Postdoctoral researcher Karina Vold took on the role of expert panelist recently for the excellent BBC World Service programme, CrowdScience. The question the panel was trying to answer was "Why does history repeat itself?"
From BBC website:
Teenagers are known for ignoring their parents’ advice, but is this reputation for rebellion well-founded? If so, is rejecting the advice of previous generations and treading our own path an important part ofwhat it means to be human? Are we successful as a species precisely because of our questioning natures?
Listener Hans started pondering these questions after his own adolescent children repeatedly ignored his nagging. Many animals simply follow in their parents’ footsteps – so what makes human children different?
Marnie Chesterton and a panel of experts look at the science of taking advice and making decisions, finding out how human curiosity and exploration compare to other animals, learning the best ways to give and take advice, and seeing whether we’re more likely to trust artificial intelligence than the wisdom of our elders. Finally, we give listener Hans some expert advice on whether or not to keep nagging his kids.