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Misunderstanding Evolutionary Theory and Psychology
David Buss addresses several common misunderstandings about evolutionary
theory that you may want to discuss in class. The first important misconception is
that evolution implies genetic determinism. This is the doctrine that only genes
control behavior with virtually no room for environmental influence. To the
contrary, argues Buss, evolutionary theory states that human behavior cannot occur
without (1) evolved adaptations and (2) environmental influences that stimulate the
development and activation of those adaptations. Buss uses the simple illustration
of calluses. They cannot occur without both an evolved callus-producing
adaptation and an environmental influence involving repeated rubbing of the skin.
A second common misconception is that evolutionary theory implies that behavior
cannot be changed. To the contrary, knowledge of our evolved adaptations and the
environmental influences that activate them give us enormous power to change, if
that is our goal. For example, men have lower thresholds than women for inferring
sexual intent from a woman's smile, and they can use this information to reduce the
number of unwanted sexual advances they make toward women. This does not
mean that behavioral change comes easily, but knowledge about our evolved
psychology does give us more power to alter our behavior when change is desired.
A third misunderstanding is that evolutionary theory assumes that organisms can
compute complex mathematical formulas. For example, some critics have argued
that evolutionary psychology's claim that we are more likely to help a brother than
a cousin implies that we have evolved sophisticated mathematical abilities. Buss
maintains that describing a spider's web requires a pretty complex mathematical
statement. However, no one would argue that a spider is a mathematician.
Although the spider spins a complex web using various "rules of thumb," this does
not mean that it performs mathematical computations to execute them. Similarly,
although the adaptations involved in helping kin may be complex, and as scientists
we may need mathematics to describe those adaptations, it does not mean that
humans need to be sophisticated mathematicians to engage in the helping behavior.
Fourth, evolutionary psychology does not claim that the current collection of
adaptive mechanisms that make up humans are in any way "optimally designed."
Evolutionary time lags constitute one constraint on optimal design. The
environment keeps changing but evolutionary change occurs slowly. Existing
humans are better designed for earlier environments of which they are a product.
The cost of adaptation is a second constraint on optimal design. For example, we
might imagine natural selection building into humans such a severe fear of snakes
that they never go outside. The fear would prevent snake bites but at a
prohibitively high cost. Selection favors benefits that are greater than the costs
relative to other possible designs.
Finally, evolutionary theory does not argue that organisms have as a goal, either
consciously or unconsciously, the motivation to maximize gene reproduction. Buss
states, "Differential goal replication caused by differences in design is the causal
process responsible for creating fundamental human motivations. But the motives
and goals we have as products of this evolutionary process do not embody the
process itself." The products of natural selection tend to be problem specific, for
example, to avoid predators, stay warm, find a mate, have sex, and help kin. The
product of evolution is not, and cannot be, the desire to maximize gene
reproduction.
Buss, D. M. (1999). Evolutionary psychology: The new science of the mind.
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon