*This workshop was jointly held with Center for the Sociality of Mind.

Speaker: Dr. Kai Hiraishi (Kyoto University, Kokoro Research Center)

Date: July 13th, 2011, 15:00-17:00

Location: Hokkaido University, Faculty of Letters, room E204

Participants: Tatsuya Kameda, Toshio Yamagishi, Susumu Ohnuma, Masaki Yuki, Taiki Takahashi, Nobuyuki Takahashi, and other twenty-five participants (total thirty-one participants)

Title: What Does Behavioral Genetics Say About Evolutionary Adaptiveness?

Abstract: 
The first law of behavior genetics states that “All human behavioral traits are heritable” (Turkheimer, 2000). In this talk, an in-depth commentary on the meaning of “heritability” was followed by the reporting of several research data that have implications for research in human behavioral evolutionary studies (i.e. evolutionary psychology, human behavioral ecology) which adheres to the idea that “behavioral traits are heritable” to be a product of natural selection. Specific examples included the affect of prenatal androgen exposure to digit ratio (2D:4D ratio), the level of trust towards strangers, and twin studies data on cooperative behavior in public goods game experiments. These provide strong evidence that behavioral traits are inherited and an interpretation of these within the framework of human behavioral ecology was proposed.