Genes, judgments, and evolution : the social and political consequences of distributional and differential conflict

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dc.contributor.advisorPedahzur, Amien
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMcDonald, Patricken
dc.creatorMeyer, John Michaelen
dc.date.accessioned2012-07-24T18:11:46Zen
dc.date.available2012-07-24T18:11:46Zen
dc.date.issued2012-05en
dc.date.submittedMay 2012en
dc.date.updated2012-07-24T18:11:51Zen
dc.descriptiontexten
dc.description.abstractThe following argument offers a sharper micro-foundational lens for studying human political and social behavior by demonstrating how political science might better incorporate the theory of evolution into its behavioral models, and by showing that differential conflict occasionally prevails over the materialist conflicts depicted in much of the modern social science literature. I take evolutionary psychology's understanding of manifest behavior as a point of departure, and then analyze the manifest behavior in terms of judgments, which are binary measurements at a particular point of reference; in other words, a given manifest behavior either did or did not occur at a particular point in time. I then show that judgments can 1) transmit from one individual to the next, 2) vary according to predictable adaptive processes, and 3) are either extinguished or flourish dependent upon the process of natural selection; judgments, therefore, meet the three requirements of evolutionary theory. Judgments, rather than genes, better describe the process of human political and social evolution, which becomes especially clear when one assesses the consequences of what I term "differential" outcomes in judgments.en
dc.description.departmentGovernmenten
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen
dc.identifier.slug2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5617en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2012-05-5617en
dc.language.isoengen
dc.subjectDistributional conflicten
dc.subjectResource conflicten
dc.subjectEvolutionen
dc.subjectPoliticsen
dc.subjectPolitical scienceen
dc.subjectMicro-foundationsen
dc.subjectJudgmentsen
dc.subjectNeo-Darwinianen
dc.subjectDifferential conflicten
dc.subject3C Analysisen
dc.subjectDifferential cooperationen
dc.subjectDifferential consensusen
dc.subjectSocial evolutionen
dc.subjectSocial scienceen
dc.subjectConciliationen
dc.subjectManifest behavioren
dc.subjectBinaryen
dc.subjectCultureen
dc.subjectSocial conflicten
dc.subjectCooperationen
dc.subjectConflicten
dc.subjectConsensusen
dc.subjectConflict theoryen
dc.subjectMemesen
dc.subjectCultural evolutionen
dc.subjectCultural rulesen
dc.titleGenes, judgments, and evolution : the social and political consequences of distributional and differential conflicten
dc.title.alternativeSocial and political consequences of distributional and differential conflicten
dc.type.genrethesisen
thesis.degree.departmentGovernmenten
thesis.degree.disciplineGovernmenten
thesis.degree.grantorUniversity of Texas at Austinen
thesis.degree.levelMastersen
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Artsen

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