There are a fascinating mix of concepts from psychology, philosophy and biology featured in this short interview. The attempted punchline wasn't delivered with much conviction, I fear, but there's enough of interest despite that to make it a worthwhile watch.
Edit: Oh and here's a link to the article I found the video.
So, the long and short of this is that those with the short gene were less likely to be pains in the arse and hence form less motherly bonds or vice versa?
ReplyDeleteNot at all, the point was that with a good mother any infant monkey will become a healthy adult, but there are genes that cause monkeys who don't to become emotionally unstable or whatever.
ReplyDeleteThe interesting suggestion, I thought, was that those same alleles, the ones that cause aggressive behaviour, might actually be beneficial to monkeys who get the right care and attention as infants. Or to put it another way, are psychopaths and paragons made of the same stuff?