Episode 33: Monkeys, Smurfs, and Human Conformity (With Laurie Santos)

Very Bad Wizards

Tamler Sommers & David Pizarro

Society & Culture, Philosophy

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 14 October 2013

⏱️ 57 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Special guest Laurie Santos (Psychology, Yale) joins us to talk about what animal cognition can tell us about human nature. Why are other primates better at resisting the misleading influence of others than humans? Is conformity a byproduct of our sophisticated cultural learning capacities? Are we more like Chimpanzees or Bonobos? Why does Dave spend so much time writing Smurf fan fiction? [Smurf you, Tamler. -dap]. Also, Dave and Tamler talk about a scathing review of Malcolm Gladwell's new book, and Eliza Sommers poses the question of the day. This was a fun one.

Links

Comparative Cognition Laboratory [yale.edu]
Laurie Santos and Jesse Bering on The Mind Report [bloggingheads.tv]
Buy Jesse Bering's latest book "Perv: The Sexual Deviant in All of Us" [amazon.com affiliate link]
Philospher's Pipe (a directory of podcasts related to philosophy) [philosopherspipe.com]
Smurfette [wikipedia.org]
Horner, V., & Whiten, A. (2005). Causal knowledge and imitation/emulation switching in chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and children (Homo sapiens). Animal cognition, 8(3), 164-181.
Kovács, Á. M., Téglás, E., & Endress, A. D. (2010). The social sense: Susceptibility to others’ beliefs in human infants and adults. Science, 330(6012), 1830-1834.
True Bonobo Love [youtube.com]
Bonobos vs. Chimps [youtube.com]
What does the fox say? [youtube.com]
"The Trouble With Malcolm Gladwell." by Christopher Chabris [Slate.com].
"Christopher Chabris Should Calm Down" by Malcolm Gladwell [Slate.com]

Special Guest: Laurie Santos.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Very bad wizards is a podcast with a philosopher, my dad, and psychologist, Dave Pizarro,
0:06.1	having an informal discussion about issues in science and ethics.
0:09.5	Please note that the discussion contains bad words that I'm not allowed to say,
0:13.7	and knowing my dad, some very inappropriate jokes.
0:16.9	Brain and brain, what just brain?
0:20.4	Idiot's controller.
0:21.7	Is it not?
0:24.5	The brain and I have forgotten.
0:28.5	Brain or attention till I stand behind the person.
0:37.5	Who are you?
0:39.5	Who are you?
0:40.5	I'm very bad man.
0:42.5	I'm a very good man.
0:44.5	Good man.
0:48.5	They think people, and with no one raised in your way.
0:52.5	Brain or attention till I stand.
0:58.5	Anybody can have a brain?
1:02.5	You're a very bad man.
1:04.5	I'm a very good man.
1:06.5	Just a very bad wizard.
1:09.5	Welcome to very bad wizards.
1:11.5	I'm Eliza Somers.
	...

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