D S Wilson
Biographic Data
| ID | 4840 |
|---|---|
| NAME | D S Wilson |
| GIVEN NAMES | D S |
| FAMILY NAME | Wilson |
| SIGNATURE | WILSON D S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Binghamton University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-0611-3431 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 43 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 235 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 43 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1989 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2023 |
| H-INDEX | 7 |
Reply to commentators of “Re-introducing Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to modern evolutionary science”
Reintroducing Pierre Teilhard de Chardin to modern evolutionary science
Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (1881–1955) developed an evolutionary worldview that was both spiritual and consistent with the scientific knowledge of his day. He has been largely forgotten by modern evolutionary scientists but remains widely read by those who are inspired by his vision of conscious evolution leading to a planetary superorganism. This article examines the major tenets of Teilhard's vision from a modern evolutionary perspective in an …
Implementing the ACBS task force agenda
Evolution, Complexity, and the Civic Reconstruction of Higher Education
This essay argues that the lack of integration among the academic disciplines is the main limiting factor in universities’ capacities to provide comprehensive solutions in civic life. Civic reconstruction, then, first and foremost requires a unifying theoretical framework for all academic disciplines. Not a future aspiration but already emerging among a sizable community of scholars and scientists across the world, the evolution/complexity paradi…
Quality of Life in Intentional Communities
The nature of religious diversity
Studies of religious and other cultural groups tend to be particularistic or focus on one or more axes of variation. In this article we develop a more comprehensive approach to studying cultural diversity that emulates the study of biological diversity. We compare our cultural ecosystem approach with the axis approach, using the distinction between “tight” and “loose” cultures as an example. We show that while the axis approach is useful, the cul…
Cultural diversity really is like biological diversity
We are grateful to the commentators for their stimulating reflections on our target article. Most, but not all, are supportive of the cultural ecosystem approach and many of the supportive comments
Sacred text as cultural genome
Any process of evolution requires a mechanism of inheritance for the transmission of information across generations and the expression of phenotypes during each generation. Genetic inheritance mechanisms have been studied for over a century but mechanisms of inheritance for human cultural evolution are far less well understood. Sacred religious texts have the properties required for an inheritance system. They are replicated across generations wi…
Developing the Field Site Concept for the Study of Cultural Evolution
As the study of human cultural evolution matures, field sites will increasingly have a role to play, just as they have in the study of genetic and cultural evolution in nonhuman species. Progress, however, may not be easy due to complex intellectual histories and disciplinary norms. Cultural anthropology and sociology, the two most field-oriented disciplines in the human behavioral sciences, have been among the most avoidant of evolutionary theor…
Blueprint for the Global Village
Life consists of units within units. In the biological world, we have genes, individuals, groups, species, and ecosystems-all nested within the biosphere. In the human world, we have genes, individuals, families, villages and cities, provinces, and nations-all nested within the global village. In both worlds, a problem lurks at every rung of the ladder: a potential conflict between the interests of the lower-level units and the welfare of the hig…
Generalizing the core design principles for the efficacy of groups
Human Cultures are Primarily Adaptive at the Group Level (with comment)
The question of whether a given trait qualifies as an adaptation must be answered on a case-by-case basis. Nevertheless, a strong case can be made for species as primarily adapted to their environments. A similar argument can be made for human cultures as primarily adapted to their environments at the group level. The reason that human cultures are primarily adaptive at the group level is because the capacity for culture is itself a group-level a…
Group-level evolutionary processes
This article summarises the common language of multi-level selection theory. Every student of evolution learns that natural selection is based on relative fitness. It doesn't matter how well a trait enhances survival and reproduction, as long as it does so better than alternative traits. Traits that decrease absolute fitness can evolve if they decrease the fitness of everyone else even more. Traits that increase absolute fitness can fail to evolv…
Consilience
The Special Issue on Failed States and Nation-Building
Author(s): Turchin, Peter; Coon, Carleton; Wilson, David Sloan | Abstract: This is Editors' Column introducing the SPecial Issue
Residential Mobility and Prosocial Development Within a Single City
Neighborhood social dynamics have been shown to impact behavioral development in residents, including levels of prosociality (i.e. positive social behavior). This study explores whether residential moves to neighborhoods with different social dynamics can influence further prosocial development. Prosociality, five domains of social support, and residential location were tracked between 2006 and 2009 in 397 adolescents across a small city in upsta…
The evolutionary basis of risky adolescent behavior
This article proposes an evolutionary model of risky behavior in adolescence and contrasts it with the prevailing developmental psychopathology model. The evolutionary model contends that understanding the evolutionary functions of adolescence is critical to explaining why adolescents engage in risky behavior and that successful intervention depends on working with, instead of against, adolescent goals and motivations. The current article articul…
Institutional Rigidity and Evolutionary Theory
A prime focus for social scientists, and in particular political scientists, is on institutions. Institutions are stabilized sets of expectations that establish frameworks for social action that affect behavior because they affect calculations and inspire attachments. Institutions do change, but they change slower than life changes. This creates a paradoxical reality. On the one hand, the relative stability of institutions-the rules and procedure…
Intrasexual peer aggression and dating behavior during adolescence
It has been suggested that the use of intrasexual aggression is a form of competition associated with reproductive opportunities. Here the authors investigated the relationship between retrospective dating and flirting behavior and peer aggression and victimization during middle and high school. Results indicate that the use of peer aggression was associated with adaptive dating outcomes in both sexes, whereas experiencing peer victimization was …
Community perception
When entering an unfamiliar neighborhood, adaptive social decisions are dependent on an accurate assessment of the local safety. Studies of cities have shown that the maintenance of physical structures is correlated with the strength of ties between neighbors, which in turn is responsible for the crime level. Thus it should be theoretically possible to intuit neighborhood safety through the physical structures alone. Here we test whether people h…
Human prosociality from an evolutionary perspective
Liberal and Conservative Protestant Denominations as Different Socioecological Strategies
An evolved cognitive bias for social norms
Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology
Current sociobiology is in theoretical disarray, with a diversity of frameworks that are poorly related to each other Part of the problem is a reluctance to revisit the pivotal events that took place during the 1960s, including the rejection of group selection and the development of alternative theoretical frameworks to explain the evolution of cooperative and altruistic behaviors. In this article, we take a "back to basics" approach, explaining …
Postgraduate Essay Prize Winner for 2005 * A New Look at the Affluent Worker
The number of married women working outside their homes after the Second World War rose rapidly despite widespread criticism of working wives and mothers. This article discusses three main trends associated with this change. First, many women reacted to the discourse criticizing working mothers by trying to change the view of ideal motherhood as exclusively domestically bound. They defended their actions by arguing that a good mother was not sole…
The evolutionary basis of risky adolescent behavior
This article proposes an evolutionary model of risky behavior in adolescence and contrasts it with the prevailing developmental psychopathology model. The evolutionary model contends that understanding the evolutionary functions of adolescence is critical to explaining why adolescents engage in risky behavior and that successful intervention depends on working with, instead of against, adolescent goals and motivations. The current article articul…
Machiavellianism
Manipulative strategies of social conduct (Machiavellianism) have been studied by both psychologists and evolutionary biologists. The authors use the psychological literature as a database to test evolutionary hypotheses about the adaptive advantages of manipulative social behavior. Machiavellianism does not correlate with general intelligence and does not consistently lead to real-world success. It is best regarded as 1 of several social strateg…
Utilities of gossip across organizational levels
Quality of Life in Intentional Communities
Postgraduate Essay Prize Winner for 2005 * A New Look at the Affluent Worker
The number of married women working outside their homes after the Second World War rose rapidly despite widespread criticism of working wives and mothers. This article discusses three main trends associated with this change. First, many women reacted to the discourse criticizing working mothers by trying to change the view of ideal motherhood as exclusively domestically bound. They defended their actions by arguing that a good mother was not sole…
Intrasexual peer aggression and dating behavior during adolescence
It has been suggested that the use of intrasexual aggression is a form of competition associated with reproductive opportunities. Here the authors investigated the relationship between retrospective dating and flirting behavior and peer aggression and victimization during middle and high school. Results indicate that the use of peer aggression was associated with adaptive dating outcomes in both sexes, whereas experiencing peer victimization was …
Community perception
When entering an unfamiliar neighborhood, adaptive social decisions are dependent on an accurate assessment of the local safety. Studies of cities have shown that the maintenance of physical structures is correlated with the strength of ties between neighbors, which in turn is responsible for the crime level. Thus it should be theoretically possible to intuit neighborhood safety through the physical structures alone. Here we test whether people h…
Testing major evolutionary hypotheses about religion with a random sample
Cognitive cooperation
Emotions and actions associated with norm-breaking events
Multilevel selection and the social transmission of behavior
Residential Mobility and Prosocial Development Within a Single City
Neighborhood social dynamics have been shown to impact behavioral development in residents, including levels of prosociality (i.e. positive social behavior). This study explores whether residential moves to neighborhoods with different social dynamics can influence further prosocial development. Prosociality, five domains of social support, and residential location were tracked between 2006 and 2009 in 397 adolescents across a small city in upsta…
Liberal and Conservative Protestant Denominations as Different Socioecological Strategies
Blueprint for the Global Village
Life consists of units within units. In the biological world, we have genes, individuals, groups, species, and ecosystems-all nested within the biosphere. In the human world, we have genes, individuals, families, villages and cities, provinces, and nations-all nested within the global village. In both worlds, a problem lurks at every rung of the ladder: a potential conflict between the interests of the lower-level units and the welfare of the hig…
Institutional Rigidity and Evolutionary Theory
A prime focus for social scientists, and in particular political scientists, is on institutions. Institutions are stabilized sets of expectations that establish frameworks for social action that affect behavior because they affect calculations and inspire attachments. Institutions do change, but they change slower than life changes. This creates a paradoxical reality. On the one hand, the relative stability of institutions-the rules and procedure…
Reply to Commentaries
Levels of selection
Reply to J. Kopp's critique of “levels of selection
A Critical Review of Philosophical Work on the Units of Selection Problem
The evolutionary problem of the units of selection has elicited a good deal of conceptual work from philosophers. We review this work to determine where the issues now stand
Machiavellianism
Manipulative strategies of social conduct (Machiavellianism) have been studied by both psychologists and evolutionary biologists. The authors use the psychological literature as a database to test evolutionary hypotheses about the adaptive advantages of manipulative social behavior. Machiavellianism does not correlate with general intelligence and does not consistently lead to real-world success. It is best regarded as 1 of several social strateg…
Individual Differences in Machiavellianism as a Mix of Cooperative and Exploitative Strategies
Multilevel selection and the social transmission of behavior
Authors’ response
Darwin's Cathedral
One of the great intellectual battles of modern times is between evolution and religion. Until now, they have been considered completely irreconcilable theories of origin and existence. David Sloan Wilson's Darwin's Cathedral takes the radical step of joining the two, in the process proposing an evolutionary theory of religion that shakes both evolutionary biology and social theory at their foundations. The key, argues Wilson, is to think of soci…
Précis of Unto Others
Reply to Commentaries
Emotions and actions associated with norm-breaking events
Multilevel Selection and the Structure of Highly Alienated Groups
This commentary relates the kind of coercive social structure described by Hundeide (2003) to multilevel selection theory, a general evolutionary framework for thinking about social organizations
The effect of nonphysical traits on the perception of physical attractiveness
Cognitive cooperation
Altruistic punishing and helping differ in sensitivity to relatedness, friendship, and future interactions
The Evolution and Functions of Laughter and Humor
A number of recent hypotheses have attempted to explain the ultimate evolutionary origins of laughter and humor. However most of these have lacked breadth in their evolutionary frameworks while neglecting the empirical existence of two distinct types of laughter--Duchenne and non-Duchenne--and the implications of this distinction for the evolution of laughter as a signal. Most of these hypotheses have also been proposed in relative isolation of e…
Testing major evolutionary hypotheses about religion with a random sample
Utilities of gossip across organizational levels
Postgraduate Essay Prize Winner for 2005 * A New Look at the Affluent Worker
The number of married women working outside their homes after the Second World War rose rapidly despite widespread criticism of working wives and mothers. This article discusses three main trends associated with this change. First, many women reacted to the discourse criticizing working mothers by trying to change the view of ideal motherhood as exclusively domestically bound. They defended their actions by arguing that a good mother was not sole…
Rethinking the Theoretical Foundation of Sociobiology
Current sociobiology is in theoretical disarray, with a diversity of frameworks that are poorly related to each other Part of the problem is a reluctance to revisit the pivotal events that took place during the 1960s, including the rejection of group selection and the development of alternative theoretical frameworks to explain the evolution of cooperative and altruistic behaviors. In this article, we take a "back to basics" approach, explaining …
An evolved cognitive bias for social norms
Human prosociality from an evolutionary perspective
Liberal and Conservative Protestant Denominations as Different Socioecological Strategies
Institutional Rigidity and Evolutionary Theory
A prime focus for social scientists, and in particular political scientists, is on institutions. Institutions are stabilized sets of expectations that establish frameworks for social action that affect behavior because they affect calculations and inspire attachments. Institutions do change, but they change slower than life changes. This creates a paradoxical reality. On the one hand, the relative stability of institutions-the rules and procedure…
Intrasexual peer aggression and dating behavior during adolescence
It has been suggested that the use of intrasexual aggression is a form of competition associated with reproductive opportunities. Here the authors investigated the relationship between retrospective dating and flirting behavior and peer aggression and victimization during middle and high school. Results indicate that the use of peer aggression was associated with adaptive dating outcomes in both sexes, whereas experiencing peer victimization was …
Evolutionary Game Theory and Cooperation (25 works) · Psychology (25 works) · Sociology (24 works) · Social Psychology (19 works) · Computer Science (18 works) · Epistemology (18 works) · Philosophy (16 works) · Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Biology (10 works)