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Better health, better jobs, and a brighter future all start with access to a safe, affordable home.
A single door can open up a world of endless possibilities. For homeowners, the front door of their house is a gateway to financial stability, job security, and better health. Yet for many, that door remains closed. Due to the rising costs of housing, 1 in 3 people around the world wake up without the security of safe, affordable housing.
Since 1976, Habitat for Humanity has made it their mission to unlock and open the door to opportunity for families everywhere, and their efforts have paid off in a big way. Through their work over the past 50 years, more than 65 million people have gained access to new or improved housing, and the movement continues to gain momentum. Since 2011 alone, Habitat for Humanity has expanded access to affordable housing by a hundredfold.
A world where everyone has access to a decent home is becoming a reality, but there’s still much to do. As they celebrate 50 years of building, Habitat for Humanity is inviting people of all backgrounds and talents to be part of what comes next through Let’s Open the Door, a global campaign that builds on this momentum and encourages people everywhere to help expand access to safe, affordable housing for those who need it most. Here’s how the foundation to a better world starts with housing, and how everyone can pitch in to make it happen.
Globally, almost 3 billion people, including 1 in 6 U.S. families, struggle with high costs and other challenges related to housing. A crisis in itself, this also creates larger problems that affect families and communities in unexpected ways. People who lack affordable, stable housing are also more likely to experience financial hardship in other areas of their lives, since a larger share of their income often goes toward rent, utilities, and frequent moves. They are also more likely to experience health problems due to chronic stress or environmental factors, such as mold. Housing insecurity also goes hand-in-hand with unstable employment, since people may need to move further from their jobs or switch jobs altogether to offset the cost of housing.
Affordable homeownership creates a stable foundation for families to thrive, reducing stress and increasing the likelihood for good health and stable employment. Habitat for Humanity builds and repairs homes with individual families, but it also strengthens entire communities as well. The MicroBuild® Initiative, for example, strengthens communities by increasing access to loans for low-income families seeking to build or repair their homes. Habitat ReStore locations provide affordable appliances and building materials to local communities, in addition to creating job and volunteer opportunities that support neighborhood growth.
Everyone can play a part in the fight for housing equity and the pursuit of a better world. Over the past 50 years, Habitat for Humanity has become a leader in global housing thanks to an engaged network of volunteers—but you don’t need to be skilled with a hammer to make a meaningful impact. Building an equitable future means calling on a wide range of people and talents.
Here’s how you can get involved in the global housing movement:
Every action, big and small, drives a global movement toward a better future. A safe home unlocks opportunity for families and communities alike, but it’s volunteers and other supporters, working together with a shared vision, who can open the door for everyone.
Visit habitat.org/open-door to learn more and get involved today.
Don’t hold back on compliments. Give them freely.
Acts of kindness: we know they’re important not only for others, but for ourselves. They can contribute to a more positive community and help us feel more connected, happier even. But in our incessantly busy and hectic lives, performing good deeds can feel like an unattainable goal. Or perhaps we equate generosity with monetary contribution, which can feel like an impossible task depending on a person’s financial situation.
Have you ever felt guilty because you don’t spend enough time volunteering? Or maybe because you can’t or don’t give much money to charity? It’s not a good feeling, and you can sometimes feel stuck not knowing what to do about it. But being kind and generous to others doesn’t have to be hard, or take much time, or cost anything at all.
One social media user posed the question: “what’s a small act of kindness that literally anyone can do/practice everyday?” and people gave some brilliantly simple ideas.
Here are eight easy-to-accomplish crowdsourced answers that might bring us one step closer to a more peaceful world:
“Either move with the flow of traffic or get to the side if you have to situate yourself.” – @JoeMorgue
Americans, in particular, seem to get obsessed with the idea of “winning.” Walk around and/or faster than the next person, or refusing to give way. It’s a really kind and considerate move to make space for other people to exist comfortably.
“If you don’t have them – you can go 20 minutes without making excessive noise while sharing a small space with other people.” – @cynthiayeo
Often there’s no law or rule in place that “forces” you to do the polite thing, like minding how much noise you make on an airplane or public transport. But it’s a simple thing to do that goes a long way for the people around you.
“If you have a charitable thought about someone, even a stranger, say it out loud to their face. It is free, it is easy, and it might be the best thing that has happened to that person all week. Nothing creepy or overtly sexual or flirty, just kind words. ‘That shirt is really your color! Your haircut is beautiful. I appreciate your help, you were a real lifesaver!’ It doesn’t cost you anything and it means the world to the people you are talking to.” – @Comments_Wyoming
Everyone loves receiving genuine, no-strings-attached compliments! In fact, we often think about them all day, or even for longer. Don’t withhold praise. Give it freely and openly, when you really mean it.
“Makes a big difference in one’s day.” – @sconnie64
Holding doors isn’t just for gentlemen out on a date. Hold doors for everyone equally; it’s a really sweet and polite gesture.
“After several years of commuting I came to the realization that with a few exceptional days, I always got home at the same time. Regardless of how many people ‘cut me off’ or drove too slowly and whatever. I started to just ‘go with the flow’ and always let people in when needed, always give extra room, and just enjoy my music/podcast. Life changing.” – @CPCOpposesAbortion
Who knows what it is about being in a car that just gets our blood boiling. Maybe it’s the slight anonymity, a little like being in an internet comment section? In any case, don’t indulge. If someone cuts you off, give them the benefit of the doubt and just move on. It was probably an accident anyway.
“You never know what someone else is going through. Could be a breakup, their dog just died, granny finally made it to heaven, or maybe mom just broke the news that she’s got end stage cervical cancer and has weeks left to live. You never know, so be patient. After all, wouldn’t you want someone to be patient with you?” – @mamalion12
Assuming the best in people is a really good start when it comes to kindness. Most people aren’t out to be difficult or rude. Give them a little grace and there’s no telling how much they’ll appreciate it.
“It doesn’t have to be over the top, but everyone feels better about doing chores when it is noticed and appreciated. ‘Thanks for folding my laundry’ or ‘thanks for always keeping track of our bills, you’re awesome at managing money!’” – @Mrshaydee
This goes for kids, too! When they remember to pick up after themselves, reinforce the behavior with praise. Make time to appreciate your partner and family members, too, no matter how small their contributions.
“Pick up a piece of litter at the park. Give that mat with a pucker ready to trip someone a little tug to get it to lay flat in the business you’re at. Let an employee know when you spot a leaky dairy product on the shelves so they can deal with it. Return someone else’s grocery cart.” – @BlueberryPiano
Don’t be the “Someone else will deal with it,” person when you can be the someone else! It doesn’t take any effort at all most of the time to grab a piece of litter. And don’t even get me started on returning the grocery cart. It’s a basic test of human kindness that too many people fail. It’s the easiest thing in the world and saves both employees and the next customer time.
Perhaps surprisingly, the main reason people don’t offer more acts of kindness is the fear of being misunderstood. That is, at least, according to The Kindness Test: an online questionnaire about being nice to others that more than 60,000 people from 144 countries completed. It does make sense having your good intentions be viewed as an awkward source of discomfort is not exactly fun for either party. You can imagine that complimenting a stranger could easily be interpreted the wrong way, for example.
However, the results of The Kindness Test also indicated those fears were perhaps unfounded. The most common words people used were “happy,” “grateful,” “loved,” “relieved” and “pleased” to describe their feelings after receiving kindness. Less than 1% of people said they felt embarrassed, according to the BBC.
So, maybe with kindness, we need to put our social anxieties away and act without overthinking (to a certain point, of course). Perhaps it’s best to find the simplest actions we can commit to on a daily basis, rather than formulating some grandiose gesture.
This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.
“Her POV is giving she travelled for 40 days and 40 nights.”
The world can feel so wondrously big when we’re kids, to the point where even the smallest excursions can feel like a grand adventure. Even, say, a walk to grandma’s house next door.
That was certainly the case for Missy Lanning’s sweet two-year-old daughter. And thanks to modern-day technology, we all got to go along for the adorable ride! In a previous clip posted to her TikTok, Lanning explains that her little one walks alone to Grandma’s (aka Mimi’s) house, which is on the same plot of land.
Naturally, when someone suggested that Lanning put a microphone on her daughter for the next solo journey, Lanning did one better and strapped a full-blown camera on her. A delightful (and loooooong) journey filled with giant blue skies, friendly farm creatures, and wholesome Little House on the Prairie vibes ensued.
Watch:
So cute, right? Especially hearing her say “chitens” instead of chickens. And the fact that she’s wearing a Little Red Riding Hood-esque cloak ON HER WAY TO GRANDMA’S? Chef’s kiss.
Down in the comments, people were floored at getting to see the full scope of a trip like that when seen through the eyes of a small child.
“Her POV is giving she travelled for 40 days and 40 nights.”
“She’s gonna grow up to tell her kids how you made her through mountains and snow storms to get to Mimi’s.”
“Her POV is making me realize how huge the world must seem to kids! I’ve never considered this before.”
“‘The road was long and treacherous, it was many days. But we had pet friends along the way.”
“She left on Sunday and got there on Monday.”
“From her POV it was like hiking the Appalachian Trail.”
We might not ever technically be able to turn back the clock and return to a time when the world was this vast, but children help us remember that feeling when we just sit back and watch them experience it for the first time.
This article originally appeared 5 months ago. It has been updated.
This is just sew satisfying.
For most of human history, people had to make their own clothing by hand, and sewing skills were subsequently passed down from generation to generation. Because clothing was so time-consuming and labor-intensive to make, people also had to know how to repair clothing items that got torn or damaged in some way.
The invention of sewing and knitting machines changed the way we acquire clothing, and the skills people used to possess have largely gone by the wayside. If we get a hole in a sock nowadays, we toss it and replace it. Most of us have no idea how to darn a sock or fix a hole in any knit fabric. Unfortunately, it’s far easier for us to replace than to repair.
But there are still some among us who do have the skills to repair clothing in a way that makes it look like the rip, tear or hole never happened, and to watch them do it is mesmerizing.
Videos of people stitching holes in knit sweaters have gone viral on social media with millions of views on simple, 2-minute demonstrations. Why? Well, you just have to see it in action.
One video begins by showing a hole in a light pink knit sweater. Using a needle, yarn and a tiny latch hook device, the person demonstrates how to fill the hole to make it look as if it never existed in the first place. Putting a patch over a hole is one thing, but this is something akin to magic.
Wow, right?
Another video begins by showing a hole in a gray knit sweater, but this time a yellow yarn is used to patch the hole so you can see clearly what was done. It looks so simple, but you really do have to know what you’re doing to make this magic work.
What we’re witnessing here is a combo of knowledge and experience in the fiber arts, of course, but what it looks like is sheer sorcery or some kind of really complicated calculus problem. Who figured out how to do this? And why is it so satisfying to watch?
“I watched this whole video and I still don’t know how you did that,” shared one commenter. (Right?!)
“Hey that was pretty neat,” wrote another. “Can you do the ozone layer next?” (Ha.)
“I could watch it a hundred times and still not be able to do this,” wrote another. (Uh, same.)
“My toxic trait is thinking I can do this 😂😂😂,” shared another. (Maybe after watching it two hundred times.)
Many people found it oddly soothing to watch, perhaps because seeing something being fixed is indeed satisfying and perhaps because it harkens back to a simpler time when people spent their evenings doing things like this around the fire.
The music helps, too. This video demonstrates three different ways to mend sweater holes and the piano practically lulls you into a meditative state while you watch. Is this fiber arts therapy for those of us who don’t sew or knit or crochet? Maybe so. Whatever works, right?
Kudos to those who are keeping these kinds of skills alive and sharing them with the world. We may not be passing this kind of knowledge down in most families anymore, but at least we have the internet to help us if we really want to learn it.
This article originally appeared four years ago. It has been updated.
“Never give up, never give up hope. It can happen and it will happen.”
When a woman stopped to pump gas in Folsom, California, she noticed a 62-year-old man standing on the nearby street corner holding a sign. He wasn’t asking for money. He was handing out resumes.
She offered him cash anyway. He declined and handed her a copy of his resume instead.
“My heart sunk,” she later wrote. She went home and posted his story, along with his resume, to a private Facebook group called Folsom Chat. Within 24 hours, as CBS Sacramento reported, George Silvey had a job.
Silvey was a Vietnam veteran who had spent six years standing on street corners trying to find work the old-fashioned way. He’d had careers in maintenance, heavy equipment operation, painting, and in-home healthcare. He wasn’t looking for charity. He was looking for someone to take a chance on him.
“I know that once I get my foot in the door, I can make a lot of money real fast,” he told reporters. “All I need is the opportunity.”
The Facebook post did what six years of sidewalk networking hadn’t. Summer Gonzalez, co-owner of KiKi’s Chicken in Rancho Cordova, saw it and called. The next day Silvey was washing dishes and taking out trash. He showed up early.
“How many people are really asking to earn their money when you see them out on the street?” Gonzalez said. “And how can you say no to someone that actually wants to take the initiative to take care of himself?”
She didn’t say no. Neither did Silvey when his roommate’s phone started ringing off the hook with offers after the post went up. “It threw me for a loop because I didn’t expect this to happen so fast,” he said.
On his first day he put on his uniform shirt and got straight to work. Gonzalez watched and said simply: “He’s a great guy.”
Silvey called it a lucky day. But the luck was mostly the woman at the gas station who saw someone doing exactly what she would have wanted someone to do — refusing to beg, asking instead to be given a shot — and decided she was going to make sure he got one.
“Never give up, never give up hope,” Silvey said afterward. “It can happen and it will happen.”
Rescuing one of these breeds is one thing, but buying them is another, he says.
Welcoming a pet into your family can be a wonderful experience, but it’s also a consequential decision. There’s a lot to weigh as you commit to years of daily care and the lifestyle changes that come with owning an animal. Because different breeds have different traits and behaviors, those factors should be considered as well.
U.K. veterinarian Ben Simpson-Vernon (or “Ben the Vet”) is sharing some food for thought that many people may not be aware of when it comes to cat breeds. Not only are certain breeds harder for humans to care for, but some are also hard on the animals themselves. In one TikTok video, he makes the case for not buying certain cat breeds.
(He clarifies that true rescue adoptions are a different story if you have the means to care for these breeds. He’s specifically referring to not buying them as kittens from a breeder or pet store.)
“This is just my opinion as someone who sees a lot of cats with health problems,” he said. “It’s not intended to cast judgment over people, but sometimes you have to say it like it is.”
Here are five cat breeds he wouldn’t get as a vet:
Sphynx cats, also known as hairless, bald, or naked cats, have gained popularity in recent years. But Simpson-Vernon says that breeding them has basically “removed the essence of being a cat.”
For one, they have either no whiskers or tiny, stubby ones. “Whiskers are an integral part of being a cat,” he said. “They use them to navigate in the dark, to sense vibrations, to communicate their emotional state.”
“Also, no cat should have to wear clothes to avoid being cold,” he added.
He pointed out that Sphynx cats tend to have heart problems due to their genetics, and that their life expectancy is much lower than that of most cats—just six and a half years on average.
“Yes, they’ve got great personalities,” he said. “But why make life hard for your cat?”
Munchkin cats have extremely short legs, often compared to the cat version of a Corgi or Dachshund. The breed is relatively new, first proposed as an experimental breed in 1991. While a few associations have accepted it, most have not. Three of the largest—the Cat Fanciers’ Association (CFA), the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy (GCCF), and the Fédération Internationale Féline (FIFe)—refuse to grant Munchkins official breed status, citing the short legs that make them unique as a congenital condition.
“Please, let’s not let it become socially acceptable to deliberately breed cats with dwarfism,” Simpson-Vernon said. “A pet should not just be an object of our amusement. They’re a living, breathing animal that has the ability to sense pain and their own needs. Let’s not make life hard for them by giving them short limbs, which make it hard for them to jump and mean they suffer from arthritis at a young age.”
Taylor Swift’s photos and videos of her Scottish Fold cats may have influenced a surge in the breed’s popularity. But Simpson-Vernon said these cats all have the same genetic disorder, osteochondrodysplasia, which causes their folded ears.
But that disorder “also means they have defective joint cartilage in all of their joints and develop painful arthritis at a young age,” he said.
He said Scottish Folds make up 2% of all new cats, which he called “quite sad.” Given what’s known about their health issues, Simpson-Vernon said he could never get a Scottish Fold kitten. Other vets offer similar warnings:
Savannah cats look like they belong in the wild, as they are basically a blend of a domestic cat and a serval. But that’s exactly why Simpson-Vernon said he’d never get one.
“I’ve seen a few in practice, and I have to say, I was quite scared of them,” he said. “They’re much bigger and stronger than a domestic cat, and they retain a lot more of their wild instincts. So they’re hard to cater for in a home environment. I would say near on impossible.”
He suggested buying an inanimate object for those looking for a status symbol. And for those drawn to wild animals, he suggested donating to a conservation charity.
Persian cats with faces that look like they hit a wall at full speed are known as “Peke-faced” for their resemblance to a Pekinese dog.
“I feel really sad for these cats,” Simpson-Vernon said. “They can’t groom themselves properly, so they get really matted, and they get a lot of health problems. It is obviously harder for them to breathe when they have tiny nostrils, like this, but they get chronic upper respiratory infections really commonly.”
Simpson-Vernon said this breed is also prone to eye issues, dental problems, and hydrocephalus (a buildup of fluid in the brain).
He said that “if you want a happy, healthy companion,” buying a Persian kitten “is not a good choice.”
Not all cat breeds are created equal. But how can you tell if you’re choosing one without ethical concerns? The clearest way to avoid supporting questionable breeding is to adopt a rescue cat. Regardless of breed, these are cats already in need of a home.
If you want a kitten, consider alerting a local shelter to your interest and asking to be notified when kittens become available for adoption. If you want to choose a specific breed, search terms like “controversial cat breeds” or the breed you’re considering, paired with words like “controversy” or “ethical concerns,” can help you identify potential issues before making a decision. Some organizations also provide lists of traits to avoid in order to discourage breeding that may result in unnecessary health problems.
Informed decisions are the best decisions, especially when it comes to our furry friends.
He overcame everything to fulfill his dreams.
The odds seemed stacked against Ganesh Baraiya at birth. He had seven brothers and sisters, was born with dwarfism, and has a locomotor disability that impairs his movement. His prospects in life were so limited that while he was in primary school, a circus offered his family 500,000 rupees ($5,350) to take him as a performer. Even though it was a life-changing amount of money, his father refused, in hopes that his son would pursue an education.
His hard work in school paid off, and in 2018, Ganesh eventually passed India’s medical exam. However, instead of celebrating, Ganesh faced another barrier: the Medical Council of India rejected his admission to an MBBS program because of his physical disability.
The council believed that his height could be a hindrance during medical emergencies. “I was very disappointed,” Ganesh told the BBC. “I could not see a way out… I was thinking that my dream of becoming a doctor would remain incomplete.”
“When the MCI rejected my application, I was very disappointed. But I didn’t give up,” he told The Federal. “I approached my college principal, Dr. Dalpatghai Katariya, who encouraged me to fight for my right to pursue medicine.” With the help of his friend, he fought the rejection in India’s high court, but his plea was rejected.
Undeterred, Ganesh appealed the decision, and the case reached India’s Supreme Court. “After four months, the Supreme Court of India ruled in my favor on October 22, 2018,” he told The Federal. “After completing my MBBS and internship, I began my first posting as a medical officer on November 27, 2025. It’s a moment I’ve worked hard for.” Ganesh now works as a medical officer at Bhavnagar Civil Hospital, the same place where he received his medical degree.
While some may believe that being only three feet tall and weighing a little over 40 pounds might pose serious drawbacks as a medical practitioner, Ganesh says his stature offers unique benefits. “Children would open up to me easily,” he told the BBC. “They would tell me their small problems, which they would not share with other doctors.”
Looking ahead, Ganesh wants to pursue a career that leverages his strengths, including radiology, pediatrics, and dermatology. Now that he has a steady income, he’d also like to build a brick house for his family.
Ganesh’s story is a powerful example of what can happen when you refuse to settle, whether that’s joining a circus or giving up when powerful institutions say you can’t pursue your dreams. He’s also a great inspiration for anyone who has had to pick themselves up from a major setback. If a three-foot-tall man born into a humble farming family can fulfill his dreams, then anything is possible.
“A life without struggle is like not living at all,” he told the BBC. “Many times in life, I feel like I am failing. But you have to keep moving ahead toward your goals.”
“If we have them in Britain, what’s so American about this apple pie?”
Even though Americans and British people share the same language, there are a lot of figures of speech that don’t make a lot of sense when they go from one side of the pond to the other. The British have some unique turns of phrase that are head-scratching to Americans, such as “Bob’s yer uncle” and “Taking the Mick.”
Laurence Brown, a Brit who moved to the midwestern U.S., documents the differences between U.S. and U.K. culture on the Lost in the Pond YouTube channel. Brown created a fun video in which he explains why some American figures of speech make absolutely no sense to most British people. In the video, he explains how he first encountered each phrase and what they actually mean.
“The thing is, rodeo isn’t really a common competitive sport in the UK. And so, if we are aware of it, we’re only aware of it through American movies and clips on the internet of bat crazy things that Americans do for fun. So while we can probably figure out what it means, we have absolutely no idea what it means.”
“I was baffled by the phrase ‘as American as apple pie,’ because if we have them in Britain, what’s so American about this apple pie? Well, as I’ve pointed out on this channel, nothing. Because apple pie has its origins in England.”
“Americans like to use the term “hit” metaphorically, hit the gym, hit the books, hit the gas, hit the skids. … But in hindsight, even though I was quite confused by the phrase ‘hit the books’ at first, I sort of prefer it to what we’d say in Britain, which is ‘I’m doing revision.’”
“Anybody who’s followed this channel for a while will know that I’ve lived in Indianapolis and Chicago, the two largest cities in their respective states. But often we find ourselves driving between the two cities, where there is nothing other than farmland. In the early days of living in the US, I remember somebody referring to these parts as ‘the boonies.’ This itself was a confusing phrase at first, because I had never heard this word before.”
The phrase“Boondocks” appears to have entered the American lexicon from Tagalog, one of the languages of the Philippines. In Tagalog, bundok means “mountain.” The U.S. military began using the term and changed it to “Boondocks;” then, shortened to “Boonies” to describe the Vietnamese back country.
“‘Wazoo’ is an American slang term for the buttocks or anus. I see. So when you’re talking out of the wazoo, you’re literally talking s**t.”
“It is a billiards term in the UK. Billiards is not really all that popular, and so the phrase, as far as I’m aware, did not really catch on over there. Well, what does the phrase mean, Laurence? Well, it turns out that it means don’t get yourself into a sticky situation. In other words, don’t be thwarted by it.”
“When I first heard it, I thought it was the state of Texas telling everyone else, ‘If you bring a fight to us, we will absolutely destroy you.’ It’s part of the reason that I haven’t properly visited Texas yet. I think a lot of people find this tagline funny because of that weirdly provocative-sounding threat. Well, British people, and anyone who’s genuinely confused by this phrase, might, depending on your perspective, be thrilled or distraught to discover that the phrase was just part of a successful anti-littering campaign.”
The phrase “Don’t Mess with Texas” comes from a 1985 anti-littering campaign by the Texas Department of Transportation. The first commercial, featuring blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughn, was a massive success, and the phrase soon entered the lexicon of Texans and the world beyond.
Linguist explains why “survival of the wittiest” beat out the “fittest.”
There’s a great line in Who Framed Roger Rabbit?, where the sultry Jessica Rabbit is asked why she loves her husband, Roger, a manic comedian with a penchant for mischief, who’s half her size. Her answer: “He makes me laugh.”
Although that may seem like an exaggeration, there’s a lot of truth to Jessica’s perspective; heterosexual women consistently rank sense of humor as one of the most attractive traits that a man can have. Heterosexual men also find women with a sense of humor attractive, but to a lesser extent.
A new research paper by Wayne State University linguist Ljiljana Progovac suggests that when it comes to human evolution, the phrase “survival of the fittest” could be replaced by “survival of the wittiest.” Her research shows that in the caveman era, humans shifted from a might-makes-right tribal culture, where physically dominant people had the most opportunities to reproduce, to one where a sense of humor was the sexiest trait you could have.
The big changes came when early humans realized that inter-tribal violence did more harm than good. Therefore, being a physical threat was out of style as it was more advantageous to be “groupish.” Those who could cooperate within their tribe to ensure they could compete with other tribes then started getting all the action.
Even though early humans treated those in their tribe with greater civility, within this friendly society, those who were verbally fluent became dominant and more attractive to potential mates.
“From the very first moment that our ancestors started combining two words together, those combinations opened up a new kind of competition. Not physical. Verbal,” the Science Blog writes. “The ability to coin a devastating nickname, to skewer a rival with a phrase, to make the tribe laugh at someone else’s expense; these skills, she argues, were subject to sexual selection just as surely as the peacock’s tail or the bowerbird’s elaborate stick construction.”
It seems that even though language developed over a hundred thousand years ago, things haven’t changed all that much since.
Progovac posits that early humans could insult one another or express their sense of humor by using simple two-word verb-noun compounds such as “killjoy” or “pickpocket.” According to the author, people who knew how to throw around those compounds in clever ways had higher reproductive fitness than those who weren’t as adept. The children born to witty individuals could then go on to create even more complicated grammatical rules to show off their wit. This, in turn, led to the evolution of more complex languages.
Progovac’s paper also notes that, on one hand, being quick-witted is an advantage when it comes to sexual selection, while those who aren’t as funny are less likely to be selected.
“In addition to positive selection due to superior language skills and eloquence, it is also important to acknowledge the role of negative selection with respect to these skills, as even minor language disturbances or ‘disorders’ can have a detrimental effect on selection,” Progovac writes. “Especially damning seem to be insults that directly refer to such skills, such as dim-witted, half-witted, f**kwit, slow, and dull, indicating the value that is still placed on wit and quick-wittedness. This suggests that quick-wittedness plays a role both in positive and negative selection in humans, even today.”
This study is a wonderful example of two inspiring ideas. The first is that even if you aren’t genetically blessed with traditionally great looks, a sense of humor can go a long way towards helping you find a romantic partner. Second, humans evolved an incredible sense of humor because it was better to make fun of each other than to beat them with a club.
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