Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #1: Evolutionary psychology aims to justify traditional gender roles, societal inequalities, etc. From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
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 #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.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 #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #4: Evolutionary psychology is the latest incarnation of a disturbing trend in Western thought: genetic determinism. From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
"Why, though, do people think that, according to evolutionary psychologists, everything is down to genes?" #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #5: Hypotheses in evolutionary psychology are unfalsifiable. amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…

"First point: If you argue that evolutionary explanations are unfalsifiable, you can't also argue that they're false..."
"But is it actually the case that evolutionary explanations are unfalsifiable? This claim is itself falsifiable – and has been repeatedly, resoundingly falsified." From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.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." #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #6: Evolutionary psychology is just a collection of just-so stories. From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #7: Evolutionary psychologists only test their theories on undergraduate students from WEIRD nations. #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.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." #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.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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More from @SteveStuWill

9 Nov
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives... on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam."

–Carl Sagan (born OTD in 1934)
"The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot."

–Carl Sagan (born OTD in 1934)
"It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience."

–Carl Sagan
Read 8 tweets
8 Oct
Humans of Twitter, today is #WorldOctopusDay. That can mean only one thing. It’s time for an octopus thread…
Octopus, it’s fair to say, are very weird creatures.
Read 13 tweets
2 Oct
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. psyarxiv.com/cr23g/ [Preprint; N = 4,993.] Image
"(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] Image
Read 5 tweets
2 Jun
Answers to 12 Bad Anti-Free Speech Arguments: Featuring That XKCD Cartoon Everyone Likes to Quote! areomagazine.com/2021/05/25/ans… By the great @glukianoff
"If you empower the government to censor, you are giving the powerful more power... Do you trust what a Biden administration would do with that power? If so, do you trust what the next Trump would do with that power?" areomagazine.com/2021/05/25/ans…
"Censorship doesn't generally change people's opinions, but it does make them more likely to talk only to those with whom they already agree. And what happens when people only talk to politically similar people? The well documented effect of group polarization takes over."
Read 4 tweets
26 May
Misguided Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology #1: Evolutionary psychology aims to justify traditional gender roles, societal inequalities, etc. From #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
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 #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.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 #TheApeThatUnderstoodTheUniverse amazon.com/Ape-that-Under…
Read 12 tweets
17 Apr 20
Inspired: Dan Baldassarre (@evornithology) submitted a joke science article to a predatory journal, to see if they'd actually publish it. They did. The paper is called "What's the Deal with Birds?" and it's hilarious. 😂 irispublishers.com/sjrr/pdf/SJRR.… Image
Come to think of it, though, what *is* the deal with birds? 👇
Seriously. Birds are really kinda weird…
Read 14 tweets

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