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PROFESSOR: I'd like to try to
cover two chapters in the book

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00:00:24,360 --> 00:00:31,780
today-- not too much more
of the sociobiology book.

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00:00:31,780 --> 00:00:37,580
But some pretty interesting
things still to talk about.

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00:00:37,580 --> 00:00:41,590
So what does what's the
brain to a sociobiologist?

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They say it's a reproductive
organ just like every organ

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that any living thing is
born with because they evolve

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by the processes of
natural selection largely.

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And that's based on the
maximal transmission of genes.

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So that's what they assume.

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00:01:06,980 --> 00:01:10,930
So what would be the
long-range evolutionary outcome

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if most people really had
blank slate brains at birth?

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What would happen?

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If you take a society where
everybody had blank slates--

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everything was learned--
a common assumption

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when people have babies.

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So Alcock goes through a
little thought experiment

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and he argues, I
think pretty well,

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that they'd be
taken advantage of.

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They'd be exploited
by variants who

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had more targeted brains
evolved to basically

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be more selfish and so forth.

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And so with genetic variation
totally blank slate individuals

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would decrease and disappear.

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He talks about how that would
happen and why it would happen.

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00:02:12,950 --> 00:02:14,610
And he quotes Noam
Chomsky there,

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"The blank slate brain
is a dictator's dream."

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Yes, you would have
dictators arise

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00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:25,520
and take advantage
of such people.

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00:02:25,520 --> 00:02:28,260
Just educate them
the way you want.

37
00:02:28,260 --> 00:02:31,510
All right, so let's
go back to a topic

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00:02:31,510 --> 00:02:34,440
from Scott's book about
conditional strategies.

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00:02:34,440 --> 00:02:37,720
And they say they
are common in humans.

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00:02:37,720 --> 00:02:41,010
Do you remember a conditional
strategy in an insect

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that Scott-- I think Scott
talked about this one?

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00:02:45,490 --> 00:02:48,410
No, maybe he talked
about a different one.

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00:02:48,410 --> 00:02:52,800
Alcock talks about
a dung beetle.

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It shows that the
pre-programming of behavior

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is not rigid.

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It can be conditional.

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00:02:59,560 --> 00:03:03,090
So he talks about
the rove beetle

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that he actually
did some studies of.

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He went to Costa Rica
with another scientist

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00:03:08,310 --> 00:03:11,910
and did these studies.

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It feeds on flies that collect
at dung on the forest floor.

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The large males are territorial.

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They have very big jaws.

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And the smaller males
seemed like they

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wouldn't stand a chance.

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They can't really fight
with those big males.

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00:03:34,330 --> 00:03:37,200
So what they do is they
mimic female behavior.

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00:03:37,200 --> 00:03:40,580
And they're actually
courted by those big males.

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And while they're being
courted, the catch

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flies and mate will females.

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The very same males
though as they get bigger

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can change their behavior.

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They can change
to male behavior.

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So it depends on the situation.

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In other words, they're
programmed the same way.

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But it's conditional
upon how big

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they are-- how
much they've grown.

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00:04:04,440 --> 00:04:06,920
And we've seen that in iguana.

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We've seen that
in other beetles.

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This is the rove beetle.

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00:04:13,490 --> 00:04:17,329
And see the dung beetles
are very appropriate.

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They look like a piece of
dung and the one on the left

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00:04:19,769 --> 00:04:21,640
especially.

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00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:24,910
But they're called
that, of course,

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00:04:24,910 --> 00:04:27,000
because that's how
they see they feed

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on the flies that
come to be dung.

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OK, so this is
just what we said.

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Now, what about
learning mechanisms?

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People like to think
we learn everything.

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00:04:43,430 --> 00:04:45,630
But learning
mechanisms themselves

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have evolved in order
to increase fitness.

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And so as a result, there's many
different kinds of learning.

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And they've evolved too.

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00:05:00,320 --> 00:05:06,100
And we can give
examples of a kind that

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has evolved that's very
different from other kinds.

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00:05:08,550 --> 00:05:11,185
This was again in Scott's book.

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00:05:14,070 --> 00:05:18,215
It's called conditional taste
aversion or the poison bait

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00:05:18,215 --> 00:05:18,715
effect.

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00:05:22,480 --> 00:05:23,560
It just proved.

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00:05:23,560 --> 00:05:27,415
And it actually caught
a lot of attention

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00:05:27,415 --> 00:05:30,600
when Garcia, who
lived in California

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00:05:30,600 --> 00:05:33,280
and made this discovery
when it was first

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reported in the literature
because it showed

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00:05:35,630 --> 00:05:40,850
that Skinner's universal
laws of enforcement learning

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are violated.

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00:05:43,200 --> 00:05:46,210
It just doesn't work the way
other the kinds of learning.

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00:05:46,210 --> 00:05:47,850
You should know
how it's different.

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00:05:52,060 --> 00:05:55,870
The unconditioned response
is they are getting ill

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00:05:55,870 --> 00:05:58,560
from the effects of the poison.

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00:05:58,560 --> 00:05:59,540
You know?

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00:05:59,540 --> 00:06:02,270
And it doesn't have
to occur right away

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00:06:02,270 --> 00:06:06,620
whereas in experiments--
Skinner's and other people that

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00:06:06,620 --> 00:06:11,370
did research on this-- it
has to occur quite quickly.

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00:06:11,370 --> 00:06:14,130
And one way to show
that is that there's

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00:06:14,130 --> 00:06:16,800
different kinds of
negative reinforcement

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00:06:16,800 --> 00:06:20,920
or negative reward that can
have very different consequences

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00:06:20,920 --> 00:06:23,410
on the learning of
food preferences.

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00:06:23,410 --> 00:06:25,640
So if every time
they ingest something

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00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:27,730
you give them an
electric shock, you

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00:06:27,730 --> 00:06:31,950
should be able to create
a food aversion, right?

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00:06:31,950 --> 00:06:34,490
It actually doesn't
have very much effect

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00:06:34,490 --> 00:06:37,230
on their future preferences.

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00:06:37,230 --> 00:06:41,890
But if you take the same food--
a neutral food-- something

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00:06:41,890 --> 00:06:43,940
that they normally would eat.

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00:06:43,940 --> 00:06:46,410
But you then expose
them to X-rays

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that make them feel sick.

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00:06:49,900 --> 00:06:53,530
You do that after they
eat or drink something.

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00:06:53,530 --> 00:06:56,540
It results in avoidance of
that substance subsequently--

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00:06:56,540 --> 00:06:57,960
very different effects.

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00:06:57,960 --> 00:07:04,730
It's that feeling of nausea--
a feeling of illness which

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00:07:04,730 --> 00:07:07,150
doesn't have to
occur immediately

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00:07:07,150 --> 00:07:11,790
that makes them avoid that food.

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00:07:11,790 --> 00:07:14,990
It works best if
it's a novel food.

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00:07:14,990 --> 00:07:18,270
And we talked about that when we
were discussing the Scott book.

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00:07:18,270 --> 00:07:22,060
So we want other examples of
channeled nature of learning

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00:07:22,060 --> 00:07:25,470
abilities specific
for humans and see

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00:07:25,470 --> 00:07:26,930
if they're similar in animals.

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00:07:26,930 --> 00:07:29,260
By channel, we
mean specific kinds

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00:07:29,260 --> 00:07:32,310
of learning that have
evolved in the species.

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00:07:32,310 --> 00:07:36,750
And these are the
ones I could think of.

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00:07:36,750 --> 00:07:42,720
Some of them are very obvious--
language acquisition--

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00:07:42,720 --> 00:07:46,660
our ability to anticipate
the actions of others

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00:07:46,660 --> 00:07:48,520
with a sense of
other's intentions

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00:07:48,520 --> 00:07:52,670
based on what we attend
to and learn-- often

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00:07:52,670 --> 00:07:56,810
studied in this department by
Laura Schulz and other people.

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00:07:56,810 --> 00:08:00,250
Learning of faces for
later recognition?

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00:08:00,250 --> 00:08:02,460
Yes, it's very
special in humans.

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00:08:02,460 --> 00:08:05,500
And we've evolved a special
part of the brain that

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00:08:05,500 --> 00:08:09,560
specializes in face learning.

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00:08:09,560 --> 00:08:11,390
So do we share these abilities?

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00:08:11,390 --> 00:08:15,090
Well, language acquisition--
the only animals

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00:08:15,090 --> 00:08:17,590
we know that have
something similar

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00:08:17,590 --> 00:08:23,230
is the song birds in their
learning of singing of songs.

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00:08:26,560 --> 00:08:28,350
And that's not the
kind of language

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00:08:28,350 --> 00:08:31,250
we're talking about when
we talk about humans.

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00:08:31,250 --> 00:08:32,929
But it does have
some similarities

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00:08:32,929 --> 00:08:34,470
in the nature of
brain mechanisms--

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00:08:34,470 --> 00:08:36,095
hemispheric dominance,
for example.

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00:08:38,710 --> 00:08:40,720
What about this
ability to anticipate

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00:08:40,720 --> 00:08:41,860
the actions of others?

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00:08:41,860 --> 00:08:45,560
Particularly important
in social life.

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We have a sense of what other
people are intending to do.

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Are other animals like that?

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00:08:51,560 --> 00:08:55,960
Well, certainly the other
primates-- the social primates

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00:08:55,960 --> 00:09:02,910
and apes are able to
do that very well.

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00:09:02,910 --> 00:09:07,160
And there's some evidence that
in fact many other mammals

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00:09:07,160 --> 00:09:09,260
can do that.

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00:09:09,260 --> 00:09:15,130
But it it does require
neocortex or in birds

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00:09:15,130 --> 00:09:20,520
the neocortical equivalent
homologous structures--

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00:09:20,520 --> 00:09:22,300
the hyperpallium
and nidopallium.

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00:09:25,660 --> 00:09:29,680
And learning of faces--
there have been studies now

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00:09:29,680 --> 00:09:33,290
of those particular
areas of the primate--

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00:09:33,290 --> 00:09:36,400
the infratemporal cortex
seemed to be involved in face

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00:09:36,400 --> 00:09:39,315
learning-- learning human
faces and monkeys faces.

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00:09:45,660 --> 00:09:48,290
There's other specific
abilities that

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00:09:48,290 --> 00:09:50,910
have evolved much
more in some animals

167
00:09:50,910 --> 00:09:55,450
than others-- bird song is
one example in the sparrows

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and finches.

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00:09:59,210 --> 00:10:02,120
Some birds that cache
their food and have

170
00:10:02,120 --> 00:10:04,200
to remember where
they put it that's

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00:10:04,200 --> 00:10:06,640
evolved very differently
in different bird groups.

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00:10:06,640 --> 00:10:09,090
Even in the same
genus, you find birds--

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00:10:09,090 --> 00:10:10,730
some do are very good at it.

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00:10:10,730 --> 00:10:12,030
Some are not.

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00:10:12,030 --> 00:10:19,120
And they don't do it
in their food foraging.

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00:10:19,120 --> 00:10:21,305
And their brains are different.

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00:10:21,305 --> 00:10:24,390
The hippocampus, in
particular, is different.

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00:10:24,390 --> 00:10:27,730
You could say maze learning
in rats is something

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00:10:27,730 --> 00:10:30,490
they've adapted
specifically for so well

180
00:10:30,490 --> 00:10:35,901
that they often outperform
college students in maze

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00:10:35,901 --> 00:10:36,400
learning.

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00:10:39,470 --> 00:10:42,050
And they just have that
pretty small little brain.

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00:10:47,020 --> 00:10:49,590
So why do humans
engage in behaviors

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00:10:49,590 --> 00:10:51,360
that seem to reduce fitness?

185
00:10:51,360 --> 00:10:53,450
And this has led to
a lot of arguments.

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00:10:53,450 --> 00:10:57,180
Some of them against--
are taken to-- they

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00:10:57,180 --> 00:11:00,080
take the arguments to be
against all of sociobiology.

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00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:02,160
But remember, we talked
about these things

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00:11:02,160 --> 00:11:04,390
as Darwinian puzzles.

190
00:11:04,390 --> 00:11:06,620
And that's one of things
that sociobiologists

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00:11:06,620 --> 00:11:11,860
have done a lot of
research on, assuming

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00:11:11,860 --> 00:11:14,420
that they did evolve
to increase fitness.

193
00:11:14,420 --> 00:11:17,830
But they may no longer do so
in the current environments

194
00:11:17,830 --> 00:11:22,050
because we didn't involve the
major period of our evolution.

195
00:11:22,050 --> 00:11:26,590
It's very different
from modern life.

196
00:11:26,590 --> 00:11:30,520
And we talked about
pet love previously.

197
00:11:30,520 --> 00:11:33,093
What about alcoholism?

198
00:11:33,093 --> 00:11:35,980
Why do so many people
have a propensity

199
00:11:35,980 --> 00:11:38,260
to overindulge in alcohol?

200
00:11:38,260 --> 00:11:40,760
Not everybody does.

201
00:11:40,760 --> 00:11:43,360
And there are
genetic differences

202
00:11:43,360 --> 00:11:46,447
in the people that have the
tendency to become alcoholic.

203
00:11:46,447 --> 00:11:47,780
But why would that have evolved?

204
00:11:47,780 --> 00:11:51,580
Why would there be a
gene that effects it?

205
00:11:51,580 --> 00:11:55,360
It must have had an
adaptive function.

206
00:11:55,360 --> 00:11:59,480
Well, alcohol didn't used to be
available in concentrated doses

207
00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,700
that you can go down to a liquor
store and buy it-- or even

208
00:12:02,700 --> 00:12:04,680
at your grocery store.

209
00:12:04,680 --> 00:12:07,352
Those weren't the conditions
that were present in most

210
00:12:07,352 --> 00:12:08,250
of our evolution .

211
00:12:08,250 --> 00:12:12,110
And what did alcohol mean
to those people living

212
00:12:12,110 --> 00:12:16,880
in small groups and during
hundreds of thousands of years?

213
00:12:16,880 --> 00:12:23,200
Well, it meant ripe fruit
that produced some alcohol.

214
00:12:23,200 --> 00:12:28,480
So they ripen-- it means
sugar and ripe fruit

215
00:12:28,480 --> 00:12:32,890
that provides good
calories and energy.

216
00:12:32,890 --> 00:12:34,900
Altruism, of course,
as we've talked

217
00:12:34,900 --> 00:12:38,390
about studied by Trivers and
Alexander and other people,

218
00:12:38,390 --> 00:12:42,510
especially they talk
about reciprocal altruism,

219
00:12:42,510 --> 00:12:46,960
which gives a reason why
it would evolve supporting

220
00:12:46,960 --> 00:12:50,080
reciprocal altruism in
genetic related people,

221
00:12:50,080 --> 00:12:53,230
but in unrelated people too.

222
00:12:53,230 --> 00:12:56,160
And that's why the
reciprocity seems

223
00:12:56,160 --> 00:13:01,060
to have evolved because people
that benefit from others help

224
00:13:01,060 --> 00:13:04,600
are more likely to
return that later.

225
00:13:04,600 --> 00:13:06,690
And also there's a
value in reputation

226
00:13:06,690 --> 00:13:08,380
for being charitable.

227
00:13:08,380 --> 00:13:12,910
What about use of spices and
an even more difficult one,

228
00:13:12,910 --> 00:13:14,750
reductions in family size?

229
00:13:14,750 --> 00:13:16,885
Something we call the
demographic transition

230
00:13:16,885 --> 00:13:20,900
where fertility
rates have declined

231
00:13:20,900 --> 00:13:23,550
in some countries
since the late 1800s.

232
00:13:23,550 --> 00:13:26,800
In some sense, the early 1900s.

233
00:13:26,800 --> 00:13:28,515
So let's talk about
those two things.

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00:13:32,270 --> 00:13:34,080
Many people thought
for a long time

235
00:13:34,080 --> 00:13:37,130
that spices seemed
to be a human luxury.

236
00:13:37,130 --> 00:13:38,930
It was treated that way.

237
00:13:38,930 --> 00:13:42,000
And yet, they are used-- they
have such a widespread use.

238
00:13:42,000 --> 00:13:44,570
And people place
great value on spices

239
00:13:44,570 --> 00:13:48,020
so much that it led to
some of the early trade

240
00:13:48,020 --> 00:13:51,200
routes between East and West.

241
00:13:51,200 --> 00:13:54,260
It was treated as
a Darwinian puzzle.

242
00:13:54,260 --> 00:13:56,740
But then studies were made.

243
00:13:56,740 --> 00:13:59,620
And there's a nice
figure in your book

244
00:13:59,620 --> 00:14:03,670
that shows their
antimicrobial properties.

245
00:14:03,670 --> 00:14:05,190
It's a very interesting table.

246
00:14:05,190 --> 00:14:11,420
You see on page 179
huge numbers of spices

247
00:14:11,420 --> 00:14:15,770
that all have-- some of
them kill almost 100%

248
00:14:15,770 --> 00:14:17,610
of the bacteria there.

249
00:14:17,610 --> 00:14:20,820
The one at the top of
the list is garlic.

250
00:14:20,820 --> 00:14:23,530
You kill everything in the food.

251
00:14:23,530 --> 00:14:25,800
It's as good as cooking.

252
00:14:25,800 --> 00:14:28,090
So if you cook and
add garlic, you

253
00:14:28,090 --> 00:14:30,370
don't have to worry
about bacteria.

254
00:14:30,370 --> 00:14:35,040
But there's many others that are
pretty high on the list there.

255
00:14:35,040 --> 00:14:41,929
And at least a dozen that kill
more than 75% of the bacteria

256
00:14:41,929 --> 00:14:43,220
in studies that have been done.

257
00:14:43,220 --> 00:14:44,803
And I just wanted
to point out there's

258
00:14:44,803 --> 00:14:49,910
other things besides
anti-bacterial actions

259
00:14:49,910 --> 00:14:53,640
of things that people
consume that are

260
00:14:53,640 --> 00:14:56,780
additives, nevertheless, and
not necessary to get energy

261
00:14:56,780 --> 00:14:58,580
from the food.

262
00:14:58,580 --> 00:15:03,970
The Masai and Batini tribal
peoples in East Africa

263
00:15:03,970 --> 00:15:08,770
use additives that
lower cholesterol.

264
00:15:08,770 --> 00:15:13,390
They add saponins and phenolics
that reduce their cholesterol

265
00:15:13,390 --> 00:15:19,240
and reduce that harmful side
effect of very high fat diet

266
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:21,580
that they eat.

267
00:15:21,580 --> 00:15:25,050
All right, so let's talk about
the other problem-- the greater

268
00:15:25,050 --> 00:15:28,080
one really-- the
demographic transition.

269
00:15:28,080 --> 00:15:29,770
It was a big Darwinian puzzle.

270
00:15:29,770 --> 00:15:31,960
There's been a lot of
arguments-- big literature

271
00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:33,270
on it.

272
00:15:33,270 --> 00:15:35,140
It's the decline in fertility.

273
00:15:38,380 --> 00:15:41,650
They looked at a number of
different European countries

274
00:15:41,650 --> 00:15:49,610
that have been keeping
records of births

275
00:15:49,610 --> 00:15:53,430
in their whole population
in census taking

276
00:15:53,430 --> 00:15:55,200
for a long, long time.

277
00:15:55,200 --> 00:15:58,810
And the interesting thing about
the demographic transition

278
00:15:58,810 --> 00:16:01,540
is that change to
reduce fertility

279
00:16:01,540 --> 00:16:06,120
began well before birth
control-- modern birth control

280
00:16:06,120 --> 00:16:07,087
methods developed.

281
00:16:07,087 --> 00:16:09,170
It's not that there were
no birth control methods.

282
00:16:09,170 --> 00:16:11,770
They were available
in ancient times.

283
00:16:11,770 --> 00:16:14,310
There were herbs that
could be effective.

284
00:16:14,310 --> 00:16:18,220
But the availability of
all the convenient ways

285
00:16:18,220 --> 00:16:20,700
we have for birth
control did not develop.

286
00:16:20,700 --> 00:16:24,800
And, yet, we still had
this population decline.

287
00:16:24,800 --> 00:16:28,420
So this is the way
people have tried

288
00:16:28,420 --> 00:16:31,910
to deal with that--
sociobiologists.

289
00:16:31,910 --> 00:16:33,880
There were
evolutionary advantages

290
00:16:33,880 --> 00:16:37,740
of timing of pregnancies.

291
00:16:37,740 --> 00:16:40,130
Getting pregnant too
soon after a birth

292
00:16:40,130 --> 00:16:45,070
could reduce the chances of
survival of the earlier born

293
00:16:45,070 --> 00:16:45,960
individual.

294
00:16:45,960 --> 00:16:51,050
And spacing had a
great advantage.

295
00:16:51,050 --> 00:16:53,570
And, of course, there were
advantages of acquiring wealth

296
00:16:53,570 --> 00:16:55,620
to pass on to children
and grandchildren

297
00:16:55,620 --> 00:16:59,770
and increase their chances--
their genetic fitness--

298
00:16:59,770 --> 00:17:02,365
their chances of
surviving and reproducing.

299
00:17:05,230 --> 00:17:07,730
Alcock doesn't deal at all with
the effects of overcrowding.

300
00:17:07,730 --> 00:17:09,105
And there's a lot
of overcrowding

301
00:17:09,105 --> 00:17:11,710
in these parts of
these countries

302
00:17:11,710 --> 00:17:13,599
that he's talking about.

303
00:17:13,599 --> 00:17:15,960
And certainly the
animal studies of that,

304
00:17:15,960 --> 00:17:18,170
which have not been common.

305
00:17:18,170 --> 00:17:19,910
The best studies were
done many years ago

306
00:17:19,910 --> 00:17:25,920
on rats that showed very
clearly reductions in fertility

307
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:28,930
and effects on the
immune system in general

308
00:17:28,930 --> 00:17:33,190
so that they had more illness.

309
00:17:33,190 --> 00:17:37,330
And, also, I think it's
probably important to realize

310
00:17:37,330 --> 00:17:40,270
that humans evolved under
conditions of limited

311
00:17:40,270 --> 00:17:44,580
communication-- relatively
small group sizes.

312
00:17:44,580 --> 00:17:49,125
So with the coming of rapid,
long-distance communication

313
00:17:49,125 --> 00:17:55,670
and awareness of population
sizes and their consequences,

314
00:17:55,670 --> 00:17:59,580
which has happened only very
recently in evolutionary time.

315
00:17:59,580 --> 00:18:02,130
It certainly in highly
educated peoples

316
00:18:02,130 --> 00:18:07,260
has an effect or at
least could have.

317
00:18:07,260 --> 00:18:11,230
Then Alcock goes
into another area

318
00:18:11,230 --> 00:18:13,580
that's been really
controversial-- stirred up

319
00:18:13,580 --> 00:18:15,530
a lot of anger and everything.

320
00:18:15,530 --> 00:18:20,900
The way sociobiologists
have studied rape.

321
00:18:20,900 --> 00:18:23,880
And this is an
appendix question.

322
00:18:23,880 --> 00:18:30,310
And he quotes an argument
against sociobiological ideas

323
00:18:30,310 --> 00:18:33,600
that rape is not very common.

324
00:18:33,600 --> 00:18:35,400
But it's common
enough to assume there

325
00:18:35,400 --> 00:18:40,350
has to be some adaptive value
or it would not exist at all.

326
00:18:40,350 --> 00:18:45,250
So this person argues that
a substantial proportion

327
00:18:45,250 --> 00:18:48,990
of rapists failed to
ejaculate in the victim.

328
00:18:48,990 --> 00:18:52,756
So does that refute
sociobiological explanations

329
00:18:52,756 --> 00:18:53,255
of rape.

330
00:18:56,880 --> 00:18:59,100
This is a feminist--
Barbara Ehrenreich.

331
00:18:59,100 --> 00:19:03,870
She says that children
sired by rapists in the past

332
00:19:03,870 --> 00:19:06,670
surely were more likely
to die than those

333
00:19:06,670 --> 00:19:09,790
of paternal non-rapists.

334
00:19:09,790 --> 00:19:14,800
So rape cannot possibly
be an evolved adaptation.

335
00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:18,850
She was quoted in the
popular press for that.

336
00:19:18,850 --> 00:19:19,860
So was she right?

337
00:19:19,860 --> 00:19:22,780
And why would she
make such a claim?

338
00:19:22,780 --> 00:19:26,620
Well, actually, well,
think of the two-thirds

339
00:19:26,620 --> 00:19:29,790
that don't fail to ejaculate.

340
00:19:29,790 --> 00:19:32,660
So it's certain that argument
certainly does the argument

341
00:19:32,660 --> 00:19:35,250
that a third of them
don't doesn't refute

342
00:19:35,250 --> 00:19:37,740
sociobiological
explanations at all.

343
00:19:40,610 --> 00:19:44,350
And as far as
Ehrenreich's comments,

344
00:19:44,350 --> 00:19:48,200
the fact is many
of them do survive.

345
00:19:48,200 --> 00:19:50,830
She may be making the
claim because she does not

346
00:19:50,830 --> 00:19:54,270
want anyone to consider
rape as natural.

347
00:19:54,270 --> 00:19:56,204
So we will deal with that.

348
00:19:56,204 --> 00:19:58,120
What does it mean to say
something is natural?

349
00:19:58,120 --> 00:20:00,380
And is that any argument?

350
00:20:00,380 --> 00:20:02,700
Is that any moral argument?

351
00:20:02,700 --> 00:20:04,450
We'll certainly
argue that it is not?

352
00:20:07,260 --> 00:20:11,380
Of course it depends on what
you consider natural or not.

353
00:20:11,380 --> 00:20:15,610
So first of all, it's
not a natural behavior

354
00:20:15,610 --> 00:20:16,610
in that it's common.

355
00:20:16,610 --> 00:20:18,920
It's practiced by
only a small minority

356
00:20:18,920 --> 00:20:22,380
of men-- usually men--
an occasional woman.

357
00:20:22,380 --> 00:20:24,700
Hence it's not natural
in the usual sense

358
00:20:24,700 --> 00:20:28,700
if by natural we mean
common in a species.

359
00:20:28,700 --> 00:20:33,190
In some species, forced
copulation is very widespread.

360
00:20:33,190 --> 00:20:36,390
And, in fact, some of
the literature on this

361
00:20:36,390 --> 00:20:39,700
does call this rape.

362
00:20:39,700 --> 00:20:43,080
We talked about that--
forced copulation

363
00:20:43,080 --> 00:20:47,570
and traumatic copulation
in many animals.

364
00:20:47,570 --> 00:20:50,220
But I also note,
and Alcock notes,

365
00:20:50,220 --> 00:20:52,360
that it becomes more
common in humans

366
00:20:52,360 --> 00:20:58,200
under certain conditions like
wartime-- wartime conquests.

367
00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:00,720
So it could in that
sense be considered

368
00:21:00,720 --> 00:21:05,270
a conditional strategy, however
abhorrent that may seem.

369
00:21:05,270 --> 00:21:06,380
All right?

370
00:21:06,380 --> 00:21:12,550
So another issue is
another appendix question.

371
00:21:12,550 --> 00:21:15,060
If men and women differ
in how much they invest

372
00:21:15,060 --> 00:21:19,130
in parental care, is it
strictly because of the nature

373
00:21:19,130 --> 00:21:23,590
of societal influences
they experience when young?

374
00:21:23,590 --> 00:21:26,180
Which is what has been argued.

375
00:21:26,180 --> 00:21:29,680
Hasn't that shape their view
of appropriate sex roles?

376
00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,220
How would you test it?

377
00:21:33,220 --> 00:21:35,340
This is what you'd have to do.

378
00:21:35,340 --> 00:21:40,610
For one thing, you
could do-- we want

379
00:21:40,610 --> 00:21:43,730
to know if all male-female
differences in parental care

380
00:21:43,730 --> 00:21:47,460
are learned because the
statistics are overwhelming.

381
00:21:47,460 --> 00:21:55,010
Women spend much more of
their time in parental care.

382
00:21:55,010 --> 00:21:56,910
Cross-cultural
studies-- why is it

383
00:21:56,910 --> 00:22:01,790
that nearly all cultures
are similar in this?

384
00:22:01,790 --> 00:22:04,890
I didn't say all, but most.

385
00:22:04,890 --> 00:22:07,730
There are a few exceptions.

386
00:22:07,730 --> 00:22:10,270
What about twin studies?

387
00:22:10,270 --> 00:22:13,510
Are variations in parental
care genetically influenced?

388
00:22:13,510 --> 00:22:16,700
See, I don't know the
answer to that one.

389
00:22:16,700 --> 00:22:18,300
And there are
also-- in fact, this

390
00:22:18,300 --> 00:22:21,700
has occurred in scientists
there's a deliberate

391
00:22:21,700 --> 00:22:28,560
attempt by caregivers to
influence children-- to care

392
00:22:28,560 --> 00:22:32,130
more about taking
care of children.

393
00:22:32,130 --> 00:22:34,630
What do you think the
outcomes has been?

394
00:22:34,630 --> 00:22:37,580
Actually it doesn't
make much difference?

395
00:22:37,580 --> 00:22:39,720
There is still big
male-female difference.

396
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:50,780
Another appendix
question-- the reactions

397
00:22:50,780 --> 00:22:54,030
against the hypothesis that
men have a predisposition

398
00:22:54,030 --> 00:22:57,090
to seek out multiple sex
partners of high fertility

399
00:22:57,090 --> 00:22:59,070
in Lewontin.

400
00:22:59,070 --> 00:23:02,270
He simply gives his own example.

401
00:23:02,270 --> 00:23:02,960
I am a man.

402
00:23:02,960 --> 00:23:04,850
I don't go around
screwing young girls.

403
00:23:04,850 --> 00:23:05,530
I am human.

404
00:23:05,530 --> 00:23:08,620
So I have to be explained.

405
00:23:08,620 --> 00:23:12,210
So what does a
sociobiologist say?

406
00:23:12,210 --> 00:23:14,330
It's not about exceptions.

407
00:23:14,330 --> 00:23:18,670
It's about the
more general rule.

408
00:23:18,670 --> 00:23:20,833
And some men claim loudly
that they are monogamous.

409
00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:27,620
How do you deal with that?

410
00:23:27,620 --> 00:23:31,030
We already dealt with Lewontin.

411
00:23:31,030 --> 00:23:32,140
Why might he do this?

412
00:23:32,140 --> 00:23:35,520
Well, that can be
helpful to him.

413
00:23:35,520 --> 00:23:38,530
It can convince his mate
to be monogamous too.

414
00:23:38,530 --> 00:23:41,800
He wants to have-- she'll
have only his kids.

415
00:23:41,800 --> 00:23:44,030
It may give the man
more influence or power

416
00:23:44,030 --> 00:23:45,780
in social groups.

417
00:23:45,780 --> 00:23:50,050
And when these people
that talk loudly about it,

418
00:23:50,050 --> 00:23:51,316
you begin to get suspicious.

419
00:23:53,930 --> 00:23:58,712
And we see examples of
this in the news too often.

420
00:23:58,712 --> 00:24:00,170
They do it because
they're covering

421
00:24:00,170 --> 00:24:01,810
for something they
actually are doing.

422
00:24:07,316 --> 00:24:08,690
I know some of
these things would

423
00:24:08,690 --> 00:24:11,650
be nice to explore
a little further.

424
00:24:11,650 --> 00:24:13,425
But I want to go
through both chapters.

425
00:24:16,060 --> 00:24:18,855
So let's deal with a few
of the practical issues

426
00:24:18,855 --> 00:24:22,275
in thinking about and
collecting data on adaptations.

427
00:24:25,500 --> 00:24:30,330
Let's first talk about the
misuse of scientific findings

428
00:24:30,330 --> 00:24:34,710
or claims in service
of political goals,

429
00:24:34,710 --> 00:24:37,990
including things
concerning sociobiology

430
00:24:37,990 --> 00:24:41,330
or Darwinian theory.

431
00:24:41,330 --> 00:24:45,720
And sociobiologists, of
course, are Darwinian theorists

432
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:49,910
who are using Darwinian
theory as their major tool.

433
00:24:49,910 --> 00:24:51,425
So we have the
eugenics arguments.

434
00:24:54,190 --> 00:24:58,130
The Nazis claimed that their
racism and even genocide

435
00:24:58,130 --> 00:24:59,440
was based on genetics.

436
00:25:02,500 --> 00:25:04,480
And then in the
19th century, there

437
00:25:04,480 --> 00:25:07,910
was Social Darwinism--
lot written about it.

438
00:25:07,910 --> 00:25:11,925
It was used to justify dominance
and superiority of the rich.

439
00:25:14,850 --> 00:25:17,700
And then, of course, the claim
that infidelity is natural,

440
00:25:17,700 --> 00:25:21,430
therefore understandable,
therefore justifiable.

441
00:25:21,430 --> 00:25:23,040
We'll come back to that.

442
00:25:23,040 --> 00:25:27,090
Similarly, claims justifying
the subjugation of women.

443
00:25:27,090 --> 00:25:32,870
All of these arguments have been
made using scientific findings.

444
00:25:32,870 --> 00:25:35,640
But the arguments have
always been flawed.

445
00:25:35,640 --> 00:25:38,250
So let's talk a little
more about this.

446
00:25:38,250 --> 00:25:42,580
First of all, I want you to be
able to see that just the way

447
00:25:42,580 --> 00:25:47,350
things are stated
makes a big difference.

448
00:25:47,350 --> 00:25:54,780
Let's summarize sociobiological
findings stating,

449
00:25:54,780 --> 00:25:58,210
first of all-- make
it sound like people

450
00:25:58,210 --> 00:25:59,640
ought to behave
in a certain way.

451
00:25:59,640 --> 00:26:02,360
And then restate the finding
in a more objective way

452
00:26:02,360 --> 00:26:04,450
because there's more
objective and less

453
00:26:04,450 --> 00:26:06,300
objective ways to
state these findings.

454
00:26:10,200 --> 00:26:12,210
So, for example,
take this statement.

455
00:26:12,210 --> 00:26:14,150
It is natural to
being male for men

456
00:26:14,150 --> 00:26:16,510
to want to have power and
dominance over others,

457
00:26:16,510 --> 00:26:18,380
including women.

458
00:26:18,380 --> 00:26:20,120
You say it like that.

459
00:26:20,120 --> 00:26:22,410
It sounds like it's approval.

460
00:26:22,410 --> 00:26:25,610
You approve of that or
justify it in some way.

461
00:26:25,610 --> 00:26:27,540
But you can restate
the actual finding.

462
00:26:27,540 --> 00:26:31,350
Men more than women have
a tendency on average

463
00:26:31,350 --> 00:26:34,390
to strive for positions
of power and dominance.

464
00:26:34,390 --> 00:26:36,790
Perfectly true, OK?

465
00:26:36,790 --> 00:26:40,109
But now it doesn't sound
like-- you're being neutral.

466
00:26:40,109 --> 00:26:41,275
You're presenting a finding.

467
00:26:46,240 --> 00:26:52,550
A related thing using
equating natural and good.

468
00:26:52,550 --> 00:26:55,300
I often tell my kids you
go through a supermarket.

469
00:26:55,300 --> 00:26:58,700
And you read in these
big letters all natural.

470
00:26:58,700 --> 00:27:00,921
It doesn't make it good.

471
00:27:00,921 --> 00:27:01,420
You know?

472
00:27:06,270 --> 00:27:09,530
Well, evolved traits have helped
keep certain genes in the gene

473
00:27:09,530 --> 00:27:11,760
pool not because it was
good for the individual,

474
00:27:11,760 --> 00:27:14,140
good for the group, or good
for the species as a whole,

475
00:27:14,140 --> 00:27:17,030
but just because
possession of these traits

476
00:27:17,030 --> 00:27:20,770
happen to be correlated with
success in gene propagation.

477
00:27:20,770 --> 00:27:24,120
So no moral lessons can be
drawn from the unfeeling

478
00:27:24,120 --> 00:27:26,125
blind process of
natural selection.

479
00:27:30,220 --> 00:27:31,440
Come back to that one too.

480
00:27:31,440 --> 00:27:38,080
Medical issues-- an example of
medical issue-- medical issues

481
00:27:38,080 --> 00:27:42,450
that can be illumined by
sociobiological ideas--

482
00:27:42,450 --> 00:27:44,840
take an adaptation approach.

483
00:27:44,840 --> 00:27:47,370
And these are things
I can think of.

484
00:27:47,370 --> 00:27:49,870
Alcock discusses
morning sickness.

485
00:27:49,870 --> 00:27:51,860
And there it's probably
a little easier

486
00:27:51,860 --> 00:27:55,060
to understand how that
could be adaptive.

487
00:27:55,060 --> 00:27:55,920
It seems horrible.

488
00:27:55,920 --> 00:27:58,369
Why should the
woman get pregnant

489
00:27:58,369 --> 00:28:00,410
and have to go through
this horrible thickness is

490
00:28:00,410 --> 00:28:03,480
much greater in some
women than in others?

491
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:07,590
But when they get morning
sickness, for most of them,

492
00:28:07,590 --> 00:28:10,400
it's in the early period
when that fetus is

493
00:28:10,400 --> 00:28:13,880
most vulnerable to
the things she eating.

494
00:28:13,880 --> 00:28:17,730
And this keeps her from eating
any really strange foods

495
00:28:17,730 --> 00:28:20,840
or particular kinds of foods.

496
00:28:20,840 --> 00:28:22,490
They also have very
particular taste

497
00:28:22,490 --> 00:28:27,550
and probably signal
some nutritional need.

498
00:28:27,550 --> 00:28:30,340
So that's the first one.

499
00:28:30,340 --> 00:28:32,380
And there have been
studies of this

500
00:28:32,380 --> 00:28:33,880
that indicate that this is true.

501
00:28:33,880 --> 00:28:35,220
What about fever and pain?

502
00:28:38,090 --> 00:28:43,300
First of all, there have
been some studies of fever.

503
00:28:43,300 --> 00:28:46,075
And we get fever when
we have an infection.

504
00:28:46,075 --> 00:28:48,450
All right?

505
00:28:48,450 --> 00:28:51,550
Is that benefiting the body?

506
00:28:51,550 --> 00:28:54,140
There is some evidence--
there have been some studies

507
00:28:54,140 --> 00:28:58,500
that in fact it does improve
the ability of the body

508
00:28:58,500 --> 00:29:00,150
to fight disease.

509
00:29:00,150 --> 00:29:02,310
But, yes, it can
get out of hand.

510
00:29:02,310 --> 00:29:05,990
What happens say if a
child gets a fever that

511
00:29:05,990 --> 00:29:08,750
runs up to 105 and higher?

512
00:29:11,670 --> 00:29:13,350
You know what can happen?

513
00:29:13,350 --> 00:29:16,110
I used to run
fevers really high.

514
00:29:16,110 --> 00:29:18,970
And every time I got sick
when I was a little child.

515
00:29:18,970 --> 00:29:20,040
What did my parents do?

516
00:29:20,040 --> 00:29:24,070
Well, they start putting
cold packs on my head.

517
00:29:24,070 --> 00:29:27,470
They tried to cool me down.

518
00:29:27,470 --> 00:29:30,210
And I don't think they
realized why they did it.

519
00:29:30,210 --> 00:29:33,020
They did it because it was a
tradition in their families

520
00:29:33,020 --> 00:29:35,390
do this when you
got very high fever.

521
00:29:35,390 --> 00:29:37,730
But what can happen?

522
00:29:37,730 --> 00:29:40,890
Seizures-- febrile fits.

523
00:29:40,890 --> 00:29:42,080
OK?

524
00:29:42,080 --> 00:29:47,370
And febrile fits in the very
young can cause brain damage.

525
00:29:47,370 --> 00:29:51,080
They can wipe out part
of the temporal lobe--

526
00:29:51,080 --> 00:29:54,180
the amygdala in particular.

527
00:29:54,180 --> 00:29:56,460
So they get dangerous.

528
00:29:56,460 --> 00:30:02,260
But fever did evolve before
biological, adaptive reasons.

529
00:30:02,260 --> 00:30:04,170
What about pain?

530
00:30:04,170 --> 00:30:07,390
Why do we have to
suffer so much?

531
00:30:07,390 --> 00:30:09,670
Pain can be horrible, right?

532
00:30:09,670 --> 00:30:14,170
Well, take someone who has a
congenital absence of pain.

533
00:30:14,170 --> 00:30:15,740
What are they like?

534
00:30:15,740 --> 00:30:20,460
They usually don't even
survive to your age

535
00:30:20,460 --> 00:30:22,010
because they keep
getting injured.

536
00:30:22,010 --> 00:30:24,450
They don't even
change positions.

537
00:30:24,450 --> 00:30:27,090
They don't become comfortable
enough to change positions

538
00:30:27,090 --> 00:30:29,170
when they're sitting
or lying down.

539
00:30:29,170 --> 00:30:34,000
So they end up with circulation
problems one after another.

540
00:30:34,000 --> 00:30:37,430
It takes a lot of extra
care and help from others

541
00:30:37,430 --> 00:30:42,010
to survive that condition--
the absence of pain.

542
00:30:42,010 --> 00:30:43,945
It serves a very
useful functions.

543
00:30:47,110 --> 00:30:50,010
I wonder sometimes when
it comes to tooth pain.

544
00:30:50,010 --> 00:30:55,700
[LAUGHS] Pain in general
is very adaptive.

545
00:30:55,700 --> 00:31:00,770
So let's talk about
how studies-- we

546
00:31:00,770 --> 00:31:02,930
brought this up before.

547
00:31:02,930 --> 00:31:04,960
How do comparative
studies help us

548
00:31:04,960 --> 00:31:07,140
understand some of these issues?

549
00:31:07,140 --> 00:31:09,780
Why are studies of the behavior
of the white-fronted bee

550
00:31:09,780 --> 00:31:12,620
eaters, birds, relevant
to human behavior.

551
00:31:12,620 --> 00:31:17,000
These are birds that
have helpers at the nest.

552
00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:21,770
Both species have families that
persist over long time periods.

553
00:31:21,770 --> 00:31:26,470
So they had similar
selective pressures.

554
00:31:26,470 --> 00:31:31,150
Helping by helpers at the
nest is by offspring, usually

555
00:31:31,150 --> 00:31:36,090
full siblings sharing about
50% of the genes with the ones

556
00:31:36,090 --> 00:31:39,190
that they're helping
take care of.

557
00:31:39,190 --> 00:31:43,880
So they are improving their
genetic fitness in that sense.

558
00:31:43,880 --> 00:31:45,730
So we can ask
questions like, well,

559
00:31:45,730 --> 00:31:47,640
how beneficial is the helping?

560
00:31:47,640 --> 00:31:49,800
And this has been
studied extensively

561
00:31:49,800 --> 00:31:52,450
in the white-fronted bee eaters.

562
00:31:52,450 --> 00:31:55,880
And in that species because
of the habitat they live at--

563
00:31:55,880 --> 00:32:01,240
there's a figure on page
198 that goes through this.

564
00:32:01,240 --> 00:32:04,480
Just to get one surviving
chick it takes three adults

565
00:32:04,480 --> 00:32:07,100
to bring enough food for
it because the adults have

566
00:32:07,100 --> 00:32:08,630
to feed themselves too.

567
00:32:08,630 --> 00:32:11,310
So they don't have much
extra to give to the baby.

568
00:32:11,310 --> 00:32:13,100
And that's why
two adults usually

569
00:32:13,100 --> 00:32:16,990
can't succeed in
keeping one chick alive.

570
00:32:16,990 --> 00:32:20,340
And it takes five
adults on average

571
00:32:20,340 --> 00:32:21,845
to have two surviving chicks.

572
00:32:26,820 --> 00:32:33,100
So two and a half for
one-- that means three.

573
00:32:33,100 --> 00:32:34,900
But there's
conflicts that arise.

574
00:32:34,900 --> 00:32:36,410
And this happens in the birds.

575
00:32:36,410 --> 00:32:39,130
It happens in humans.

576
00:32:39,130 --> 00:32:42,700
The fathers have conflicts
with the male offspring

577
00:32:42,700 --> 00:32:44,830
that are helpers at the nest.

578
00:32:44,830 --> 00:32:46,735
And this can vary a lot.

579
00:32:46,735 --> 00:32:48,770
But it does happen.

580
00:32:48,770 --> 00:32:53,060
And what happens if
the female mate dies?

581
00:32:53,060 --> 00:32:55,350
And there's a
helper at the nest.

582
00:32:55,350 --> 00:32:59,490
Well, if the male gets
another female mate, what

583
00:32:59,490 --> 00:33:02,450
does his male-- how
does his male respond?

584
00:33:02,450 --> 00:33:04,640
Well, he will continue
to take care of chicks

585
00:33:04,640 --> 00:33:06,890
if there still is full siblings.

586
00:33:06,890 --> 00:33:11,510
But when he starts
having more, it's

587
00:33:11,510 --> 00:33:17,210
very common for the male helper
at the nest to leave-- go off

588
00:33:17,210 --> 00:33:20,220
and form his own nest.

589
00:33:20,220 --> 00:33:24,020
They generally don't like
to take care-- on average

590
00:33:24,020 --> 00:33:26,820
they don't stay around
to take care of siblings

591
00:33:26,820 --> 00:33:31,070
where they share less than half
the genes because it goes down

592
00:33:31,070 --> 00:33:37,430
like 25% if they're
step-brothers and sisters.

593
00:33:37,430 --> 00:33:39,710
So the answers to
all these questions

594
00:33:39,710 --> 00:33:41,305
have parallels in
human behavior.

595
00:33:45,700 --> 00:33:47,790
And one of the
ways I think you'll

596
00:33:47,790 --> 00:33:50,820
be interested in the studies
of human marriage and step

597
00:33:50,820 --> 00:33:56,290
families-- predictions from
the kind of thinking we've

598
00:33:56,290 --> 00:34:02,570
been using and they found
that, for example, there's

599
00:34:02,570 --> 00:34:08,699
more conflict within step
families-- a lot less stability

600
00:34:08,699 --> 00:34:14,159
at least in the cases when
children are involved.

601
00:34:14,159 --> 00:34:17,139
They're not saying there's
generally more conflict.

602
00:34:17,139 --> 00:34:19,166
But when children
are involved, there's

603
00:34:19,166 --> 00:34:20,166
generally more conflict.

604
00:34:23,239 --> 00:34:28,644
The most dramatic thing I think
is studies of child abuse.

605
00:34:32,219 --> 00:34:34,989
Sociobiologists have
examined the records

606
00:34:34,989 --> 00:34:40,730
of people in families where
child abuse has occurred.

607
00:34:40,730 --> 00:34:43,330
And they've looked
at the frequency

608
00:34:43,330 --> 00:34:46,429
of criminal child
abuse in families.

609
00:34:46,429 --> 00:34:51,250
So if you separate then the
child abuse in families where

610
00:34:51,250 --> 00:34:56,150
the children are the genetic
offspring of both parents

611
00:34:56,150 --> 00:34:59,750
and ones where only
one parent, they're

612
00:34:59,750 --> 00:35:06,050
related to only one parent--
so they have a step parent--

613
00:35:06,050 --> 00:35:09,740
there's much greater child
abuse by step parents.

614
00:35:09,740 --> 00:35:14,250
And there it's mostly
by step fathers.

615
00:35:14,250 --> 00:35:18,450
You'd have to look at the curve
there on bar graph on page 202

616
00:35:18,450 --> 00:35:21,807
because the differences
are really dramatic.

617
00:35:21,807 --> 00:35:22,390
They are huge.

618
00:35:25,570 --> 00:35:31,330
And then finally, you can look
at divorce records and the more

619
00:35:31,330 --> 00:35:35,514
stepchildren there are, the
greater the divorce rate.

620
00:35:35,514 --> 00:35:37,180
So these are just
things you can collect

621
00:35:37,180 --> 00:35:40,380
by doing statistics
on these records.

622
00:35:40,380 --> 00:35:41,505
And these are the findings.

623
00:35:47,290 --> 00:35:50,560
Alcock also goes through
male-female differences

624
00:35:50,560 --> 00:35:52,970
in various abilities.

625
00:35:52,970 --> 00:35:55,190
And I'm asking here
what differences

626
00:35:55,190 --> 00:35:57,700
aren't mentioned by Alcock.

627
00:35:57,700 --> 00:36:01,950
So I just want to mention
a few of these differences

628
00:36:01,950 --> 00:36:04,130
in verbal abilities
where women tend

629
00:36:04,130 --> 00:36:07,770
to have greater verbal
ability on average.

630
00:36:07,770 --> 00:36:11,000
Spatial abilities--
and, again, you're

631
00:36:11,000 --> 00:36:12,820
going to find clear exceptions.

632
00:36:12,820 --> 00:36:17,370
But they are on average--
they're greater in males.

633
00:36:17,370 --> 00:36:22,250
Linear logic,
quantitative analysis,

634
00:36:22,250 --> 00:36:27,750
computer programming-- tend
to be greater in males.

635
00:36:27,750 --> 00:36:29,720
There's a nice
study at MIT of this

636
00:36:29,720 --> 00:36:33,340
because about-- the study female
programmers compared with men.

637
00:36:33,340 --> 00:36:35,830
And they examine the
programs in detail.

638
00:36:35,830 --> 00:36:39,330
And they found out
that, yeah, women

639
00:36:39,330 --> 00:36:43,860
don't use quite the same logic
and so forth in their programs.

640
00:36:43,860 --> 00:36:49,200
But their programs
work just as well.

641
00:36:49,200 --> 00:36:54,510
And then differences
between social and emotional

642
00:36:54,510 --> 00:36:58,370
intelligence and other kinds of
intelligence generally social

643
00:36:58,370 --> 00:37:00,730
and emotional intelligence
and sensitivities

644
00:37:00,730 --> 00:37:03,340
are greater in women.

645
00:37:03,340 --> 00:37:04,880
I've talked about
it, briefly, we'll

646
00:37:04,880 --> 00:37:10,210
talk about again when we talk
about primate social life.

647
00:37:10,210 --> 00:37:13,350
So what is the
naturalistic fallacy?

648
00:37:13,350 --> 00:37:16,820
I eluded to it earlier today.

649
00:37:16,820 --> 00:37:20,070
It's often made by people,
including some scientists,

650
00:37:20,070 --> 00:37:21,403
who are opposed to sociobiology.

651
00:37:25,360 --> 00:37:27,740
The naturalistic
fallacy is when they

652
00:37:27,740 --> 00:37:30,610
assume that any evolved
tendency is natural

653
00:37:30,610 --> 00:37:34,470
and, therefore, it's
acceptable and justifiable.

654
00:37:34,470 --> 00:37:39,570
And that is a clear fallacy
that we've already mentioned.

655
00:37:39,570 --> 00:37:44,000
And you should think
of clear examples of it

656
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:45,650
because it's very
common in the way

657
00:37:45,650 --> 00:37:49,560
we talk, the things we
discuss within our families,

658
00:37:49,560 --> 00:37:50,250
and so forth.

659
00:37:56,390 --> 00:38:01,110
A related thing is this
is we talked about rape.

660
00:38:01,110 --> 00:38:07,540
But here's what particularly
feminists have argued.

661
00:38:07,540 --> 00:38:09,030
And you hear it all the time.

662
00:38:09,030 --> 00:38:12,830
You still hear this on the TV.

663
00:38:12,830 --> 00:38:15,070
All rape is an
exercise in power.

664
00:38:15,070 --> 00:38:16,620
It's not about sex.

665
00:38:16,620 --> 00:38:20,370
It's not about sexual desires.

666
00:38:20,370 --> 00:38:25,750
It was first argued strongly in
this book by Susan Brownmiller

667
00:38:25,750 --> 00:38:28,370
in '75 called Against Our Will.

668
00:38:28,370 --> 00:38:30,740
The whole book was on rape.

669
00:38:30,740 --> 00:38:33,540
And her views became
very widespread.

670
00:38:33,540 --> 00:38:37,140
They've been taught to
students at many universities,

671
00:38:37,140 --> 00:38:40,310
even in the high schools.

672
00:38:40,310 --> 00:38:47,760
It's led to perpetuation of
various myths about rape.

673
00:38:47,760 --> 00:38:50,790
So is it true that all rape is
an exercise in power and not

674
00:38:50,790 --> 00:38:52,030
about sexual desires?

675
00:38:52,030 --> 00:38:54,780
It's not true.

676
00:38:54,780 --> 00:38:57,750
It's also widespread among
animals so certainly not

677
00:38:57,750 --> 00:38:59,210
in all species.

678
00:38:59,210 --> 00:39:04,380
It's used quite successfully
in many animals.

679
00:39:04,380 --> 00:39:07,140
So what are some of the
actual findings of studies

680
00:39:07,140 --> 00:39:09,510
that have collected
real data on this?

681
00:39:09,510 --> 00:39:14,820
And he gives-- Alcock gives
them on these pages in the book.

682
00:39:14,820 --> 00:39:18,820
And he's got to figure
on it where he-- here's

683
00:39:18,820 --> 00:39:22,960
the age, for example, age
distribution of rape victims.

684
00:39:22,960 --> 00:39:26,300
It differs very significantly
from homicide victims.

685
00:39:26,300 --> 00:39:30,680
You just take rape victims
and homicide victims--

686
00:39:30,680 --> 00:39:32,940
female in both cases.

687
00:39:32,940 --> 00:39:37,160
The peak age for rape
victims was 22 to 23.

688
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,880
The peak age for murder
victims was 32 to 33.

689
00:39:40,880 --> 00:39:43,180
And the distribution
of that in that curve

690
00:39:43,180 --> 00:39:49,230
falls off with age a lot less
steeply than for rape victims.

691
00:39:49,230 --> 00:39:54,540
That's just one of the pieces of
data that have supported this.

692
00:39:54,540 --> 00:39:57,430
And we gave some of the
earlier findings before.

693
00:40:03,330 --> 00:40:06,840
We mentioned this--
also maternal instincts

694
00:40:06,840 --> 00:40:10,150
being greater than paternal
instincts on the average.

695
00:40:14,980 --> 00:40:19,120
Is the sociobiologist being
irresponsible since people

696
00:40:19,120 --> 00:40:21,290
may misuse his conclusions?

697
00:40:21,290 --> 00:40:24,700
It's been argued that they
should shut up about this.

698
00:40:27,592 --> 00:40:36,870
But I'd like to make
this very clear.

699
00:40:36,870 --> 00:40:42,670
And I'm going to go to page
215 to make sure you understand

700
00:40:42,670 --> 00:40:46,180
what sociobiologists
themselves actually believe

701
00:40:46,180 --> 00:40:49,425
about their science and
about their morality.

702
00:40:55,120 --> 00:40:58,660
Richard Dawkins says, "My
own philosophy of life

703
00:40:58,660 --> 00:41:02,300
begins with an explicit
rejection of Darwinism

704
00:41:02,300 --> 00:41:05,270
as a normative
principle for living,

705
00:41:05,270 --> 00:41:08,740
even while I extol it as
the explanatory principle

706
00:41:08,740 --> 00:41:11,540
for life."

707
00:41:11,540 --> 00:41:13,180
It's not about morality.

708
00:41:13,180 --> 00:41:16,495
It's about the way
evolution occurs.

709
00:41:19,060 --> 00:41:22,840
Remember George C. Williams who
wrote the paper in 1966 that

710
00:41:22,840 --> 00:41:27,580
led to basically a
revolution in thinking

711
00:41:27,580 --> 00:41:33,640
about the nature of natural
selection and evolution.

712
00:41:33,640 --> 00:41:36,880
He's even more emphatic.

713
00:41:36,880 --> 00:41:38,710
"With what other
than condemnation

714
00:41:38,710 --> 00:41:41,530
is a person with any
moral sense to respond

715
00:41:41,530 --> 00:41:44,489
to assist in which the
ultimate purpose in life

716
00:41:44,489 --> 00:41:45,905
is to be better
than your neighbor

717
00:41:45,905 --> 00:41:55,675
at getting genes in the
future generations."

718
00:41:55,675 --> 00:41:59,750
And he goes on and has very
strong statements about that.

719
00:42:04,000 --> 00:42:06,140
"The fact that interactions
among the members

720
00:42:06,140 --> 00:42:10,030
of the same species are
also guided by adaptations

721
00:42:10,030 --> 00:42:13,610
of various sorts is no guarantee
of happiness and harmony

722
00:42:13,610 --> 00:42:17,020
as dysfunctional step families
and couples in sexual conflict

723
00:42:17,020 --> 00:42:18,790
demonstrated all too clearly."

724
00:42:18,790 --> 00:42:22,810
This is Alcock now he says,
"If more people realized

725
00:42:22,810 --> 00:42:26,400
how are naturally selected
brain acts in the service

726
00:42:26,400 --> 00:42:28,660
of our genes, then
perhaps they would

727
00:42:28,660 --> 00:42:31,200
be less inclined to
endure the consequences

728
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:34,330
of natural selection--
a blind process that

729
00:42:34,330 --> 00:42:38,940
cares not a whiff about human
beings or anything else."

730
00:42:38,940 --> 00:42:42,180
In fact he proposes--
he would like

731
00:42:42,180 --> 00:42:45,971
to see the establishment
of a sex education class.

732
00:42:45,971 --> 00:42:47,720
And he argues how this
could be effective.

733
00:42:52,450 --> 00:42:55,510
So I'm asking here
this question.

734
00:42:55,510 --> 00:42:57,280
It's based on sociobiology.

735
00:42:57,280 --> 00:42:59,570
And I think it's a fantasy.

736
00:42:59,570 --> 00:43:00,985
Would it actually work?

737
00:43:00,985 --> 00:43:01,860
This is what I think.

738
00:43:01,860 --> 00:43:05,710
I think it would work only
for true intellectuals,

739
00:43:05,710 --> 00:43:08,310
very rare, because those
are people whose knowledge

740
00:43:08,310 --> 00:43:10,100
and reasoning
actually influences

741
00:43:10,100 --> 00:43:15,000
their behavioral choices
and their social life.

742
00:43:15,000 --> 00:43:16,780
They're very rare.

743
00:43:16,780 --> 00:43:20,210
And they're sort of like
Sheldon on the Big Bang Theory.

744
00:43:22,770 --> 00:43:26,130
And so I think the
class would most likely

745
00:43:26,130 --> 00:43:29,820
be a failure at most
schools, if not all.

746
00:43:29,820 --> 00:43:33,100
That's the way I will
leave it with Sheldon.

747
00:43:37,200 --> 00:43:38,850
That's all I want to say today.

748
00:43:38,850 --> 00:43:42,510
I'd like to know if anybody
has any questions about what

749
00:43:42,510 --> 00:43:43,890
you've been working on.

750
00:43:43,890 --> 00:43:47,000
It's only a few people
I think who are not here

751
00:43:47,000 --> 00:43:50,300
because they had
other things that we

752
00:43:50,300 --> 00:43:53,200
let them delay their
turning in of their topics.

753
00:43:53,200 --> 00:43:55,900
Most of you had the
topics a week ago .

754
00:43:55,900 --> 00:43:57,110
But many of you didn't.

755
00:43:57,110 --> 00:44:01,520
So does anybody
have any questions?

756
00:44:01,520 --> 00:44:03,020
If you don't want
to make it public,

757
00:44:03,020 --> 00:44:05,220
then please come
to me after class.

758
00:44:05,220 --> 00:44:07,990
I will stay here and
talk to you about it.

759
00:44:07,990 --> 00:44:10,930
Do y'all have a topic?

760
00:44:10,930 --> 00:44:15,060
Do y'all know what you're
going to do for sure?

761
00:44:15,060 --> 00:44:18,860
Because now you've only got
until just before Thanksgiving

762
00:44:18,860 --> 00:44:21,170
to get that report.

763
00:44:21,170 --> 00:44:21,990
Yes?

764
00:44:21,990 --> 00:44:25,210
AUDIENCE: We will at least
get feedback on the--

765
00:44:25,210 --> 00:44:30,150
PROFESSOR: Oh, yeah, we
will look at all those.

766
00:44:30,150 --> 00:44:34,360
And if we have a strong
opinion about your choice,

767
00:44:34,360 --> 00:44:35,235
we will let you know.

768
00:44:35,235 --> 00:44:38,930
In most cases if you
have a good understanding

769
00:44:38,930 --> 00:44:43,030
of that assignment,
there won't be a problem.

770
00:44:43,030 --> 00:44:44,590
I don't want a
neuroscience paper.

771
00:44:47,210 --> 00:44:48,540
Remember that.

772
00:44:48,540 --> 00:44:53,830
This has got to be focused
on the topics of the class.

773
00:44:53,830 --> 00:44:56,200
We will go a little
further in the class mostly

774
00:44:56,200 --> 00:45:02,420
with primate social behavior
and with Konrad Lorenz's view

775
00:45:02,420 --> 00:45:04,740
of learning, which
is much broader

776
00:45:04,740 --> 00:45:08,290
than modern studies
in neuroscience

777
00:45:08,290 --> 00:45:10,590
and in behavioral
studies too of learning.

778
00:45:10,590 --> 00:45:13,630
So I would like to go over
some of that with you.

779
00:45:13,630 --> 00:45:15,520
So just a few more
topics like this.

780
00:45:15,520 --> 00:45:17,320
And then it will be your turn.

781
00:45:17,320 --> 00:45:22,830
And I do expect people to
come and here these talks,

782
00:45:22,830 --> 00:45:25,270
even though you'll only
hear a third of them

783
00:45:25,270 --> 00:45:29,370
and because there
will be major points.

784
00:45:29,370 --> 00:45:32,780
And I generally
figure out some way

785
00:45:32,780 --> 00:45:37,200
to ask you about that a
little bit on the final exam

786
00:45:37,200 --> 00:45:40,010
just so make sure
you paid attention.

787
00:45:40,010 --> 00:45:44,440
If you come to the talks
and read the slides,

788
00:45:44,440 --> 00:45:47,220
you won't have any
trouble with that.