165 | Human Nature

"Human nature" is often used as an excuse, explanation, justification, or assumption for the good and bad things that we do. Although we can make general statements about human voluntary and involuntary behavior, most of the time that people invoke this phrase, they claiming ignorance or giving up understanding. No more! it is difficult to argue that a behavior is "human nature" if not all humans do it. It's also nonsense to assume that studies of WEIRD populations reflect the majority of people. The most scientific thing we can say is that human nature is just what we do in the contexts in which we do it. It's the "what we do" part without the "why" part. <br /><br />Links for Today: <br /><br />1. <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201905/insights-human-nature-cultural-psychology" rel="noopener">https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/between-cultures/201905/insights-human-nature-cultural-psychology</a><br />2. <a href="https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/10/12/what-are-we-like-10-psychology-findings-that-reveal-the-worst-of-human-nature/" rel="noopener">https://digest.bps.org.uk/2018/10/12/what-are-we-like-10-psychology-findings-that-reveal-the-worst-of-human-nature/</a><br />3. <a href="https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/0011526042365645?journalCode=daed" rel="noopener">https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/abs/10.1162/0011526042365645?journalCode=daed</a><br />4. <a href="https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Kantor/1929/1929_10.html" rel="noopener">https://brocku.ca/MeadProject/Kantor/1929/1929_10.html</a><br />5. <a href="https://aeon.co/essays/theres-no-philosophy-of-life-without-a-theory-of-human-nature" rel="noopener">https://aeon.co/essays/theres-no-philosophy-of-life-without-a-theory-of-human-nature</a><br />6. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-shipwrecked-for-15-months" rel="noopener">https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/may/09/the-real-lord-of-the-flies-what-happened-when-six-boys-were-s