Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

[Jack]

Human nature is one of those things that everybody talks about but no one can define precisely. Every time we fall in love, fight with our spouse, get upset about the influx of immigrants into our country, or go to church, we are, in part, behaving as a human animal with our own unique evolved nature—human nature.

Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and environment. In this article, however, we emphasize biological influences on human behavior, because most social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or feel in certain ways. Our preference for sweets and fats is an evolved psychological mechanism. We do not consciously choose to like sweets and fats; they just taste good to us.

The implications of some of the ideas in this article may seem immoral, contrary to our ideals, or offensive. We state them because they are true, supported by documented scientific evidence. Like it or not, human nature is simply not politically correct.

Adapted from Why Beautiful People Have More Daughters, by Alan S. Miller and Satoshi Kanazawa, to be published by Perigee in September 2007.

1. Men like blond bombshells (and women want to look like them)
2. Humans are naturally polygamous
3. Most women benefit from polygyny, while most men benefit from monogamy
4. Most suicide bombers are Muslim
5. Having sons reduces the likelihood of divorce
6. Beautiful people have more daughters
7. What Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have in common with criminals
8. The midlife crisis is a myth—sort of
9. It's natural for politicians to risk everything for an affair (but only if they're male)
10. Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist

Psychology Today: Ten Politically Incorrect Truths About Human Nature

You'll have to read the article for the reasoning behind these statements. Any you disagree with? Does anyone have a reference that challenges these findings?

I contend the implications go beyond these ten conclusions.

[Sockem]

Ugh, I can't stand white blond women god they are so fake, dumb, look alike and feminized. Give me an Asian woman any day.

[tinybear]

I got another one: Humans are naturally discriminatory.

[Jack]

I should hope so, otherwise we couldn't distinguish a good Merlot from Thunderbird.

[SoylentGreen]

Most suicide bombers are Muslim

I don't accept this one.

while suicide missions are not always religiously motivated, when religion is involved, it is always Muslim.

I disagree. Religin is not the motivator it is the comforter of the suicide bomber.
The Hard Truth About Suicide Bombers | ForeignPolicy | AlterNet

Martyr missions made their official twentieth-century debut in the Second World War with the Kamikazes; they showed up again in the 1960s, when Viet Cong sympathizers exploded themselves amidst U.S. troops. ........ As in U.S. wars, the dead became heroes.

Christian Suicide Bomber

If you’re World War II kamikaze pilot Ichizo Hayashi you write a final letter to your mother stating that “for to me, to live is Christ and to die is gain” and you vow to “be sure to sink an enemy vessel.” Then you fly off on your deadly mission with your Bible and hymn book.

It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates.

Right, because blowing yourself into a thousand pieces is a sure way to win a wife.

The other key ingredient is the promise of 72 virgins waiting in heaven for any martyr in Islam.

Or it could be that a poor person being offered the trade of, you kill yourself and we will give your family enough money to live comfortably might be more closer to the truth.

The article also doesn't take in to account the use of women as suicide bombers which we know is happening.

[Nocebo]

I thought the article was a good application of evolutionary psychology.

The quid pro quo types of harassment are manifestations of men's greater desire for short-term casual sex and their willingness to use any available means to achieve that goal. Feminists often claim that sexual harassment is "not about sex but about power;" Browne contends it is both—men using power to get sex. "To say that it is only about power makes no more sense than saying that bank robbery is only about guns, not about money."

Brilliant.

I disagree. Religin is not the motivator it is the comforter of the suicide bomber.
The Hard Truth About Suicide Bombers | ForeignPolicy | AlterNet

They were attempting to give evolutionary explanations for the fact that a large majority of religious suicide bombers are Muslim. ... and comforters are motivators. Are you not motivated by comfort?

Right, because blowing yourself into a thousand pieces is a sure way to win a wife.

Actually in that paragraph they were referring to violent crimes such as rape, lol, not suicide. I quote:

So polygyny increases competitive pressure on men, especially young men of low status. It therefore increases the likelihood that young men resort to violent means to gain access to mates. By doing so, they have little to lose and much to gain compared with men who already have wives. Across all societies, polygyny makes men violent, increasing crimes such as murder and rape, even after controlling for such obvious factors as economic development, economic inequality, population density, the level of democracy, and political factors in the region.

Or it could be that a poor person being offered the trade of, you kill yourself and we will give your family enough money to live comfortably might be more closer to the truth.

That is another reason, but you will agree that it doesn't fit with the theme of sex as a strong motivator. It wasn't necessary to point out, and it's truth doesn't exclude the truth of the other reasons.

[ironeagle]

Well this is why I don't understand socialism and socialist ideas, when humans are not borges who all think and feel the same and arent' robots capable of always being politiclaly correct, yet we pressume we should all be robotic humanoids who are suppose to all do what everyone else thinks.

[tinybear]

I should hope so, otherwise we couldn't distinguish a good Merlot from Thunderbird.

No, I mean most humans discriminate against others who they perceive are different from themselves.

[Hurt]

No, I mean most humans discriminate against others who they perceive are different from themselves.

I think he was joking..