ahbwramc comments on Open thread, January 25- February 1 - Less Wrong

8 Post author: NancyLebovitz 25 January 2014 02:52PM

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Comment author: ahbwramc 31 January 2014 04:01:30AM 3 points [-]

Any book recommendations for a good intro to evolutionary psychology? I remember Eliezer suggested The Moral Animal, but I also vaguely remember some other people recommending against it. I'll probably just go with TMA unless some other book gets suggested multiple times.

Comment author: hyporational 31 January 2014 04:33:37AM *  3 points [-]

I found TMA was too full of just so stories. I also think it disturbingly rationalized a particular brand of sexism$ and overemphazised status which was very unexpected since I don't think I'm squeamish at all on those fronts. I don't think it helped me to predict human behavior better.

This said I'd be interested too if someone could recommend some other book.

$ rigid view of differences between the sexes, incompatible with my experience (which does suggest the sexes are different)

Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 01 February 2014 12:05:31AM 1 point [-]

Evolutionary Psychology: The New Science of the Mind, by David Buss is a pretty good, mainstream, and accessible introduction to the field. I don't regret reading it.

Comment author: beoShaffer 01 February 2014 06:18:33PM 1 point [-]

I second the recommendation. It was used as one of two textbooks for my evo-psyc class, and worked quite well.

Comment author: drethelin 31 January 2014 09:54:51PM 0 points [-]

I think "Evil" by Roy F Baumeister is a really good exploration that includes evo psych elements though is not primarily about evo psych.

Comment author: Stabilizer 31 January 2014 06:26:04AM 0 points [-]

This is not a book, but looks interesting.