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Whenever the phrase 'evolutionary psychology' is used in a blog post it makes me physically cringe. One of the greatest problems in the social sciences is the

Whenever the phrase 'evolutionary psychology' is used in a blog post it makes me physically cringe. One of the greatest problems in the social sciences is the apparent inability to distinguish between cultural influences and fundamental genetic influences. A whole host of so-called 'evolved behavior' is really little more than cultural norms that people have adopted and now view as natural and normal. Claims that these behaviors are genetically hardwired and subject to natural selection like other traits are largely unsupported. The whole field is highly questionable and has little real value or scientific rigor.

syrrim 4y ago
The emphasis on a behaviour being genetic in origin is frequently absent in common use of "evolutionary psychology". A trait being the result of evolution, even if not darwinian evolution, is quite useful to know, and is usually clearly the case when we can tell the adaptive purpose of a behaviour, see it replicated across cultures, and so on.
pengstrom 4y ago
Ideas are subject to selection pressures too, no?
a_c 4y ago
https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/
fatherzine 4y ago
Behaviors are subject to natural selection, just like biological organisms are. Some behaviors are innate, others are cultural. Even better, culture is often times elaborate clothing for innate behaviors. Darwin cuts deeper than people give him credit for. As of behaviors of biological creatures being infinitely malleable and equally valid, like the software on a computer, i.e. behavior being arbitrarily "socially constructed", please explain the spider. Or the bower bird. Or falling in love.
User23 4y ago
> A whole host of so-called 'evolved behavior' is really little more than cultural norms that people have adopted and now view as natural and normal. That sounds plausible, but we really don’t know that it’s true. It’s obviously considerably more than just culture or genes, because, among other things, mating practices and thus gene flow are culturally determined. And then there’s epigenetics and confounds. > The whole field is highly questionable and has little real value or scientific rigor. This is true of all of mainstream evolutionary biology. Here is an article[1] touching on that. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/28/do-we-need-a-new-theory-of-evolution https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/28/do-we-need-a...

syrrim 4y ago

The emphasis on a behaviour being genetic in origin is frequently absent in common use of "evolutionary psychology". A trait being the result of evolution, even if not darwinian evolution, is quite useful to know, and is usually clearly the case when we can tell the adaptive purpose of a behaviour, see it replicated across cultures, and so on.

pengstrom 4y ago

Ideas are subject to selection pressures too, no?

a_c 4y ago

https://xkcd.com/435/ https://xkcd.com/435/

fatherzine 4y ago

Behaviors are subject to natural selection, just like biological organisms are. Some behaviors are innate, others are cultural. Even better, culture is often times elaborate clothing for innate behaviors. Darwin cuts deeper than people give him credit for. As of behaviors of biological creatures being infinitely malleable and equally valid, like the software on a computer, i.e. behavior being arbitrarily "socially constructed", please explain the spider. Or the bower bird. Or falling in love.

User23 4y ago

> A whole host of so-called 'evolved behavior' is really little more than cultural norms that people have adopted and now view as natural and normal. That sounds plausible, but we really don’t know that it’s true. It’s obviously considerably more than just culture or genes, because, among other things, mating practices and thus gene flow are culturally determined. And then there’s epigenetics and confounds. > The whole field is highly questionable and has little real value or scientific rigor. This is true of all of mainstream evolutionary biology. Here is an article[1] touching on that. [1] https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/28/do-we-need-a-new-theory-of-evolution https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/jun/28/do-we-need-a...