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I can't edit my original comment anymore, but my point in calling the article a troll is that an 'obvious' explanation for the phenomenon is some evolutionary r
by ftxbro 3y ago
I can't edit my original comment anymore, but my point in calling the article a troll is that an 'obvious' explanation for the phenomenon is some evolutionary reasons. Evolutionary reasons for human behavior are icky and unpalatable. We don't like to think of evolutionary explanations for feelings like love or hate or tribalism or to think of our biological or cultural evolution. The troll part comes in, where the article doesn't even acknowledge such a possibility, even to argue against it, maybe because they didn't want to be associated with any icky idea even by a mere mention and even if they are not supporting it.
I'll put an example of what the article sounds like if you have any education in anthropology like even college anthropology 101. The article sounds like one about a "hometown sports hero" who between junior and senior years somehow doubled their weight and bench pressing and began informally beating world records of weight lifting. Then the article goes on to give possible reasons for this difference like maybe they got strong support from their school and community and they are doing hard training and eating healthy food or maybe they are growing to become an adult or whatever. Anyway, almost any reader would think hmm maybe they are doing some steroids. That would be an example of the kind of 'troll article' that I meant. They avoid saying the obvious thing, even to refute it, because many would consider the idea as icky.
- martindbp 3y agoYou're right, and I believe "How the mind works" by Pinker goes over this and the evidence for it. It makes perfect sense for grandparents to pour more resources into grandkids who are 100% certain to be yours. There are plenty of other similar phenomena that are determined by the estimated genetic overlap, like domestic abuse/violence is almost entirely between genetically unrelated people, i.e. between spouses, step parents and their step children etc. The more related the less violence.