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How Mass Shootings Will Affect Political Cooperation

Here is the chart of the definitions I reference throughtout the podcast. The chart comes from a 2017, Varnum and Grossman article titled, cultural change: the how and the why. Culture here is described as people who live in the same place have similar beliefs and ways of living. In the article, Cultural change is defined as changes in culture that happen over time. The Varnum and Grossmann article really stresses why cultures change. The way they choose to look at it, and what I will be using to explain my prediction today, is the ecological approach to cultural change. Ecological pressures include things like population density, and threats. While evoked responses include aspects such as trust, aggression, and cooperation. 



Humans are unique from other species because of the large-scale cooperation that is possible between groups of people. In this study by Boyd and Richerson they investigate the ways that cooperation can evolve over time. Human psycholgy has evolved to fit more cooperative societies. Cooperation was evoked in humans for survival against outside threats.