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Are your feelings just another
evolutionary adaptation?
A discussion of the field of
evolutionary psychology
Psychology
 The study of behavior and mental function
 Goal is to understand behavior
Evolutionary Biology
 Studies how evolution has
generated the diversity
of living organisms
Evolution – what is it?
 A change in a population over time
Evolution – via natural selection
Peppered Moths (Biston betularia)
Pre-Industrial Revolution
Fittest
Industry established
Dark Background
Different selective
pressure
Evolution – via natural selection
 What we see are physical changes in a population
 Genetic changes really underlie that physical change
 Evolution = change in genetic make up of a population
over time
Differential retention of alternatives
 Genetic differences are the source of variation in a
population
 These are acted upon by the process of natural
selection
 Natural selection selects either for or against a
particular characteristic.
 Favorable characteristics increase in a population
over time
Human Evolution
Bipedalism (walking upright)
 Genetic change moved foramen magnum
Bipedalism
 Freed up hands for more efficient foraging
 Increased nutrients, improved reproductive success
 Characteristic passed on to next generation
 So our physical characteristics are a result of
evolution through natural selection
 Natural selection causes organisms to be adapted to a
particular environment
 What about our emotions/feelings??
Evolutionary Psychology
 Field looks at whether our feelings/emotions are
adaptations that increase our survival
Environment of Evolutionary
Adaptation (EEA)
 Our behaviors are looked at in light of when they
evolved
 Our Environment of Evolutionary Adaptation
 Characteristics we have today are the result of
selection that occurred in the past.
 Many of our behaviors or feelings may not necessarily
make sense in relation to our modern lives.
Evolutionary Psychology
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Cooperation
Kin Detection
Mate Choice
Infidelity
Emotions as adaptations – anger, jealousy, guilt
Jealousy
 Romantic jealousy
 Emotional state caused by a perceived threat to a valued
intimate relationship
Question
 Imagine you discover that your partner formed a deep
emotional and passionate sexual relationship with another
person.
 Which aspect of your partner's involvement would make you
more jealous?
the deep emotional relationship?
OR
the passionate sexual relationship?
Emotional relationship Sexual relationship
Emotional jealousy
Physical jealousy
Why the difference
 Difference in the size of
male and female reproductive
cells (gametes)
Sperm smaller and more numerous
Eggs larger and less numerous
Creates different motivations
 Using reproductive cells entails a different amount of
parental investment
 Females - lots of investment
 Males less
 Females are choosy about a mate as a result
 Males are less choosy
Human
Evidence
What are females looking for?
 Biggest and most colorful …..
 Humans?? Nice car, good job
 Indicate resource gathering skills
 Indication of males ability to provide resources to her
and offspring
 Or just indication of genes that offspring will contain
Why are resources so important?
 Ultimate goal of an organism is to have offspring and
aid in survival of offspring
 Passes genes into next generation
 Biological Fitness = # of offspring
 So females are choosy in order to increases fitness
 Males don’t necessarily have to be choosy to increase
fitness
Back to jealousy
 Females are more likely to feel emotional jealousy
because…….
 Of potential redirection of resources
 Jealousy an adaptive feeling kind of like a
warning alarm to indicate potential
resource redirection
What about males?
 Strategy to be less choosy
 Gametes are made rapidly, low potential parental
investment
 SO when in a monogamous relationship have physical
jealousy
Cuckoldry
 Fear of cuckoldry
 Raising another males offspring
 Physical jealousy adaptation to reduce likelihood of
cuckoldry
Evidence of cuckoldry in humans?
 Testes size in relation to body size
 Gibbons – monogamous – small
 Chimpanzees – females have many partners
– large testes
 Humans – somewhere in between
Emotional jealousy Physical jealousy
Adaptive
because……
Potential Resource
Redirection
Fear of
Cuckoldry
Summary
 Human emotions (especially undesirable emotions)
do appear to be adaptive
 They can be seen as warning lights of a potential
decline in biological fitness
Further Resources
 Online Journal – Evolutionary Psychology
www.epjournal.net/
 Center for Evolutionary Psychology – UC Santa Barbara
www.psych.ucsb.edu/research/cep/
 David Buss - Research on jealousy
 Helen Fisher – Research on romantic love and feelings
associated with love
References
 Schützwohl, A. (2004) Which Infidelity Type Makes You More
Jealous? Decision Strategies in a Forced-choice Between Sexual
and Emotional Infidelity. Evolutionary Psychology . 2: 121-128
Source of question
 Buss, D & Schmitt, D. (1993) Sexual strategies theory: An
evolutionary perspective on human mating. Psychological
Review 100: 204-232
Source of graphs on male/female choosiness