Us and Them: Neurobiology of Intergroup Differences and Conflict

Image by John Hain from Pixabay Written by Brett Weiss December 2019 Biology reveals that humans are animals– Old World primates, also referred to as apes (Sapolsky, 2018).  Humans have innate needs and desires to belong to groups, and with these needs comes potential for differences and conflict between groups.  Countless examples throughout human history …

Theory of Mind: Predicting Others’ Thoughts, Intentions, Beliefs, and Behavior

Written by Brett Weiss July 2019 Image by ElisaRiva from Pixabay Our social lives depend upon theory of mind, defined as attributing thoughts, intentions, and beliefs to others. We develop our theory of mind to predict future actions of others based on our past experiences with those individuals. Interestingly, when we have little acquired data …

Brett’s Neuroscience Podcast: Episode 3

Image by MARIO OLAYA from Pixabay This podcast deals with evidence suggesting that elevated testosterone is a physiological driving force in prosociality in ingroup settings along with antisocial behavior and hostility toward outgroups (parochial altruism). Previous research has only implicated elevated testosterone levels in dominance behaviors, hostility, and antisocial behaviors.