Quotes About Behavior

Eldredge has just said gives a pretty good short description of ADD: You don't mean to do the things you do do, and you don't do the things you mean to do.

The historian must have some conceptions of how men who are not historians behave.

The competition between the two forces can be succinctly expressed as follows: Within groups selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals, but groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals. Or, risking oversimplification, individual selection promoted sin, while group selection promoted virtue.

animals of the land environment are dominated by species with the most complex social systems.

To give in completely to the instinctual urgings born from individual selection would be to dissolve society. At the opposite extreme, to surrender to the urgings from group selection would turn us into angelic robots—the outsized equivalents of ants.

All of the species that have attained eusociality, as I have stressed, live in fortified nest sites.

Competing is intense among humans, and within a group, selfish individuals always win. But in contests between groups, groups of altruists always beat groups of selfish individuals.

primary mental abilities and perceptual and motor skills are the most influenced by heredity, while personality traits are the least influenced. If

eusociality, the most advanced state of social behavior

Like most other mammals, human beings display a behavioral scale, a spectrum of responses that appear or disappear according to particular circumstances.

S]elfish members win within groups, but groups of altruists best groups of selfish members. (63)

Within groups selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals, but groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals.

individual selection promoted sin, while group selection promoted virtue.

Within groups selfish individuals beat altruistic individuals, but groups of altruists beat groups of selfish individuals. Or, risking oversimplification, individual selection promoted sin, while group selection promoted virtue.

selfish members win within groups, but groups of altruists best groups of selfish members.

the origin of eusociality requires the preadaptation of a constructed and guarded nest site.

Only two industries refer to their customers as 'users': computer design and drug dealing

Thinking that you are good can make you bad. Talking about positive behavior can encourage negative behavior. Laozi is clearly on to something when he warns us that consciously trying to be righteous will, in fact, turn us into insufferable hypocrites and that anyone striving to attain virtue is destined to fail.

The great power of adopting a scientific approach to human behavior is the ability to unmask deep puzzles about human existence that otherwise hide in plain sight.

Edward Slingerland

cultures—people are spontaneously generous if forced to make instant decisions but begin to gravitate toward more selfish strategies if given time to think. All of this suggests that honest behavior is governed by automatic mental processes, whereas controlled processes are involved in lying or faking. In other words, effortless, unselfconscious behavior—behavior that is wu-wei—acts like a window into our true character.

Our desire for alcohol is not an evolutionary mistake. There are good reasons for why we get drunk.

are spontaneously generous if forced to make instant decisions but begin to gravitate toward more selfish strategies if given time to think.

are spontaneously generous if forced to make instant decisions but begin to gravitate toward more selfish strategies if given time to think. All of this suggests that honest behavior is governed by automatic mental processes, whereas controlled processes are involved in lying or faking. In other words, effortless, unselfconscious behavior—behavior that is wu-wei—acts like a window into our true character.