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Author: Deirdre Barrett Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 9780393077339 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
A Harvard psychologist explains how our once-helpful instincts get hijacked in our garish modern world. Our instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection— evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons—that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term “supernormal stimuli” to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization.
Author: Deirdre Barrett Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 9780393077339 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 224
Book Description
A Harvard psychologist explains how our once-helpful instincts get hijacked in our garish modern world. Our instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection— evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons—that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term “supernormal stimuli” to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today’s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization.
Author: Deirdre Barrett Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 039306848X Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 225
Book Description
Our instincts--for food, sex, or territorial protection-- evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in today's world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weapons--that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term "supernormal stimuli" to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of today's most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how unfettered instincts fuel dangerous excesses. She also reminds us that by exercising self-control we can rein them in, potentially saving ourselves and civilization.
Author: John C. Wathey Publisher: Prometheus Books ISBN: 1633880745 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 464
Book Description
An essential feature of religious experience across many cultures is the intuitive feeling of God's presence. More than any rituals or doctrines, it is this experience that anchors religious faith, yet it has been largely ignored in the scientific literature on religion.Starting with a vivid narrative account of the life-threatening hike that triggered his own mystical experience, biologist John Wathey takes the reader on a scientific journey to find the sources of religious feeling and the illusion of God's presence. His book delves into the biological origins of this compelling feeling, attributing it to innate neural circuitry that evolved to promote the mother-child bond. Dr. Wathey argues that evolution has programmed the infant brain to expect the presence of a loving being who responds to the child's needs. As the infant grows into adulthood, this innate feeling is eventually transferred to the realm of religion, where it is reactivated through the symbols, imagery, and rituals of worship. The author interprets our various conceptions of God in biological terms as illusory supernormal stimuli that fill an emotional and cognitive vacuum left over from infancy. These insights shed new light on some of the most vexing puzzles of religion, like the popular belief in a god who is judgmental and punishing, yet also unconditionally loving; the extraordinary tenacity of faith; the greater religiosity of women relative to men; religious obsessions with sex; the mysterious compulsion to pray; the seemingly irrepressible feminine attributes of God, even in traditionally patriarchal religions; and the strange allure of cults. Finally, Dr. Wathey considers the hypothesis that religion evolved to foster reproductive success, arguing that, in an age of potentially ruinous overpopulation, magical thinking has become a luxury we can no longer afford, one that distracts us from urgent threats to our planet.Deeply researched yet elegantly written in a jargon-free and accessible style, this book presents a compelling interpretation of the evolutionary origins of spirituality and religion.
Author: Lindsay S. Nixon Publisher: BenBella Books, Inc. ISBN: 1935618644 Category : Cooking Languages : en Pages : 322
Book Description
Vegan chef of one of the top 50 food blogs on the Web, HappyHerbivore.com, Lindsay Nixon, gives hundreds of thousands of her followers recipes each month, showing that the vegan diet is not only healthy but delicious, too. Now, Nixon combines some of her tastiest recipes in The Happy Herbivore Cookbook, each made with no added fats, using only whole, plant-based foods. It's easy to make great food at home using the fewest number of ingredients and ones that can easily be found at any store, on any budget. The Happy Herbivore Cookbook includes: • A variety of recipes from quick and simple to decadent and advanced • Helpful hints and cooking tips, from basic advice such as how to steam potatoes to more specific information about which bread, tofu or egg replacer works best in a recipe • An easy-to-use glossary demystifying any ingredients that may be new to the reader • Healthy insight: Details on the health benefits and properties of key ingredients • Pairing suggestions with each recipe to help make menu planning easy and painless • Allergen-free recipes, including gluten-free, soy-free, corn-free, and sugar-free With a conventionally organized format; easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions; nutritional analyses, colorful photographs; funny blurbs at the beginning of each recipe; helpful tips throughout; and chef's notes suggesting variations for each dish, even the most novice cook will find healthy cooking easy—and delicious!
Author: Deirdre Barrett Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393066673 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 271
Book Description
Harvard psychologist Deirdre Barrett tackles the obesity and fitness crisis from an evolutionary standpoint. In the modern jungle of burgers, couches, and remote controls, obesity is an enormous and growing epidemic. Weight-loss books and diet gurus urge us to "listen to our bodies," but our instincts are designed for the African savannah, not food courts. The sugary and fatty foods that we, as hunter-gatherers, are programmed to forage used to be hard to come by. Now they're as close as the vending machine down the hall. Radical changes are necessary and, fortunately, are biologically easier than small or gradual changes in diet. Barrett tells us how to reprogram our bodies, break food addictions, and ignore our attraction to "supernormal stimuli"—artificial creations that appeal to our instincts more than the natural objects they mimic. Barrett delves into scientific research—from animal ethology to evolution—to show the disastrous direction in which our instincts have led us, and how, using our intellect, we can get back on course.
Author: Lance Workman Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 1108900968 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 1517
Book Description
The transformative wave of Darwinian insight continues to expand throughout the human sciences. While still centered on evolution-focused fields such as evolutionary psychology, ethology, and human behavioral ecology, this insight has also influenced cognitive science, neuroscience, feminist discourse, sociocultural anthropology, media studies, and clinical psychology. This handbook's goal is to amplify the wave by bringing together world-leading experts to provide a comprehensive and up-to-date overview of evolution-oriented and influenced fields. While evolutionary psychology remains at the core of the collection, it also covers the history, current standing, debates, and future directions of the panoply of fields entering the Darwinian fold. As such, The Cambridge Handbook of Evolutionary Perspectives on Human Behavior is a valuable reference not just for evolutionary psychologists but also for scholars and students from many fields who wish to see how the evolutionary perspective is relevant to their own work.
Author: Jean Fain Publisher: ReadHowYouWant.com ISBN: 1459611543 Category : Health & Fitness Languages : en Pages : 378
Book Description
Most people say that when they lose weight and look better, they'll like themselves more. Jean Fain suggests that we've got it all backward. The best way to lose weight and look your best is to stop dieting and start with loving who you are. With The Self-Compassion Diet, this Harvard Medical School-affiliated psychotherapist shares a re...
Author: Michael J. Ryan Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691191395 Category : Nature Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
"In A Taste for the Beautiful, Michael Ryan, one of the world's leading authorities on animal behavior, tells the remarkable story of how he and other scientists have taken up where Darwin left off, transforming our understanding of sexual selection and shedding new light on animal and human behavior. Drawing on cutting-edge science, Ryan explores the key questions: Why do animals perceive certain traits as beautiful and others not? Do animals have an inherent sexual aesthetic and, if so, where is it rooted? Ryan argues that the answers lie in the brain--particularly of females, who act as biological puppeteers, spurring the development of beautiful traits in males."--Back cover
Author: Thaddeus Birchard Publisher: Taylor & Francis ISBN: 1317390547 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 191
Book Description
Overcoming Sex Addiction is an accessible self-help guide which uses the principles of cognitive behaviour therapy to help those with problematic or unwanted patterns of sexual behaviour. It is designed for those who are not yet ready to seek professional help or who live in a place where little help is available and can be used in conjunction with general psychotherapy. Written by a leading expert in the field, the book offers an insight into the origins of sex addiction, before going on to explain the cycle of addiction and how to break it. The book has a do-it yourself week-by-week programme of action to tackle compulsive sexual behaviour, and provides extensive advice on relapse prevention to help the reader move forward in recovery. Overcoming Sex Addiction will provide clear, informed guidance for sex addicts and those professionals working with them.