Too risky? A comment on Harrison and Ross’s The Gambling Animal

Harrison & Ross's The Gambling Animal (TGA) brings together theories of economic decision-making, technology, and cultural learning to make sense of the distinctive ways in which humans think and interact with their environment. In my reading of the evidence, too, these are exactly the right ingredients to focus on. It is thus unsurprising that, at least in the eyes of this commentator, TGA deserves to be closely studied and widely discussed. That said, while there is much that is right about the account laid out in TGA, in three respects, it deserves further scrutiny. These concern (i) the emphasis placed on risk management as the driver of human evolution, (ii) the complexities of intra- and inter-specific variation, and (iii) the difficulties of achieving cooperation.