Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #2: Evolutionary psychology provides an excuse for bad behavior – in particular, for the kinds of bad behavior that men specialize in. From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverseamazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #3: Evolutionary psychology implies that certain undesirable phenomena – old-fashioned sex roles, xenophobia, war and aggression – are ultimately ineradicable. From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverseamazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
"There's no magic-bullet study that can single-handedly establish that a given trait is an adaptation – or that it's not. The best we can ever do is to look at the preponderance of evidence and see which way it points." #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverseamazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #8: Evolutionary psychologists argue that everything is an adaptation. They're guilty, in other words, of what’s sometimes called "panadaptationism." #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverseamazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Critics who rail against status quo bolstering, genetic determinism and just-so storytelling are like the crazy person in the bus shelter, fighting with a sparring partner who isn't really there: They've invented their own evolutionary psychology and are arguing loudly with that.
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Thread: The Four Laws of Behavior Genetics [links at end]
The 1st Law of Behavior Genetics: All psychological traits are partially heritable.
The 2nd Law of Behavior Genetics: The effect of being raised in the same family is smaller than the effect of genes.
The 3rd Law of Behavior Genetics: A lot of the differences between people in psychological traits aren’t attributable to either genes or the family environment.
Amazing. No one knows for sure why dolphins do this, but possible explanations include "leadership or dominance, acoustic communication, courtship display, defining positions of members in the school, and dislodging ectoparasites." doi.org/10.1242/jeb.02…
Do dolphins just spin for fun? That's quite possibly the proximate explanation. The OP is trying to answer a different question, though, namely: What's the ultimate explanation for the behavior – the reason dolphins evolved to find spinning fun in the first place?
One of the most fascinating papers I've read for a long time: People dislike their political opponents for views that most don't actually hold. [Preprint; N = 4,993; 1/5.] psyarxiv.com/cr23g/
"(Over)estimation of political opponents' agreement with extreme issues predicted cross-partisan dislike, which in turn predicted unwillingness to engage with opponents, foreclosing opportunities to correct misperceptions." psyarxiv.com/cr23g/ [2/5]
"Partisans also reported greater unwillingness to publicly voice their views on their side's extreme (relative to moderate) issues, a self-silencing which may perpetuate misconceptions." psyarxiv.com/cr23g/ [3/5]
"Compared to our cousins the chimps, even the strongest of strong men are giant weaklings – the least weak of a weak bunch." From my book The Ape That Understood the Universe. amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…