SCF Behavior Science Library

[Paralith]

Welcome to the SCF Behavior Science Library

Many thanks to xcthullu for originally compiling many of the following references.

If you have any suggestions for additions to this library, please post them in a reply and I will add it to the list!


General Behavior

• MIT Open Course Ware: Brain and Cognitive Science
  A variety of class materials from MIT courses, including lecture slides, lecture audio and/or video, and reading materials
  
  
• ScienceBlogs Brain and Behavior Science channel
  
  
• The Open Behavioral Science Journal
  “The Open Behavioral Science Journal is an Open Access online journal, which publishes research articles, reviews, and letters in all areas of behavioral science. The scope of the journal includes cognitive science, and the neuroscience, biology, psychology, pharmacology, and genetics of behavior.”

Behavioral Ecology

• Westneat and Fox 2010 – Evolutionary Behavioral Ecology textbook
  For an introduction to behavioral ecology and what it is, read the first chapter.
  
  
• Behavioral Ecology Research Group
  Homepage for the University of Oxford’s Behavioral Ecology Research Group
  
  
• Introdction to Ethology
  Bellarmine College’s course homepage for Introduction to Ethology
  
  
• Human Behavioral Ecology
  Entry in the International Encyclopedia of the Social & Behavioral Sciences
  
  
• Winterhalder and Smith 2000 – Analyzing adaptive strategies: Human behavioral ecology at twenty-five
  An article describing the history, goals, and some of the conclusions of human behavioral ecology, by two of the leading researchers in the field.
  
  
• Cronk et al. 2000 – Adaptation and Human Behavior: An Anthropological Perspective
  See chapter 2 – Three Styles in the Evolutionary Analysis of Human Behavior for a great essay comparing and contrasting human behavioral ecology, evolutionary psychology, and dual inheritance theory.
  
  
• The Human Behavioral Ecology Bibliography
  A listing of papers written by anthropologists and others working in the field of human behavioral ecology since 2000

Economics and Behavior

• Kahneman 2003 – Maps of Bounded Rationality: Psychology for Behavioral Economics
  A paper by 2002 Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman, one of the modern architects of the psychological turn in economics.

Game Theory

• Game Theory information sticky in SCF’s Mathematics forum
  Lectures, articles, and essays on game theory, compiled by SCF experts.
  
  
• Christoph Hauert's VirtualLabs in evolutionary game theory
  
  
• Ariel Rubenstein Home Page on Game Theory
  All of Ariel Rubenstein’s texts on microeconomics, game theory, and bounded reality can be downloaded here for free.
  
  
• Ariel Rubenstein’s Web-Based Experiments in Game Theory
  A collection of data from Ariel Rubenstein’s students on behavioral game theory

Psychology / Evolutionary Psychology

• Chapman et al. 2009 – In Bad Taste: Evidence for the Oral Origins of Moral Disgust
  Thanks to xcthullu!
  
  
• Quirks and Quarks interview with Dr. Hanah Chapman
  
  
• Evolution of Religion
  "If religious beliefs and behaviors promoted survival and reproduction in our ancestral past, then they may have been favored by natural selection over human evolutionary history. This would mean that religious beliefs and behaviors are adaptive, and that religion evolved as a natural product of Darwinian selection. The “Evolution of Religion” project is dedicated to exploring this hypothesis using scientific methods from psychology and evolutionary biology."

Miscellaneous

• Neuroanthropology Blog
  See the Examples & Theory and the Web Resources tabs for links to a variety of resources on neuroanthropology.
  
  
• Joshua Knobes’ Experimental Philosophy Page
  Experimental philosophy is the radical idea that we can learn things about philosophical problems in morality by running experiments involving people and moral decisions.
  
  
• The Concept of Intentional Action
  An online demonstration of one of Joshua Knobes’ published experiments.

[arlee]

I noticed the listing of "Evolution of Religion" in the library.
I looked at the aims and methods of the group that is concerned with this.
I do not see why this work would be included in a list of valuable Behavioral Science pubs.
The authors propose that religion has caused or enhanced survival during the evolution of our human species.
In order to prove causation, one must perform a relevant and carefully designed experment. It is impossible to perform the experiment that will prove this idea. You need to control the independent variables and measure the dependent variables. Performing related experiments does not prove the main hypothesis. It is the old problem of trying to prove causation when there is only a correlation. Religion may be correlated with evolutionary success, but that does not say that it causes it. A third factor may be causing both.

I have thought about this issue for many years and my personal opinion is that there is an important third factor: the evolution of attempts to EXPLAIN the environment. Such attempts would be of obvious benefit for survival. Before the rise of science such explanations would involve myths, fantasy, faulty reasoning, and of course religion.