Quotessence
Home / Quotes / Quote by Riadh Abed

Quote by Riadh Abed

“We are sole hominin survivors, but not the inevitable masters. Luck, as much as biology, might have been key to sapiens’ place in the world. Our existence as a species is due to a series of devastating, largely random catastrophes, each of which overhauled the planet and its ecosystems, providing new opportunities: from the meteorite impact that killed the dinosaurs but unleashed mammals through to climate change in Africa some 2 million years ago and the emergence of the great savannahs.”

Quote by Riadh Abed

Create image

Author

Riadh Abed

Browse famous quotes and profile details for Riadh Abed. more

You May Also Like

“For most of human evolutionary history our species lived as hunter-gatherers; hence, much of our cognition and behavior is adapted to this way of life. Given the magnitude of the sociocultural, economic and lifestyle changes experienced by Homo Sapiens over the last 10,000 years, in particular the last several hundred years, aspects of human psychology may be maladapted to modern ways of life.”

HealthEvolutionIllnessDisorderMentalEvolutionary Psychiatry
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image

“Thus, for our ancestors, social networks were a matter of life and death, group living was the norm and social isolation was rare, carrying fatal risks. In turn, psychological mechanisms promoting the maintenance of social relationships have been heavily favored by natural selection.”

HealthEvolutionIllnessDisorderMentalEvolutionary Psychiatry
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image

“Such is the magnitude of our evolved psychological dependence on social interaction that, even when surrounded by individuals who have committed the most heinous crimes, solitary confinement for more than 15 days is considered psychological torture by the United Nations.”

HealthEvolutionIllnessDisorderMentalEvolutionary Psychiatry
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image

“The sexual competition hypothesis suggests that women are vulnerable to eating disorders because modern media augment the natural motivation for having a desirable body in order to get better mates. This explains why so many women use extreme caloric restriction in intense efforts to be attractive, but it does not by itself explain anorexia nervosa and bulimia.”

HealthEvolutionIllnessDisorderMentalAnorexiaBulimiaEvolutionary Psychiatry
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image

“An individual may feel guilty about the event(s) that triggered their depression. Feelings of guilt make one reflect upon how their actions led to that outcome and thus help minimise the likelihood of the same thing happening again. The greater the role oplayed by one's own actions in the situations that led to the event that triggered the depression, the greater the sense of guilt.”

HealthEvolutionGuiltIllnessDisorderMentalEvolutionary Psychiatry
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image

“An individual may feel guilty about the event(s) that triggered their depression. Feelings of guilt make one reflect upon how their actions led to that outcome and thus help minimize the likelihood of the same thing happening again. The greater the role played by one's own actions in the situations that led to the event that triggered the depression, the greater the sense of guilt.”

HealthEvolutionGuiltIllnessDisorderMentalEvolutionary Psychiatry
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image

“Suicide can help pass on an individual's genes to the next generation in a situation where that individual is a burden to their close relatives and their own reproductive potential is weak. By taking their life, an individual may contribute to the reproductive success of their close relatives and thus to the proliferation of their own genes. In such a case, that individual's close relatives would have one mouth less to feed and no sick individual to look after. Indeed, several studies have shown that suicidal thoughts and suicides are more common in those who have poor chances of reproduction and who feel they are merely a burden to their loved ones.”

LifeDeathHistoryHealthTheoryEvolutionDiseaseDepressionSuicideSickness
Book:Evolutionary Psychiatry: Current Perspectives on Evolution and Mental Health
Create image