84 quotes
Psychology has made a lot less progress than it could have because too many psychologists know too little about other animals.
The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)
To the extent that we accept this view, we effectively mistake ourselves for highly dimorphic animals such as peacocks or deer.
The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013)
The evolutionary explanation for the peacock’s tail has an interesting implication, namely that the mind of one sex can help shape the body of the other.
The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)
In some frog species, females fake their own deaths to escape unwanted male attention; males, on the other hand, never fake theirs to escape female attention.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
To a hypothetical alien with a vastly superior intellect to our own, human minds would be classed as intermediate forms between the mindless and the fully minded.
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010)
Even though the risks are real, the sexes do differ on average, and we can’t just lie about that. What we should do instead is tell the truth carefully.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Contrary to stubborn anthropological myth, people everywhere fall in love... the idea that romantic love is an invention of Western culture is itself an invention of Western culture.
The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)
One could even argue that our creative endeavours and achievements and small acts of kindness are all the more impressive against the backdrop of a purposeless universe.
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010)
Some people worry that to say we are nothing but matter is to deny that we think or feel. It’s not. The strange fact is that, when suitably arranged, matter thinks and feels.
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010)
Rather than being indicators of a sexist or oppressive society, sex differences may sometimes be indicators of the opposite: a comparatively free and fair one (emphasis on the “comparatively”).
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Some claim that life, the universe, and mind are miraculous. My conclusion is that these things are really, really amazing, but that they’re not miraculous (unless by miraculous, you just mean ‘really, really amazing’).
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010)
If religion doesn't make people good, why do people think that it does? Simple: Because religion teaches that it makes people good. It’s part of its sales pitch. But it's also quite possibly untrue.
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010)
The fact that more members of group X than group Y suffer problem Z is a bad reason to act as if only members of group X suffer problem Z.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
Although more men than women make it to the top, more men than women also sink to the bottom – and the overwhelming majority of men don’t end up at either the top or the bottom.
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
It is therefore a curious fact that our dominant mating system is more like the typical mating system of birds than that of most mammals, including our nearest relatives, the Great Apes.
The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013)
We live in an age where, quite rightly, we encourage people to accept and celebrate differences and diversity, and yet we get outraged whenever anyone points any out. Not exactly tolerance of diversity!
A Billion Years of Sex Differences: How Evolution Shaped the Minds of Men and Women (2026)
We are a species in which both sexes have their equivalents of the peacock’s tail. Indeed, when it comes to physical beauty, the usual sex difference has arguably been reversed: Females are the “showier” sex.
The Ape that Thought It Was a Peacock: Does Evolutionary Psychology Exaggerate Human Sex Differences? (2013)
Viewed from an evolutionary perspective, mind is not the cause of the order in nature; mind is an example of the order in nature - something to be explained rather than the explanation for everything else.
Darwin, God and the Meaning of Life: How Evolutionary Theory Undermines Everything You Think You Know (2010)
This is the irritating reality of the human condition: Whatever we do, we’re left with unfulfilled desires. Human beings are chronically conflicted animals. And that’s because that’s what selection made us.
The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)
It’s often a good idea to adopt the practices and beliefs of the people around you. For one thing, the people around you aren’t dead. If you do what they do – eat what they eat; avoid the dark alleys they avoid – you might continue not being dead as well.
The Ape That Understood the Universe: How the Mind and Culture Evolve (2018)