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Hello. And welcome to under the skin from luminary this week, I spoke with David Buss, an American evolutionary psychologist at the University of Texas in Austin, he's one of the founders of. The field, the works you can be talks a lot about sex and sexual jealousy and may in stuff in the pot that we're going to play now, David and I talked. About how our evolutionary systems are sometimes hijacked by corporations are we talking about diabetes and obesity, but more interested me is how we are not evolving and natural condition where. Animals in a zoo, we are the occupants of prison planet, and I wanted to try to express the idea and get he's expertise and he like a lot of you. Know academics he wasn't one hundred and comfortable talking about sorry, me feel qualified to talk about, but as you know, that's never bothered me to have little listen to this. Conversation last time you think I'm trying to achieve equality with the annihilation of category Accessories, era where it turns, out what's beneath the surface of people with more. The idea is that the, finance on oh welcome to come around

1:14

What magnetic forces

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create the kind of structures

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that we live within now where power

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is centralized where people

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live in? The

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urban conurbations. Where?

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We're from agriculture onwards

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the advice through the various revolutions

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of agriculture industry in technology, the

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advantages to individuals, while we

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know, while obvious and evident, particularly

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in instances where they would. Be a financial and

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economic advantage to those

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centralized forces at.

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that of the progresses can easily be

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child it's when it's comes to subjects

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such as isolation alienation despair

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drug dependency It's

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clear that we are creatures

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now that lives in.

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Kind of captivity

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in a kind of open prison do,

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you ever become frustrated that we

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don't socially and politically in act

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in responsible and sensible ways the

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obvious findings of them

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that they've from your particular area of

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expertise yeah i'm i

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do mean think that's one

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way that wouldn't phrases sit

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in broadly before trying

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to get it your specific question is that always

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have

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Sorry was psychology that

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evolved over several millions of years

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and in the here and now we are stuck

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with the See. Bob Psychology. The

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and. In. Some cases it produces

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bad things and in some cases

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it produces good think that's why I think the you

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have answered your question has done on a case

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by case basis. So, just

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for example, we evolved food

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preferences for fat

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and sugar, or, and so, in the modern

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environment, so fat sugar

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are readily have been and are

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packaged into high. Carbohydrate

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foods fast food restaurants

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and so we have the problems of obesity

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and type two diabetes that,

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are really evolutionarily unprecedented,

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so we have to in some way it's control.

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Our evolved, his preference said,

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"This this one way in which it's if that straight

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the other one another, as that have pointed out

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earlier as it on, we do

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feel more" Isolated, more alienated

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or as context tab because

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of the modern context, where despite

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being surrounded by thousands or millions

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of people, we still feel alone

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import mention one other. element

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of that of why we feel so alone

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and perhaps by the press and rates have increased,

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or is because we don't have deep.

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friendships so and

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by that i mean our ancestors

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would have faced the trials and tribulations

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where you know

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where your who your true friends

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are because you dirty times of stress

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people will They'd realize when

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you're ill or injured or.

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and we go to fewer of these

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you know i'm stressful life events

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which really reveal The depth

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of your a social relationships

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and we don't go to there's any work and so

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I think that's one way as why telling

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the mating domain which has this has

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really my area specialty when,

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people are considering are long term

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made urge them to go

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on. Vacation together.

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Two weeks and go to a foreign country, I

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put the relationship to stress test

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and that than that reveals information.

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That you don't get. When

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times are good or. and

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so i think that the lack

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of test of our to friendships and

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true romantic relationships I

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use or lack of these tests as

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part of why we feel. More.

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alienated in the modern environment again,

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relevant to my area of expertise

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we have pornography

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an Internet dating or to technological,

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advances if you will or to technologies.

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That we are of consume and in

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huge, abundance so

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of majority of men

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consume pornography at some point

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sometimes men get addicted, to it or

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and the internet dating.

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Is the major form: a meeting people we

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don't tend to go to bars anymore

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and, and meet people and said this

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is gonna change the whole matrix

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of the mating? Game where,

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for example with Internet dating,

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there's this perception that there are thousands

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or millions of potential mates for

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you out, there and we experience

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decision paralysis because those persons.

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Doesn't meet quite you know my

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standards on nineteen variables, I can

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be keep looking and said there's this

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of because of this perception their. of millions

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of opportunities out there that

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also produces a decrease in commitments

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and were saying that as well with The

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increase in our intimate

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relationships, decrease in

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even sexual behavior on

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the frequency of sexual intercourse and

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decreases I in marriage, so it's.

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I'mma think it's partly due to

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both of those factors ah,

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pornography consumption think

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and I'd be curious about your thoughts on. this

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ah i think takes the edge

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takes the sexual edge off of

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males says they feel less motivated

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to go out and have The real life.

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Sexual interactions with

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women were they have to actually

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do things like have conversations

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and establish a relationship and

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so forth and, so i

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think that even things like the

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Overconsumption. Of pornography I'm not

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opposed for our feed in general, I mean,

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in some ways, it produces beneficial

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effects, but ah, but think it's

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it takes the edge off of males. And

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decreases their sexual motivation

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to have in real life mating relationships

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threat and as take a and will

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move generally, in the direction

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of your expertise in. Those are of was your most

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will talk about football, but Lego,

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just as we mentioned the beginning of the

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your answer to the previous question, the

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preponderance of sugar and.

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Fat I sealed that,

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of course we're valve to value foods

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that would be scarce and are

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high in an AC button

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there's a reason that these foods

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are now abundantly. Available

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on those reasons: A, economic,

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so they can like they if you were trying

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to design society that

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was beneficial to the maximum number

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of individuals you

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would promote. Foods

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we evolved in harmony with.

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that beneficial to ah

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yes he wouldn't promote those the high

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in sugar and fat but they were obese fat

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diabetes heart disease

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but the reason that we do promote those foods

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make those foods freely available in australia

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hbo By readily available and cheaply

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available is because it is profitable

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and for because of evolutionary psychology

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we saw of unable to discern

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correctly whether or not we should

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be and and. Because with bipartisan, I

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have the image David or of

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evolution as a kind of river and we

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as individuals flow upon that

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river and this is of asleep. You.

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Know particularly relevant in your field

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well, I went to see how like cats behave

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when another to what how male cats behave when

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a female ties on hates and cow.

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Travel five kilometers for

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my inopportune, it's you realize that

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individual cat psychology, such

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as it might base, is pretty

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blunt tool when faced

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with the tirade and

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deluge of. Evolutionary

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force and I feel that is

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a blessing or interest me is how

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do we use our understanding

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to create social systems that

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are beneficial to us, of course I'm interested.

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As an individual I'm an individual I'm fascinated

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by how we might have made

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in social and sexual protocols

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that point of the relevant

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redundant unhelpful, although

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I can see so have. You know the. Monogamy

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and my in pairings

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of helpful when loads and loads of ways

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sociological the a socially religiously

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light loads of isaac say that beneficial I'm.

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interested i suppose in using

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this vast wealth of knowledge that

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you have accrued to implement and

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encourage ideas that go beyond

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the kind of what want to say

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coffee table musings

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of or so Light rash

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you know mechanical nihilistic

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culture in. and as

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the coaches us of find myself and well

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mean that's consistent this as

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tough question because

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They're always trade are so as

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you mention with wish fast food

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industry or their lawyers

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to make. Profit. And so

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they design products

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that hijacked our

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evolve psychology. In this case for evolve

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I called you the food preferences, but

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the same thing occurs social

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media, for example, that is why

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we haven't evolved. Here's another

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dimension. Anibal psychology

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that we evolved in the, in

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the context of small groups that had status

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firework. He's all groups have

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them. Some people are up Summer down, some

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have high Ranch. Download often

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informally sometimes formally, but

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one of the critical choose,

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the status has been the

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attention structure that is that

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people who are and Status are the people

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to whom the most people, pay the most attention

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for

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the rest of our And all the latest episodes

10:51

of Under the Skin. It really is a terrific

10:53

podcast of Lovett.