My guest today is Michael McCullough. Michael is a professor of psychology at the University of California, San Diego where he directs the evolution and human behavior laboratory. He studies the functions of human behavior and emotion using the conceptual tools of evolutionary psychology and cognitive science. Michael has conducted research on forgiveness, revenge, gratitude, empathy, religion, and morality. He's the author of Beyond Revenge: The Evolution of the Forgiveness Instinct, and The Kindness of Strangers: How a Selfish Ape Invented a New Moral Code, which is the focus of today's conversation.  Michael and I talk about the field of evolutionary psychology and why it's considered controversial. We talk about Richard Dawkins and the selfish gene revolution, the evolutionary roots of altruism towards strangers, and we talk about the criticism that evolutionary psychology is a collection of 'just-so' stories rather than actual science. We also discuss the evolution of welfare spending over the past few centuries and about how it's possible for human societies filled with selfish apes to become more altruistic. #Ad -Today's episode is sponsored by our friends 1440. If you’re sick of biased news reporting, 1440 is one of the closest things I’ve found to a truly objective news source. Their team of scientists and experts - not pundits - scours the media to curate a fact-based daily email newsletter. To join check out join1440.com/coleman Recording date : 12 Nov 2020 Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices