The Gambling Animal (Hardback)

Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak - and How We Risk It All

Humanity's unique relationship with risk has driven us to defy the evolutionary odds. But as the stakes keep mounting, how long before our luck runs out?

'Masterful' GEORGE AINSLIE

'A fascinating tour of risk taking in the natural world' ADAM KUCHARSKI

'A sweeping and page-turning story' NICK CHATER

'A fascinating and challenging explanation of how the secrets to human success may be our downfall' PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

Evolution is a series of bets, and no animal gambles the way humans do. This has led us to unprecedented ecological dominance, via the steepest odds and unlikeliest of outcomes, but our winning streak cuts both ways: the secret to our success may yet be our downfall.

The Gambling Animal offers a revelatory retelling of the human story. Drawing on their unique research into the management of risk by humans and other animals - including our most impressive compatriots, elephants - Glenn Harrison and Don Ross reveal the hidden logic of our rise. But with an ecological crisis on the horizon, how long can our winning streak continue?

Publication date: 30/01/2025

£25.00

ISBN: 9781788163620

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: Arts, Language & Literature, Current Affairs, Politics & Economics

The Gambling Animal (Accessible EPUBAccessible EPUB)

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The Gambling Animal (Ebook)

Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak - and How We Risk It All

Glenn W. Harrison, Don Ross

Humanity's unique relationship with risk has driven us to defy the evolutionary odds. But as the stakes keep mounting, how long before our luck runs out?

'Masterful' GEORGE AINSLIE

'A fascinating tour of risk taking in the natural world' ADAM KUCHARSKI

'A sweeping and page-turning story' NICK CHATER

'A fascinating and challenging explanation of how the secrets to human success may be our downfall' PSYCHOLOGY TODAY

Publication date: 30/01/2025

£21.99

ISBN: 9781782836186

ISBN 10 / ASIN: B0D344R8J3

Imprint: Profile Books

Subject: Arts, Language & Literature, Current Affairs, Politics & Economics

Reviews for The Gambling Animal

'A fascinating tour of risk taking in the natural world, from surviving to socialising'

Adam Kucharski, author of THE PERFECT BET

'A complex, closely argued exposition of their risk and reward work with humans and elephants, tracing how humans evolved to manage risk, from the savannah to Wall Street'

Simon Ings New Scientist

'Offering an unsettling account of human exceptionalism ... their fascinating and challenging work explains how the secrets to human success may be our downfall'

Marc Bekoff, Professor Emeritus of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Colorado Psychology Today

'In their natural history of risk management, from prehistory to today, economists Glenn Harrison and Don Ross discuss their team's experiments on risk-taking in some 40,000 volunteers from around the world, who had varying levels of wealth, income and education, as well as 6 elephants in South Africa'

Andrew Robinson, Best Science Picks Nature

'Weaves together insights from economics and evolutionary science to paint a persuasive picture of how humans' social brains have given us a uniquely powerful but dangerously flawed type of intelligence'

Diane Coyle, author of COGS & MONSTERS

'A masterful integration of scientific insights on the human path to ecological domination. Behavioral economics at its best'

George Ainslie, author of BREAKDOWN OF WILL

'A ground-breaking exploration of humanity's unique relationship with risk and reward, offering a revolutionary glimpse into the evolutionary patterns of humanity'

John A. List, author of THE VOLTAGE EFFECT

'This valuable and highly enjoyable book offers a fresh perspective: human evolution as a story of collective risk management. The Gambling Animal takes us on a tour through the gambles of life, from the survival struggles of early hominids to our high-stakes wager on climate change'

Gerd Gigerenzer, director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development

'A sweeping and page-turning story of how humans - and other animals - manage the myriad risks that continually face us. The authors make a compelling case that the management of risk shapes whether we flourish (or perish) both as individuals, and as a species.'

Nick Chater, Professor of Behavioural Science at Warwick Business School and author of The Mind is Flat

'Praise for Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalised (with James Ladyman)'

'A book can be important, although its main claims seem to the reader to be as controversial at the end of the book as they were at the beginning ... So it is with Every Thing Must Go ... An enticing work'

Jeremy Butterfield TLS

'Ross's broadside against traditional analytic metaphysics embodies the most admirable characteristics of a good slap across the face: it is forceful, frank, and delivered in response to sufficient provocation'

P. Kyle Stanford, author of Exceeding Our Grasp

'Probes humans' relationship with risk, positing that our ability to take risks helped us to evolve into sophisticated beings - unique among animals'

The Actuary

Glenn W. Harrison

Glenn Harrison is a Distinguished University Professor; the C. V. Starr Chair of Risk Management & Insurance; and director of the Center for the Economic Analysis of Risk, Maurice R. Greenberg School of Risk Science, J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He is also an adjunct professor at the School of Economics, University of Cape Town. He studies the economics of risk.

Don Ross

Don Ross is professor and head of the School of Society, Politics and Ethics at University College Cork, Ireland; professor at the School of Economics at the University of Cape Town; and program director for Methodology at the Center for Economic Analysis of Risk, J. Mack Robinson College of Business at Georgia State University. He studies the design and interpretation of risky choice experiments with people and other animals.