Human nature is one of those things that everybody talks about but no one can define precisely. Every time we fall in love, fight with our spouse, get upset about the influx of immigrants into our country, or go to church, we are, in part, behaving as a human animal with our own unique evolved nature—human nature.

This means two things. First, our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are produced not only by our individual experiences and environment in our own lifetime but also by what happened to our ancestors millions of years ago. Second, our thoughts, feelings, and behavior are shared, to a large extent, by all men or women, despite seemingly large cultural differences.

Human behavior is a product both of our innate human nature and of our individual experience and environment. In this article, however, we emphasize biological influences on human behavior, because most social scientists explain human behavior as if evolution stops at the neck and as if our behavior is a product almost entirely of environment and socialization. In contrast, evolutionary psychologists see human nature as a collection of psychological adaptations that often operate beneath conscious thinking to solve problems of survival and reproduction by predisposing us to think or feel in certain ways. Our preference for sweets and fats is an evolved psychological mechanism. We do not consciously choose to like sweets and fats; they just taste good to us.

Alan Miller, PhD, has compiled a fascinating list of potentially politically incorrect truths from psychology that are simply confounding yet oh so true – seriously, we may wish some of these were false but they’re not . . . our uncomfortable psychological truths? Here’s the list:

• Men like blond bombshells (and women want to look like them).
• Humans are naturally polygamous.
• Most women benefit from polygyny, while most men benefit from monogamy.
• Most suicide bombers are Muslim.
• Having sons reduces the likelihood of divorce.
• Beautiful people have more daughters.
• What Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have in common with criminals.
• The midlife crisis is a myth—sort of.
• It’s natural for politicians to risk everything for an affair (but only if they’re male).
• Men sexually harass women because they are not sexist.

Now, I know some of you read that list and at one or two items you shouted out “Bullshit” or some stronger expression. I know, I could hear you all the way over here.

Go ahead and go to http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/200706/ten-politically-incorrect-truths-about-human-nature and read the full article with all the details. Seriously, it’s fascinating stuff.

All the best,
Brian
www.BrianDavidPhillips.com