An M.I.T. behavioral economist shows how emotions and social norms systematically shape behavior.
Behavioral ecology offers insights into how features of the environment shape behavior.
Like most behavioral ecology models, CPF models assume that the forces of natural selection shape behavior so that by whatever mechanism, individuals act as if they choose optimal strategies based on complete information (Winterhalder and Smith 1992; Smith and Winterhalder 1992; Laland and Brown 2002).
How these guidelines shape behavior during interrogations is not well understood.
They are also studying how poor people's self-perceptions shape behavior.
No evolutionary scientist would dispute that culture is a powerful influence, or that environmental forces shape behavior.
Like much African sculpture, they are examples of a regulatory moral art, designed to shape behavior in the interest of social balance.
How is this different, I ask, from something like a mortgage deduction, in which the tax code is used to shape behavior or reflect social priorities?
The rules shape behavior because banks must hold more capital against assets or loans that regulators consider more likely to lose value.
Contrary to popular wisdom, which too often employs the use of fear and dire warnings, it is far more effective to focus on bright spots and introduce small, specific, incremental changes at first to shape behavior.
Yet all have very similar social systems, suggesting that their common ancestry — and the inherited genes that shape behavior — are a stronger influence than ecology on their social structure.
