Год выпуска: 2010
Автор: Deirdre Barrett
Издательство:
Страниц: 224
ISBN: 039306848X
Описание A Harvard psychologist explains how our once-helpful instincts get hijacked in our garish modern world. Our instinctsa??for food, sex, or territorial protectiona?? evolved for life on the savannahs 10,000 years ago, not in todaya??s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. We now have access to a glut of larger-than-life objects, from candy to pornography to atomic weaponsa??that gratify these gut instincts with often-dangerous results. Animal biologists coined the term a??supernormal stimulia?? to describe imitations that appeal to primitive instincts and exert a stronger pull than real things, such as soccer balls that geese prefer over eggs. Evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett applies this concept to the alarming disconnect between human instinct and our created environment, demonstrating how supernormal stimuli are a major cause of todaya??s most pressing problems, including obesity and war. However, Barrett does more than show how... |
