Episode 53: The Psychology People Love to Hate (Evolutionary Psychology Pt.1)

Dave and Tamler take a shot at answering the question: what is an evolutionary psychologist? Is it just a psychologist who believes in evolution? (No.) Is it a psychologist who embraces a computational, modular theory of the mind? (No. Well, maybe…we're not sure.) Are they psychologists who are part of a cult that fanatically endorse evolutionary explanations for every aspect of human judgment and behavior? (No! Well, most of them aren't, anyway.) So what are they? And why do they generate so much hostility?

Plus, we go back to Genesis (the real story of how we evolved) to offer another thought experiment: what is it like to be Adam and Eve before eating the forbidden fruit? What is it like not to know good and evil? And we give our aspiring playwright listeners a perfect idea for a one-act play: Abraham and Isaac walking down the mountain after the aborted sacrifice.

Links

• The Tree of the Knowledge of Good & Evil [wikipedia.org]
• The Leviathan [wikipedia.org]
• E.O. Wilson [wikipedia.org]
• Sociobiology [wikipedia.org]
• Burke, D. (2014). Why isn't everyone an evolutionary psychologist? Evolutionary Psychology and Neuroscience, 5, 910.
• Making birds gay with science!: Adkins-Regan, E. (2011). Neuroendocrine contributions to sexual partner preference in birds. Frontiers in neuroendocrinology, 32(2), 155-163.
• Just-so stories [wikipedia.org]
• Waist-hip ratio [wikipedia.org]
• "A natural history of rape: Biological bases of sexual coercion" by Thornhill and Palmer [wikipedia.org]
• Buss, D. M., Larsen, R. J., Westen, D., & Semmelroth, J. (1992). Sex differences in jealousy: Evolution, physiology, and psychology. Psychological science, 3, 251-255.
• Satoshi Kanazawa [wikipedia.org]

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