Evolution, Human Nature, and Business INTA-GB.2370 Thursday Evenings, 6:00-9:00, in KMC-3-60 (Preliminary syllabus, 12/18/12) ______
Faculty: Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Leadership, NYU-Stern [email protected], Office hours: TBA, in Tisch 434 David Sloan Wilson, Visiting Fellow (from Binghamton University) [email protected], Office hours: TBA Geoffrey Miller, Visiting Fellow (from U. of New Mexico) [email protected], Office hours: TBA
Course Administrator: Autherine Allison, [email protected]
Course Overview: Human nature is at the heart of business. Whether you want to understand consumers, investors, workers, colleagues, or leaders, you must understand human nature. Evolutionary psychology gives deep insights into people’s goals, thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It has the potential to revolutionize how we understand every aspect of business. We’ll use evolutionary psychology to gain new perspectives on organizational behavior (particularly leadership, followership, and team building), marketing and consumer behavior, and the design of systems and organizations that produce ethical behavior by indirect means. This new course for MBA and Ph.D. students will be taught by three leading evolutionary psychologists: Jonathan Haidt, David Sloan Wilson, and Geoffrey Miller. Each week you’ll read short, accessible papers by key researchers, sometimes supplemented by online videos or surveys. Class meetings will include a mixture of lectures, guest lectures, short videos, peer discussion, exercises, and general discussion. Grading will be based on several short papers and projects, one longer final paper, and class participation.
Course Requirements: --About 35% of the grade will be based on your level of involvement with and contribution to class. --About 40% will be based on a substantial final paper --About 25% will be based on three or four smaller papers or projects
Readings: Most will be articles made available on Blackboard. In addition, you should buy these 2 books: Jonathan Haidt, The Righteous Mind: Why Good People are Divided by Politics and Religion Geoffrey Miller, Spent: Sex, Evolution, and Consumer Behavior
Class Topic and Readings
1 Introduction: Feb.14 2 Consumer Behavior #1 Feb.21 3 Consumer Behavior #2 Feb.28 4 Individual Differences Mar 7 5 Cooperation and competition #1 Mar.14 6 Cooperation and competition #2 Mar.28 7 Leadership Apr. 4 8 Morality and the evolution of norms Apr.11 9 Business Ethics #1 Apr.18 10 Business Ethics #2 Apr.25 11 Innovation, regulation, and evolution May 2 12 Last Class, May 9 TBA May 15 Final papers due