Hi. I want to know what the AG community thinks about evolutionary psychology. If you don't know what it is, this sums it up:
Evolutionary psychology (EP) examines psychological traits â" such as memory, perception, or language â" from a modern evolutionary perspective. It seeks to identify which human psychological traits are evolved adaptations, that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection. Adaptationist thinking about physiological mechanisms, such as the heart, lungs, and immune system, is common in evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychology applies the same thinking to psychology, arguing that the mind has a modular structure similar to that of the body with different modules having adapted to serve different functions. Evolutionary psychologists argue that much of human behavior is the output of psychological adaptations that evolved to solve recurrent problems in human ancestral environments
(1) âMen are generally more interested than women in having one-night stands or brief affairsâ; (2) âWomen are generally more interested than men in having a marriage partnerâ; (3) âMen generally value physical attractiveness in a dating partner or mate more than women doâ; (4) âWomen generally value good financial prospects in a dating partner or mate more than men doâ; (5) âMen are generally more upset by sexual cheating than emotional cheating in a dating partner or mateâ; (6) âWomen are generally more upset by emotional cheating than sexual cheating in a dating partner or mate.â
These are the results:
Opponents of evolutionary theory tended to be significantly older, more religious, less highly educated and more politically conservative than supporters. (...) Opponents of evolutionary theory reported significantly higher endorsement of the evolutionary psychology items than did supporters of evolutionary theory. (...) When they learned that the relevant survey items had been drawn from evolutionary theory, opponents of the theory were much less likely to endorse them than when no such information was provided. By contrast, evolution supporters rated the items similarly whether they were described as derived from evolutionary theory or not.
(I left out the numbers to make it easier to read)
So what do you think about the results of the study and evolutionary psychology in general?
Hah.. interesting study. The results don't really shock me, honestly, at least not all points. Especially the point where those who were rather endorsing evolutionary psychology, did change attitude when told it came from evolutionary theroy^^ typical.
Personally I haven't heard a lot about that evolutionary psychology, my first reaction was distrust because, hey, psychologists do what they want, more or less^^ But I realized it definitely has some grounding, I'll have to read more about it to make up my mind more definitely but I find it interesting (though surely hard to actually study and find common points between different opinions because I guess it's partly still wish-wash if not done seriously and with sufficient background knowledge)
