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A genuinely interesting thesis. It seems that, if my reading is correct, you're trying to apply the insights of behaviorism (or to be precise, applied behavior analysis) with a dose of EP (specifically, an adaptationist program). And you want to write a book about relationship, and how we can basically shape each other's behavior with the insights from sexual selection and other parts of EP. Pretty neat.

Some paper that might help on your journey for writing that book:

1. A Comparison of the Properties of Different Reinforcers (Hogan & Roper, 1978)

2. A Natural Science of Behavior (Catania, 2013)

3. Timberlake’s behavior systems: A paradigm shift toward an ecological approach (Felipe et al., 2019)

4. Taming the boojum: Being theoretical about peculiarities of learning (Bowers, 2022)

These are just some of the papers that might help you think more clearly in regards to your thesis. If you want to check out paper that discuss technical issues with learning and behavior, you might want to check out my google sheets in the section "issues" with learning (https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/112hxKPKyp7OOOd5bFfcy5FzxNFywDJqOaX2npnhh3zM/edit?usp=sharing).

Perhaps, my one criticism for this article is when you make generalizations, "Behaviorism and evolutionary psychology may seem most antithetical to one another in terms of their ramifications for an understanding of human nature, and the premises that they begin with." Because it begs the question, do they though? From reading the literature, we might need to ask which "behaviorist" and which "evolutionary psychologist".

Cause technically, Skinner IS an evolutionary psychologist, as any other behaviorist that also talks about Darwin (e.g. Kantor, Catania, Carrera, Baum). They just don't think about it in the same way as an EP would do it. Here is Skinner's take on evolution (https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X0002673X; which he got criticized heavily lol, but hey, that's Skinner :D). Funny enough, he once discuss his ideas with E.O. Wilson in this book (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-387-89462-1). Another one that he might differ from EP is that Skinner genuinely dislike hypothetical construct that can't be observed (e.g. mind). Couple days before his passing, he writes this paper to summarize his view (https://psycnet.apa.org/record/1991-08735-001). However, other behaviorist such as Howard Rachlin, he does talk about the mind, but then again with his own way (https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jeab.782). I think a lot (not all) of the differences between EP and behaviorism, even perhaps other system in psychology is a matter of language that they use. That's why perhaps I think your work is important because it can bridge between ideas that's never been bridged before, but you have to characterize them with their own respective language.

An example of a paper that manage to translate between system in a manner that's fair is by Meehl (https://meehl.umn.edu/sites/meehl.umn.edu/files/files/151murrayskinner.pdf). I usually share this paper if anyone want to understand behaviorism (and psychoanalysis) better, but also how a student "defend" his mentor in a manner that's charitable and accurate.

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I was listening to your podcast with Meghan Daum, and was laughing at your description of what you need to make polyamory work (high IQ, lack of jealousy, self-control, low agreeableness...so basically be a tech bro?) and the behavior of the various Reddit communities (yeah, I don't see why you have to be a Marxist to be poly).

Here's my question for you: you basically accept that masculinity/femininity varies on a spectrum (with the biological sexes' distributions centered at very different places). Have you thought about writing a guide for masculine women? Topics might include the pluses and minuses of promiscuity, male versus female friends and the strengths and weaknesses of each, whether to have kids and how to decide, and so on. I write this because I have a rather nerdy female friend, all of whose friends are non-nerd women or nerd men, and neither of them really gets her. It might help other people in similar situations.

(There needs to be a guide for feminine men, too, but I don't know who would write it.)

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Great stuff!

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