Hanan Parvez's Blog

Of all the animal species that exist in the world, only two have been documented to form alliances and engage in violence against members of their own species- chimpanzees and humans. Why do humans engage in warfare at all? At first blush, engaging in warfare seems to make no evolutionary sense....

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The bell rang and the high school kids rushed out with vigour as if released from a prison. As they were leaving their classrooms, boys and girls showed different kinds of behaviours. While the girls walked slowly and with grace, boys could be seen doing a number of things such as kicking one...

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The boy was just fourteen and he had blood smeared all over the front of his school uniform shirt. He had beaten up a classmate who had bled from his nose. An eerie silence filled the scene as the badly beaten boy was helped to the washroom by some other students who’d been witnessing the...

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Most people are conformists who conform to the social norms of their respective societies. After all, man is a social animal right? Conforming to your social group helps you stay in the good books of the group members. And when you’re in the good books of your group members, they’re likely to...

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It was the birthday of a co-worker of Monica’s. It had been four years now them working together. Previously, they just used to greet each other on their respective birthdays. But this year Monica’s friend gave her a gift on her birthday. Monica felt compelled to the same for her friend, even...

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To answer the question of why we seek justice and revenge, we first need to understand the evolution of the tendency in humans to form cooperative coalitions. This is because it's this phenomenon only that gives rise to contexts in which we seek justice and revenge. So why do we form cooperative...

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Where does our tendency to cooperate come from? Is it natural for us to cooperate or is it the result of social learning? It’s tempting to think that we’re born as non-cooperative beasts that need to be tamed via education and other forms of cultural learning. The whole idea of ‘human...

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Mike wanted to buy a new bike and was short of cash. He decided to ask his parents for money. He first thought of going to his father, but, on a second thought, he dropped the idea. He went to his mother instead who happily complied with his request. For a large part of his life, Mike had thought...

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Numerous factors have come together to make the evolution of family possible in us homo sapiens. Typically, families evolve in the animal kingdom when individuals can increase their odds of reproductive success by staying close to, and helping, their genetic relatives. A family is just a bunch of...

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While it makes perfect sense to call your sibling or cousin "bro" or "brother", why do we sometimes use this label for friends, acquaintances and even strangers? After all, it would be weird if someone called a stranger "dad" or "mom" but why is calling anyone "bro" okay? As you might have noticed...

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