May 1st, 2019 Talk about “The social leap”

As part of the lecture series "Is the world bad?" will Prof. William von Hippel give a talk about "The social leap" on the 21st of June, 2019.

The most fundamental aspects of our psychology were shaped by the „social leap“ our distant ancestors made from the rainforest to the savannah. In their struggle to survive on the open grassland, our ancestors prioritized cooperation and teamwork over physical prowess, creating a new form of social intelligence that set the stage for our rise to the top of the food chain. Their social solution to this existential crisis also put us on the pathway that eventually created the unprecedentedly safe and peaceful lives we enjoy today. In this talk, I trace our evolutionary history over the last six million years to show how events in our distant past guide our lives today, and how we can leverage an understanding of the past to build a better future.

The lectures will take place at 6:30 p.m. in lecture hall 10 at the Hörsaalzentrum on campus Westend of the Goethe University Frankfurt. Further information on the lecture series and the lectures can be found here.