How strongly does the evolutionary past influence the choice of romantic partners and the way we compete? This week on podcasts, two psychologists gave opposite answers. One explained the development of human intelligence and men's pursuit of status through ancestral wars. The other argued that popular evolutionary ideas about partner preferences fall apart when people meet face to face.
This debate featured in 20 episodes from 15 podcasts about psychology and neuroscience. In addition, a clinical psychologist described how the brain changes in new fathers. Several hosts spoke with concern about screens and AI chatbots in young people's lives. And a science podcast examined what companies do with the brain data their headsets collect.
On the Hidden Brain podcast, psychologist Paul Eastwick challenges the idea that stated partner preferences predict attraction. Drawing on speed-dating and machine-learning research, he argues that compatibility is built over time as a "tiny culture" of shared rituals. In the second segment, psychologist Ed Lemay describes how people project their own personality onto partners and even onto chatbots.
On All In The Mind, clinical psychologist Darby Saxbe, drawing on the book Dad Brain, discusses brain imaging in new fathers, hormonal shifts and how this transition affects men's mental health and couple relationships. On Where Should We Begin? Esther Perel counsels a couple who divorced and then remarried, and traces their arguments to wounds from their families of origin.
On The Happiness Lab, Laurie Santos and Bruce Reed of Common Sense Media ask whether society will repeat its social-media mistakes as it adopts AI. They discuss companion chatbots and the cost of offloading mental effort onto AI. Psychiatrist Anna Lembke on The Prof G Pod links digital approval to anxiety and narcissism and advocates behavioral contracts and gradual exposure to failure.
On the Science Magazine Podcast, journalist Jonathan Moens reports that companies selling consumer EEG headsets (devices that read electrical brain activity) use users' neurodata to train AI models, often without clear notice. The second half of the episode is devoted to GLP-1 drugs, which are used for diabetes and obesity. The director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse explains why researchers see promise in treating substance use disorders with these drugs and warns of risks for some patients.
On Modern Wisdom, evolutionary psychologist David Geary presents a model according to which wars were the driving force behind human intelligence and sex differences in competition. His explanation conflicts with Eastwick's skepticism about evolutionary scenarios. On the same show, coach Joe Hudson argues that decision-making is inherently emotional.
On Speaking of Psychology, researchers Brett Gelino and Gabrielle Wong-Parodi discuss how people respond to extreme-weather risks: why warnings are ignored and how neighbors' behavior influences the decision to evacuate. On Two Psychologists Four Beers, the question is raised of organizing large international studies and why psychological measures do not always work when translated into other cultures.
Two themes run through the week. Several guests expressed concern about young people who are shielded from discomfort but immersed in screens. And evolutionary questions remain openly debated: some data point to ancient mechanisms, others show their limits in real-life acquaintance.