regality forum

Searching through the large literature on conflict and peace studies, I find very little mentioning of psychological mechanisms behind bellicosity, radicalization, and escalation. I think that regality theory and other areas of evolutionary psychology can be useful here. In particular, the following...

Group selection theory postulates that natural selection can act not only on individual organisms, but also on groups of animals or humans. Entire groups can go extinct if they are unfit, or a group can produce new daughter groups if the group as such has high fitness. This process can possibly lead...

There is currently (March 2023) a severe conflict in Israel where hundreds of thousands of protesters turn to the streets to protest against a plan by prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu to limit the powers of the supreme court. The protesters fear that this plan is a step away from democracy and that...

Here is a new study showing that individual danger and collective danger have very different psychological and cultural effects: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/369841671 or https://doi.org/10.1556/2055.2023.00029 This study is based on a large data set from the World Values Survey covering...

illustrations/Afghanistan_flag.png In these days, we are seeing the chaotic scenes of an Afghanistan that is being taken over by the Taliban in just a few days, while US and allied forces are withdrawing from the country. At the same time, Afghans who have worked for the US and allied forces are tr...

Upcoming talks by Agner Fog: Feb. 10, 2021: 19th Annual Evolutionary Psychology Preconference. "Psychological adaptations to war explain cultural differences". Poster presentation and discussion. Link . Feb. 26, 2021: ISA Forum of Sociology. "Meta-Analysis of Published Cultural Variables Shows Repro...

Transcripts of these two interviews are now available:

Warlike and Peaceful Societies

Cultural Evolution, Memetics, Politics and the Media

Here is another talk about cultural evolution. In this interview, I am discussing how unintended and unplanned developments can be explained by selection theory, and I am calling for a more scientific approach to the explanation of cultural and political developments. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v...

A new meta-study is comparing the results of 29 studies of cultural differences between world countries. The meta-study reveals that the results of the 29 studies are in fact more similar than what the authors themselves have recognized. The similarities between the findings of the different studies...