Have you ever stopped to think about how much children learn in their first few years of life, before they start school, before anyone tries in any systematic way to teach them anything? Next time you are in viewing range of a child under the age of about five years old, sit back and watch for awhile. You're in for a treat.

Anyone who knows the comic will know about the characters and what they represent: 1) The Joker = chaos, 2) The Batman = order; 3) Two Face = pure chance. There are many lines in the film which "spank your face" with these metaphors, and if the acting was not so good, the joker's lines could have easily been over the top in making the deeper, existential questions within the film too obvious and contrived for most moviegoers.

Humans see the world in terms of categories. We group a chair, a table, a couch together under the category "furniture," which helps when we're confronted with unfamiliar objects. We have a similar tendency to categorize other humans. But whereas furniture doesn’t mind being stereotyped, people often do.

I was very sad to learn that the comedians Jimmy Kimmel and Sarah Silverman have broken up. I always thought that they were a great couple, a perfect match made in politically incorrect heaven.

What do Bill Gates and Paul McCartney have in common with criminals? In my last series (Why are almost all criminals men? Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV), I explain why men are so much more likely to commit violent and property crimes than women. It turns out, however, that there is nothing special about criminals. All men are essentially the same.

You might think that suicide flies in the face of evolutionary theory. If the goal is to spread one's seed as much as possible then why on earth would anyone "defy nature" by intentionally removing themselves from the competition?

It's been said that advertising is a form of sorcery. Consider the use of brand logos. Symbols bring reality into being.

As adults we do have certain responsibilities toward our children and the world’s children. It is our responsibility to create safe, health-promoting, respectful environments in which children can develop. It is our responsibility to be sure that children have proper foods, fresh air, non-toxic places to play, and lots of opportunities to interact freely with other people across the whole spectrum of ages. It is our responsibility to be models of human decency. But one thing we do not have to worry about is how to educate children. ...

To gain perspective on human financial decisions, one may ask, what would monkeys do?

In my last post, I present Campbell’s “staying alive” theory of female criminality, which contends, among other things, that women steal less, and less frequently, than men do, because women only steal what they need to survive, whereas men steal partly to show off and impress women with their increased resources.  Something happened to me five years ago which perfectly illustrates this point.

Why do some women commit crimes?

In the last two posts (Part I, Part II), I explain the evolutionary psychological logic behind male criminality, why men in polygynous societies are compelled to engage in interpersonal violence and property crimes in order to gain reproductive access to women. While an overwhelming majority of criminals in every human society are men, there are some exceptions; some women do commit crimes. Given the evolutionary psychological logic, however, why would any woman commit crimes at all?

Everywhere we turn these days we find pundits and politicians arguing for more restrictive schooling. Of course they don’t use the word “restrictive,” but that’s what it amounts to. They want more standardized tests, more homework, more supervision, longer school days, longer school years, more sanctions against children’s taking a day or two off for a family vacation. This is one realm in which politicians from both of the major parties, at every level of government, seem to agree.

Quick question for readers: When you hear the neighbors going at it, whose voice is louder?

Why do men commit property crimes?

In my last post, I explain how evolutionary psychological logic can explain why men in polygynous societies are compelled to commit interpersonal violence of murder, assault, and rape. (And, remember, all human societies are polygynous to various degrees, whether simultaneously or serially.) But how can evolutionary psychology explain property crimes?

Why do men commit violent interpersonal crimes?

In every single human society without an exception, men commit an overwhelming majority of all crimes and acts of violence. Why is this? Why are men so much more criminal and violent than women?

Because evolutionary theory serves to illuminate an otherwise imperceptible complexity, many students exposed to it for the first time report an experience not unlike a religious conversion, wherein they begin to see the world in an entirely new light and find meaning and purpose in the most unlikely of places.

What psychology experiment would you love to carry out if neither ethics nor practical reality stood in your way? For the August issue of Psychology Today, I asked several PT bloggers this question and printed four responses. Here's a more complete roundup of their insights.

When Hugh Grant was arrested in June 1995 with a prostitute named Devine Brown, the whole nation gasped in disbelief and asked the same question: “Why would any straight man in the right mind cheat on Elizabeth Hurley?” The same question crossed the nation’s mind when it emerged, two years ago, that Christie Brinkley filed for divorce from her husband because he cheated on her with an 18-year-old. Why would anybody cheat on the original Uptown Girl?

Whom are newborn babies said to resemble?

In my last post, I suggested that babies may be born looking more like the father than the mother, although the experimental evidence is so far inconclusive. There is a related finding that is much less controversial and well replicated, however, and that is the question of whom newborn babies are said to resemble.

What should Apple do when Steve Jobs departs? Take a hint from the Dalai Lama.