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

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, Ã. 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. Support Very Bad Wizards