Item — HN Reader

This research is one of the important studies in my own understanding of the world. I think it's the type of thing people are cautious to talk about too much because it might drive a certain type of person crazy and lead them to overcompensate in weird/destructive ways.

I also remember there's a study on how hormonal birth control (which causes the body to perceive itself as pregnant) affects these preferences too. In some ways we really are "experimenting on production." I also think there's some hesitation to talk about that a lot and come-across as anti-choice.

But beliefs must come from the research, not vice-versa.

2 comments

I love evolutionary psychology trivia but for me it's kind of hard to meaningfully fit 0.13 standard deviation shift in preferences into my world model.

I stubbed my toe. I don’t feel like ice cream today.

There are a lot of things it is worrisome to feel like.

In the end we’re just improvements on the worm/tube plan, and we run things based on chemical soup that is mostly inside our bodies these days, but whose composition has a significant influence on our behavior. Thats why it’s great to have a neocortex, so we con at least be marginally in control of our decisions if we maintain a consistent effort to do so.

But yeah, in my empirical experience, moon phases, ovolatory cycles, hormone manipulation therapies… all have a gigantic impact on our base physiological and psychological state. I live in a place where the insects operate on a lunar phase, and the plants proactively change their operations in that rhythm to match. You can taste and see the difference in tree sap here based on the lunar phase, it becomes thicker, darker, and more bitter days in advance of the insect hatching.

Why would we think we are somehow a special exception from the web of life that created us?