Nicholas Wade is a former science writer for The New York Times and author of several books on human evolution, including A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race, and Human History and his new book, The Origin of Politics: How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations.
Tomorrow, he is joining the guys in New York to discuss his new book, The Origin of Politics; How Evolution and Ideology Shape the Fate of Nations. In the book, Nicholas explains how our political systems compete with a more ancient set of rules for organising society—those developed by evolution. Modern ideologies are in constant tension with structures inherent in human social behaviour, such as the family, the tribe, and male-dominated institutions.
Comment your questions for Nicholas.
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The process of animal domestication involves selection based on a range of criteria but in almost all cases one of those characteristics is selection for diminished aggression.
When selecting for diminished aggression the evidence seems to indicate the offspring tend towards more gracile and neotonous facial features and greater variability of hair coloring.
In comparing the level of aggression between typical human and chimp behavior, humans are clearly much less aggressive. This raises a question as to the extent human evolution has selected for characteristics resulting from the what might be described as self domestication.
Is it possible that different ecological environments may have encouraged or alternatively discouraged the self domestication of humans?
Could this shed some light on observed agregate differences between the races in characteristics such as facial gracility, hair color variation, IQ, academic achievement, criminality and levels of violence?
Hoping that's not enough to guarantee cancellation for life.
In your best estimation, what percentage of social science professors at elite American universities hold the view that the very concept of evolutionary behavioral biology is invalid?