Evolutionary psychologist, Doug Lisle, PhD and social scientist, Jen Howk, PhD discuss the following listener questions:
1. Can all personality types be equally happy if they apply diligent effort to worthwhile goals? ie all other things being equal, would a low conscientiousness individual be as happy as a high conscientiousness individual if they both applied their version of diligent effort and equally felt they hadn’t left ‘anything on the table’ (despite those levels of effort and results being very different)
2. You have previously characterized men as “pair bonders or not.” How has on-line dating changed the CB here for both sexes?
3. I am 51, happily married for 2 decades and have 1 child. We recently had a huge fight regarding whether we have a responsibility to help others. We have a friend who had a messy, complicated divorce and is struggling financially while still fighting her ex in court over child custody and business matters. He is a lying, unpredictable scam artist . As much as I feel sorry for our friend, I would like to keep a distance from this situation. Last time we saw her my husband offered to pay for a lawyer, and an accountant. While we live comfortably, we do not have the money this woman would need to become unentangled. When we got home I started yelling that my husband should not have made this offer because we really cannot afford it and I don’t want her criminal ex husband knowing that we are helping her. While my cavewoman instinct was to protect my financial stability, I found it more effective to (over)emphasize the physical threat this could have on me since my husband travels a lot and her ex knows where we live. The fight escalated as my husband accused me of being selfish, uncharitable, and unwilling to help. I said that my time and energy go into taking care of my home and our family. We have already given this friend money and our time over the years. From an Evo-psych point of view, I understand that I feel a threat to my resources (financially and emotionally) as well as safety. My husband does not see this situation at all like I do. Shouldn’t a cave-man have the instinct to primarily care for his family (only) and not spread their resources to another man’s family?? Sidenote: while my son likes her kids, I would like to avoid any possible bad influence as one is already dabbling with marijuana. So, threat to offspring is another concern… Please offer any insight you have.
Copyright Beat Your Genes Podcast
Host: Nathan Gershfeld
Interviewee: Doug Lisle, Ph.D. and Jen Howk, Ph.D.
Podcast website: http://www.BeatYourGenes.org
Watch this episode on Youtube! @BeatYourGenes
True to Life seminars with Dr. Lisle and Dr. Howk : http://www.TrueToLife.us
Intro & outro song: City of Happy Ones · Ferenc Hegedus