The Truer Narrative of the American Civil War must be… The South fought both for and against slavery. How could that have been the case? It’s because there is more than one kind of slavery. In the most obvious sense, the South fought to maintain the system of Social Slavery that kept the black race... Read More

Bronislaw Malinowski with natives on the Trobriand Islands (1918 - source). Pro-social behavior seems to be a human universal, but is the same true for full empathy? What is empathy? It has at least three components: - pro-social behavior, i.e., actions of compassion to help others - cognitive empathy, i.e., capacity to understand another person's... Read More

The digit ratio is the length of the index finger (2ndfinger) divided by the ring finger (4th finger). It correlates with the degree of androgenization or estrogenization of fetal tissues, including the fetal brain. (source) As small bands of hunter-gatherers gave way to larger and more complex societies of farmers and townsfolk, trusting relationships had... Read More

St. Bernard of Clairvaux and a nun embrace a bloody crucifix (early 14th century). While co-opting blood lust as a means to strengthen its emotional appeal, Christianity also created a social environment that gradually removed such desires from the population. In the past millennium, some European societies underwent a profound behavioral change. People no longer... Read More