Evolutionary Psychology

The last decade has witnessed an exciting change in our understanding of the way in which the mind operates and the reasons behind a myriad of human behaviours. The traditional idea that nurture trumps nature in explanations of human behaviour has been supplanted by the evolutionary argument that human beings share evolved mental architectures that govern their behaviour.

This volume is an introduction to evolutionary approaches to psychology, bringing together seminal work in the field and exploring the ways in which evolutionary psychological research can illuminate our understanding of human behaviours and nature. Together, the chapters in this volume present a fresh perspective on evolutionary approaches to psychology, critically evaluating the extant literature while maintaining the need for evolutionary psychologies.

1 Evolutionary approaches to behaviour 1

A brief introduction to evolutionary theory 5

Fitness, sociobiology and life history theory 16

Evolutionary psychology 21

Conclusion 25

Acknowledgements 27

References 27

2 The evolution of cognition 31

Why are we so smart? 33

How did we get so smart? 38

What, exactly, are we so good at? And when did we ‘get it’? 46

Conclusions 60

References 61

3 Cooperation as a classic problem in behavioural biology 73

Why has cooperation been such a biological puzzle? 74

Individual-level solutions to the puzzle: Selfish replicators, cooperative vehicles 76

Cooperation via genic self-favouritism (kin selection and greenbeard altruism) 77

Cooperation via return benefits (reciprocal altruism, indirect reciprocity and costly signalling) 82

Summary of individual-level theories of cooperation 86

Group selection 87

Complex human cooperation: Collective action 91

Conclusion 98

Acknowledgements 100

References 100

4 Mate choice and sexual selection 107

Sexual selection 108

Which human traits are sexually selected signals? 115

Sexual selection and within-sex differences 116

Time allocation 122

Conclusion 125

References 126

5 The evolutionary psychology of human beauty 131

Facial attractiveness 134

Bodily attractiveness 145

Conclusion and future directions 162

References 164

6 Life history theory and human reproductive behaviour 183

Trade-offs in human life history 185

The optimisation of family size in traditional societies 193

The optimisation of family size in modern societies 196

Conclusions and future directions 204

Acknowledgements 205

References 206

7 Parenting and families 215

What is parental investment? 216

Who invests in offspring? 217

Familial conflict 227

What is invested? 228

Who is invested in? 230

Conclusion 242

Acknowledgements 243

References 243

8 Personality and individual differences 251

The current state of differential psychology 254

Personality and the evolutionary imperative 257

A cost-benefit analysis of the Big Five 262

Authoritarianism 267

Ability and intelligence 268

‘Dark-side’ disorders 271

Conclusion 276

References 276

9 Evolution, cognition and mental illness: The imprinted brain theory 281

The illnesses that made us human 282

Antitheses of mentalism in autism and psychosis 288

The imprinted brain 294

Implications for evolutionary psychology 303

Acknowledgements 305

References 305

10 Interactions between cognition and culture 311

Social transmission 315

Gene-culture co-evolution of cognition and culture (mainly) in the hominid lineage 325

Conclusion: A niche construction framework of multimodal inheritance 333

References 334

11 The future of evolutionary psychology 343

A brief historical perspective 344

Can the EEA be made workable? 347

Universals and the challenge of explaining variation 351

Hypothesis testing: Alternative approaches 354

A vision of the future 359

Acknowledgements 361

References 362

Index 367

Viren Swami trained as an evolutionary psychologist, and for his doctorate examined the roles that body shape and weight play in judgements of physical attractiveness across cultures. Viren’s current research in the area focuses on the influence of evolution, culture, and individual psychology on perceptions of human beauty, and his work has been widely discussed in national and international media. Viren is also currently conducting research in other fields of interpersonal attraction, including identifying predictors of positive body image, the effect of romantic love on partner perceptions, weight-based discrimination, and the history of beauty in art and sculpture. Other current projects include research on sociocultural adjustment among sojourners, and cross-cultural differences in lay beliefs about various topics, including intelligence, conspiracy theories, mental illness, and extraterrestrial life. The last decade has witnessed an exciting change in our understanding of the way in which the mind operates the reasons behind a myriad of human behaviours. The traditional idea that nurture trumps nature in explanations of human behaviour has been supplanted by Evolutionary Psychologists, who argue that human beings share evolved mental architectures that govern their behaviour. Indeed, Evolutionary Psychological explanations have been postulated for all manner of human behaviour, from mate choice preferences to jealousy, cheater detection to suicide bombing. Yet, not all research groups are in agreement with this perspective: some authors have challenged the Evolutionary Psychological focus on biological or genetic explanations of behaviour, while others suggest that the Evolutionary Psychological paradigm is methodologically flawed. To be sure, it is now possible to find critiques of Evolutionary Psychology from different viewpoints, and a common theme shared by such critiques is that an evolutionary approach to psychology is welcome but not sufficient. This volume, which will serve as an introduction to evolutionary approaches to psychology, will bring together seminal work in the field and explore the ways in which evolutionary psychological research can illuminate our understanding of human behaviours and nature. Together, the chapters in this volume will present a fresh perspective on evolutionary approaches to psychology, critically evaluating the extant literature while maintaining the need for evolutionary psychologies.

Most introductions to evolutionary approaches to psychology tend to take an uncritical stand, stemming from what has been dubbed ‘Evolutionary Psychological’ viewpoints. The current volume begins from the same vantage point – that an evolutionary psychology is required – but nevertheless critically examines the extant literature from different evolutionary perspectives (e.g., developmental systems sciences, evolutionary biology, evolutionary developmental psychology, cultural studies, etc). The list of potential authors (see attached document) has been compiled to reflect this critical approach.