Dr. Brynn Sherman is a cognitive neuroscientist and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Pennsylvania. In this episode we talk about Brynn’s research on the interaction between statistical learning and memory errors, and how memory is studied using behavioral tasks and neuroimaging. We discuss the distinction between episodic memory and semantic memory, memory encoding and consolidation, and between knowing and remembering. We also discuss Brynn’s more recent research on the effects of stress and sleep on memory, and how these effects manifest in the brain.

Dr. Michael Levin is a developmental and synthetic biologist at Tufts University, where he is the Vannevar Bush Distinguished Professor and director of the Allen Discovery Center and Tufts Center for Regenerative and Developmental Biology. In this episode we talk about Mike’s research, which ranges from studying the molecular biology of cancer, to the bioelectrics of limb regeneration, to memory and higher-order cognition. Mike describes the overall theme of his research as understanding the embodied nature of cognition in organic and synthetic systems, and the philosophical implications of this worldview. We discuss a wide variety of topics ranging from the neurobiology of planarian flatworms, to the future of regenerative medicine, to philosophical questions about the definitions of life, consciousness, and artificial intelligence. 0:02:05Exploring the concept of mind embodied in different architectures0:03:26Understanding morphogenesis as a collective intelligence of cells0:04:47Shift in problem space and intelligence from single cells to multicellular structures0:06:42The intentionality of animals and the continuum of agency0:09:27Choosing the appropriate model system for research0:11:11Dr. Levin's background and evolution of his research0:17:10Interest in the intersection of engineering and biology0:19:59Studying the bioelectric communication in cellular networks0:22:56Computational models of morphogenesis and cognitive aspects of development0:25:19The complexity of intelligence and the binary distinction of living0:27:25The continuum of life and the challenges of defining it0:29:49The ability to learn and memory in planaria0:37:00The challenges of defining individual identity and memory0:39:23The unique regenerative abilities of planaria and salamanders0:41:06The future of regenerative medicine and synthetic biology0:45:24The potential of somatic psychiatry and tissue training regimes0:47:44Understanding complex cognitive machines and the limits of understanding0:51:06Different notions of understanding emergent phenomena0:53:29The challenges of understanding neural networks and biological networks

Dr. Daniel Schacter is a Professor of Psychology at Harvard University where he runs the Schacter Memory Lab, and author of The Seven Sins of Memory. In this episode we talk about the history of memory research over the last 100+ years, beginning with simple behavioral tasks and up to modern neuroimaging. Dr. Schacter overviews different dimensions of memory scientists have identified, including episodic vs. semantic, implicit vs. explicit, and the processes of encoding, consolidation, retrieval, and reconsolidation. We then discuss each of The Seven Sins of Memory: Transience, Absent-Mindedness, Blocking, Misattribution, Suggestibility, Bias, and Persistence. Lastly, Dr. Schacter describes some of his more recent research on the relationship between episodic memory and imagination and creativity.

Dr. Joshua Greene is a psychologist, philosopher, Professor at Harvard University, and author of Moral Tribes: Emotion, Reason, and the Gap Between Us and Them. In this episode we talk about Josh’s early research on moral psychology, specifically trolleyology. He describes his empirical research on the famous trolley problem thought experiment in philosophy, and how people generally approach these problems via two different modes of reasoning: slow and rational, and fast and emotional. We talk about the evolutionary origins of these distinct moral cognitive processes, and an alternative framework to utilitarianism known as deep pragmatism. Lastly, Josh talks about his recent research on this pragmatic approach to moral psychology, including The Giving Multiplier which aims to motivate people to donate to more effective charities. Josh created a special code for viewers of The Nature & Nurture Podcast to use on The Giving Multiplier. Use The Giving Multiplier to donate to charities of your own choice as well as highly effective charities identified by Josh’s lab. With this code, an extra 50% will be matched and added to any amount you donate: https://givingmultiplier.org/invite/NATURENURTURE Code: NATURENURTURE

Dr. Dorsa Amir is a psychologist, anthropologist, and postdoctoral research fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. In this episode we talk about child development and decision-making through the interdisciplinary lenses of anthropology, psychology, evolutionary biology, and behavioral economics. We talk about some of Dorsa’s theoretical research on how human environments have changed across cultural and evolutionary histories, and how plasticity in child development allows humans to adapt to various forms of environmental threat, deprivation, and uncertainty. We also talk about Dorsa’s experimental and cross-cultural research on child decision-making, and how these adaptive behaviors also vary across environments, resource availability, and uncertainty. Dorsa describes how the field of developmental psychology is slowly moving away from WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) assumptions in order to gain a richer understanding of the full scope of child development across cultures.