#166 Daniel Nettle: The Evolution of Personality, Individual Variation And Behavioral Flexibility
Dr. Daniel Nettle is Professor of Behavioural Science at Newcastle University, where he is a member of the cross-disciplinary Centre for Behaviour and Evolution. He studies a number of different topics relating to behaviour, ageing and wellbeing. He mainly studies humans, but sometimes other animals (especially starlings) too. Dr. Nettle is the author of several books, most notably, Happiness: The Science Behind Your Smile (2005), Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are (2007), and Tyneside Neighbourhoods: Deprivation, Social Life and Social Behaviour in One English City (2015).
In this episode, we talk about personality from an evolutionary perspective. We refer to the importance of individual variation and things like behavioral flexibility. Also, the Big Five, and a couples of examples of how such traits might have evolved, and their neuroscientific underpinnings. Finally, how environmental effects are biologically mediated, and the ways by which personality changes during the life course of people.
Time Links:
What is personality, from an evolutionary perspective?
Individual variation
Behavioral flexibility
Genetics and the environment
What we try to capture with the Big Five
How each personality trait might have evolved
Personality and neuroscience
Is there any personality trait that is always disadvantageous to have?
Traits associated with mating success
The issue with cross-cultural evidence
The effects of the environment are biologically-mediated
The same environment affects different people with different personalities in different ways
The stability and variation in personality over the course of life
There is no one best way to live life
Follow Dr. Nettle’s work!
Follow Dr. Nettle’s work:
Personal Website/Blog: https://www.danielnettle.org.uk/
Faculty page: https://bit.ly/2U9oUhH
Articles of Researchgate: https://bit.ly/2NxrY4p
Books: https://amzn.to/2T0chc0
Twitter handle: @danielnettle
Books/articles referenced in the interview:
Personality: What Makes You the Way You Are: https://amzn.to/2TmiJta
Hanging on to the Edges: Essays on Science, Society and the Academic Life: https://bit.ly/2T1rUAe
Status and Mating Success Amongst Visual Artists: https://bit.ly/2XpW3rh