The Gambling Animal: Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak - and How We Risk It All

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Glenn W. Harrison Don Ross

The Gambling Animal

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

Glenn W. Harrison, Don Ross

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Paperback

Forthcoming
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English

Profile
06 May 2025

Behavioural economics; Mathematics & Sciences; Animal behaviour

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 risk psychology of humans and other animals - including our most impressive rivals, elephants - Don Ross and Glenn Harrison reveal the hidden logic of our rise.

Even before the dawn of civilisation, we bet the Earth on our ability to keep doubling down. But with an ecological crisis on the horizon, how long will our winning streak continue?

By: Glenn W. Harrison, Don Ross
Imprint: Profile
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: Export/Airside
Dimensions: Height: 232mm, Width: 150mm, Spine: 34mm
Weight: 509g
ISBN: 9781805225843
ISBN 10: 1805225847
Pages: 416
Publication Date: 06 May 2025
Audience: College/higher education , Professional and scholarly , Primary , Undergraduate
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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. 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 researches the economics of risk.

Reviews for The Gambling Animal: Humanity’s Evolutionary Winning Streak - and How We Risk It All

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 * Exceeding Our Grasp *