Quotes from Terry Burnham

Why do Yanomamö men risk killing another? Those who do and survive end up with more wives and more babies. In one extensive, long-term study, 137 men were Unokais and 243 were not. The Unokais had, on average, 1.63 wives (polygamy is legal) and 4.91 children. The non-Unokais averaged only 0.63 wives and 1.59 children.

Consider that women are better than men at remembering the location of objects. Thousands of men and women all over the world have taken a test of object memory, and women perform better, on average.

Evolution is a competitive game in which victory comes not from achieving some fixed number of points but by simply outscoring the opposition

the blue-headed wrasse is a fish that lives on coral reefs. All wrasses begin life as females and continue to pump out eggs as they age and grow larger. Every reef section has one extremely large, territorial male that fertilizes up to forty batches of eggs a day. When the male dies, the largest female spontaneously changes sex and starts producing sperm.

In psychology experiments, women strongly prefer ugly men wearing Rolexes to handsome men wearing Burger King uniforms.

Place a loaded pistol in a playpen and the babies will play with it just like any other toy, giggle, and perhaps even place the gun in their mouth. In contrast, put a plastic snake into the playpen; the babies will cower in fear. Show a person of any age a snake —or even a picture of one —and you will elicit a dramatic response, including sweaty skin and an increased heart rate. It doesn't matter whether the person is in America, Europe, Japan, Australia, or Argentina

We are built to pursue happiness as a tool to replicate our genes.

our cooperation extends all around the globe. The next time you buy something—shoes, a computer, a bunch of bananas—look at where it was made. For most of us, it is impossible to survive without the help of thousands of strangers all over the world. We have never met these people, but they are enmeshed with us in globally extended networks

We can begin by trying to take our goals less seriously. We shouldn't buy things in the hope that they will make us happier. At the time of purchase, we trade off the joys of a faster computer or a bigger house with the costs of payment. The joy will fade — more quickly than we are built to anticipate — but the bills will remain.