Supernormal Stimuli: How Primal Urges Overran Their Evolutionary Purpose

by Deirdre Barrett

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Have you ever wondered why some men choose pornography over actual women? Why so many people watch Friends instead of going out with their own buddies? Why a person would “feed” a plastic Pocket Pet while shirking real duties? Why both sides of every war see the other as the aggressor against whom their “Department of Defense” must respond?

Harvard evolutionary psychologist Deirdre Barrett explains how human instincts—for food, sex, or territorial protection—developed for life on the savannah ten thousand years ago, not for today’s world of densely populated cities, technological innovations, and pollution. Evolution, quite simply, has been...

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  • ISBN10 039306848X
  • ISBN13 9780393068481
  • Publish Date 23 April 2010 (first published 22 February 2010)
  • Publish Status Active
  • Publish Country US
  • Imprint WW Norton & Co
  • Format Hardcover
  • Pages 224
  • Language English