The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think (40 page)

Read The Rational Animal: How Evolution Made Us Smarter Than We Think Online

Authors: Douglas T. Kenrick,Vladas Griskevicius

Tags: #Business & Economics, #Consumer Behavior, #Economics, #General, #Education, #Decision-Making & Problem Solving, #Psychology, #Cognitive Psychology, #Cognitive Psychology & Cognition, #Social Psychology, #Science, #Life Sciences, #Evolution, #Cognitive Science

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.

Index

Abernathy, Ralph,
24

Accuracy issue,
77–79

Aché tribe,
36

Ackerman, Josh,
166

Adaptive behavior

accuracy and,
77–78
biases and,
76
exploiting,
185–186
indicator of,
10
and life history strategies,
119
,
132
,
135
and loss aversion,
46
,
47
See also
Evolutionary challenges, the need to solve

Advertising

and changing preferences,
27–30
exploitation in,
188
and marketing strategies,
190–194
and stable preferences,
26

Advertising Age
(magazine),
196

Affiliation subself

ancestral problem of,
107–108
and compatibility between subselves,
49
described,
36–37
,
212
erasing errors by engaging,
113–114
fulfilling the needs of, spending on,
189
hierarchy of needs and,
43
mating effort and,
122
others exploiting,
186
parasites of,
199
and rules of the game,
60–64
somatic effort and,
122
Wason task and,
107
,
108
See also specific aspects related to the
affiliation subself

Age factors.
See
Childhood
;
Children
;
Men
;
Teenagers/young adults
;
Women

AIDS epidemic,
165

American culture,
144–145

Anderson, Siwan,
162
,
163

Animals, people as, view focusing on.
See
Evolutionary psychologist perspective

Aniston, Jennifer,
169

Apple, Inc.,
61
,
64
,
65
,
93
,
127

Assault,
17
,
33
,
134

Assumptions, avoiding,
209–210

Auditory looming,
78

Authority ranking,
64–65

Automobile culture,
149

Bachelor, The
(television show),
180

Bachelorette, The
(television show),
180

Bad judgment.
See
Errors/mistakes

Bankruptcy,
117–118
,
119
,
136
,
138

Baumeister, Roy F.,
163–164

Beal, Dan,
157

Beautiful young women, men’s preference for,
167–169
,
170
,
171
,
173

Beauty products and regimes, women’s spending on,
175–176

Becker, Vaughn,
34

Behavior

mystery of,
215–216
predicting,
16
,
46
See also
Adaptive behavior

Behavioral economist perspective

as both right and wrong,
9
contributions of, and suggestions to improve upon,
214
lesson about,
209–210
of man as irrational, described,
4–7
rational economists versus,
6
,
7
theory lacking in,
16
See also specific ideas/concepts of behavioral economists

Behavioral immune system,
83–84

Belsky, Jay,
134

Bias

assumptions about, avoiding,
209–210
being born with, benefits of,
93–94
calculated,
82
clustering illusion,
6–7
and the different subselves,
45
,
73
evolutionary view of,
10
,
11
false consensus,
76
gambler’s fallacy,
6
,
7
hindsight,
6
,
7
intentional, reason for,
76
,
78
loss aversion,
5
,
9–11
,
45–48
overconfidence,
77
,
91–93
,
94
,
123
perceived as irrational,
5
,
6–7
,
9
ultimate reasons for, perspective providing,
16
,
20
See also
Errors/mistakes
;
Subselves

Bissoon, Lionel,
126

Bowerbird displays,
152–154
,
155

Brain mass,
77

Brain programming,
31–32

Brain size,
40

Bride price,
162–163
,
171
,
182

Brin, Sergey,
127

Bringing Down the House
(Mezrich),
167

Bryan, Angela,
83

Burrell, Stanley.
See
MC Hammer

Business

aggressiveness in,
127
market economics and, problem with,
68–69
See also
Corporate economics
;
Family businesses

Buss, David,
178

Cameron, James,
92

Causes of behavior.
See
Proximate reasons
;
Ultimate reasons

Changing preferences,
27–29
,
34
,
39–40
,
46
,
47–48

Charlson, John,
130

Cheater detection problem,
108–109

Chen, Keith,
9

Childhood

environment during, influence of, on life history strategy,
134–137
,
138–140
,
140–141
imprints from, surfacing of, times most likely for,
138–139

Children

birth of, and testosterone levels,
125
equality matching and,
62
fast versus slow strategies in,
128
,
136–137
inclusive fitness and,
57
somatic effort and,
122
talking versus writing and,
99–100
violent environments and,
134

Churchland, Patricia,
78

Cialdini, Robert “Bob,”
28
,
154
,
196

Clinton, Bill,
65

Clooney, George,
89
,
214–215

Clustering illusion,
6–7

Cognitive biases.
See
Bias

Commensalism,
187
,
194

Communal sharing,
62

See also
Kinship game

Computer analogy,
31–32

Con men,
186
,
188
,
201–203
,
204
,
209

Conditional logic, testing,
106–107
,
108–109

Confidence

bias involving,
77
,
91
,
92–93
,
94
,
123
essentialness of,
91–92

Conflict, negotiating through, different approaches to,
51–53
,
59

Consensus bias, false,
76

Conspicuous conservation,
149

Conspicuous consumption

cultural explanation of,
144–145
described, and examples of,
143–144
different version of,
148–150
fast versus slow strategies and,
156–157
human history of,
145–146
mate-acquisition subself and,
154–155
,
156–157
,
158
,
159
,
174
multiple explanations for,
150–151
people’s own explanations for,
146–148
proximate reasons for,
158–159
sex differences in,
154–155
,
159
,
182–183
status subself and,
143–144
,
148–150
,
151
ultimate reasons for, exploring,
151–157
,
158
,
159
utility explanation of,
146

Conspicuous displays, reasons for,
152–154
,
155
,
157

Consumer Reports
(magazine),
143
,
149
,
150

Consumerism.
See
Conspicuous consumption

Corporate economics

described,
55–56
home economics versus,
59–60
See also
Market economics

Cosmetic surgery,
175

Cosmides, Leda,
107
,
108
,
109

Costello, Frank,
16

Counterfeit drugs,
201

Craig, Daniel,
215

Credit card debt,
179
,
180–181

Curse of the Kennedys
(Grady),
2
,
4

Daly, Martin,
123
,
124

Dangerous environments, influence of, on life history strategy,
134
,
140

Dating guides,
89

Dating standards,
164

David, Larry,
147

Davis, Mike,
126

De Beers,
195–197
,
198
,
213

De Fraja, Gianni,
146

Death rates.
See
Mortality levels/rates

DeBruine, Lisa,
70–71

Debt,
117
,
118
,
138
,
179
,
180–181

See also
Bankruptcy

Deception, experts at,
203

See also
Parasitism

Decision making

alternate view of,
2–3
blinded by the modern world,
114–115
divisive debate over,
2
,
7
,
8
exercising control over,
212–213
most popular view of,
4
,
209–210
taking time for, to avoid exploitation,
204–205

Deep rationality.
See
Evolutionary psychologist perspective

Defense and offense, importance of both,
86

Delaying gratification.
See
Slow strategy

Demand and supply, sexual,
179–182

Desire, manufactured, through marketing,
196–197

Developmental pyramid, climbing the,
42–44
,
122

Developmental stages,
121–125

“Diamond is forever” slogan,
196–197

Diamond rings,
163
,
167
,
195–199
,
204
,
213

Diaz, Cameron,
147

DiCaprio, Leonardo,
147
,
149–150
,
208

Dingley, Nicholas “Razzle,”
138

Disease-avoidance subself

described,
34–36
,
212
fulfilling the needs of, spending on,
189
hierarchy of needs and,
43
mating effort and,
123
parasites of,
199
,
199–201
,
201–203
parenting effort and,
125
pathogen detection system of,
83–84
,
93
and the response to genetically modified food,
85–86
somatic effort and,
122
See also specific aspects related to the
disease-avoidance subself

Disney, Roy E.,
52
,
59
,
60
,
73

Disney, Roy O.,
51–52
,
59
,
60
,
62
,
72–73

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