HUlllan Ethology Bulletin

VOLUME 13, ISSUE 1 ISSN 0739-2036 MARCH 1998

© 1998 The International Society for Human Ethology

Differences in Human Cognitive Abilities"; and Convention Update: Simon Baron-Cohen, "Evolution, Autism, and INDIVIDUAL PAPERS Theories of Mind." An event will commemorate the 25th anniversary of the awarding of the NOW ACCEPTED Nobel Prize in Medicine/Physiology to AND DEADLINE ethologists von Frisch, Tinbergen and Lorenz. EXTENDED Proposals for symposia should include four copies of a 2S0-word description of the symposium theme and of abstracts of four or There have been two important changes five related papers. Individual papers that in the procedure for submitting abstracts for the are submitted independently of symposia ISHE convention in Vancouver. Individual proposals will, if accepted, be grouped into paper submissions will now be accepted, not just suitable sessions at the convention. Proposals papers that are part of symposia. Also, for evening workshops should be 1-2 pages long; abstracts for all submissions now have a four copies are requested. Poster proposals are deadline of 1 May 1998. also invited, but only from conference registrants. The convention will take place at Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Abstract format for all papers and Canada, 19-23 August 1998. It will follow the posters (including symposium papers): Line 1: AmericaIl Psychological Association convention authors' names, last name first. Line 2: in San Francisco. If you are considering institutional address(es). Line 3: title of attending, complete the Preliminary presentation in capital letters. Provide one Registration Form contained in the convention camera-ready copy in a 3.5 X 4.5 inch (8.89 X brochure you should have received, and submit 11.43 em) rectangle, plus three additional it by 1 May 1998. You will then receive the copies. Type font should be 10 point Times. detailed Conference Registration and Provide text on Macintosh, Windows, or IBM Accommodation brochure. To have your name disk with the name of the operating system and added to the conference mailing list, contact: word processing program. Conference Services, Halpern Centre, Simon Fraser University, 8888 University Drive, The conference website has been Burnaby, B.c. VSA IS6, Canada, tel. 1-604-291- connected to the ISHE website: 4910, fax 1-604-291-3420, e-mail http://evolution.humb.univie.ac.at/ishe.html [email protected]. or may be reached directly at http://www.sfu.ca/cstudies/conf/humanwww/ The conference focus is "Integrating . The URL has also been posted on the HBE5 proximate and ultimate explanations in the website. The conference organizer is our study of mind and behavior." Plenary speakers President, Charles CraWford: Dept. of include David Haig, "Genetic Imprinting, Psychology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Conflicts of Interest, and Development"; Doreen B.c., Canada VSA 156, tel. 1-604-291-3660, fax Kimura, "Biological Contributions to Sex 1-604-291-3427, e-mail [email protected]. 2 Human Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) Housing: participants will be housed in R. I. M. Dunbar, Gtoups, Gossip, and the university townhouses accommodating four Evolution of Language persons in single rooms with kitchen, living room and two bathrooms. Cost per person is Karl Grammer, Valentina Filova, and Martin Can$ 43.70 (US$ 30.59) per night and includes Fieder, The Communication Paradox and Continental breakfast. Accommodation in Possible Solutions: Towards a Radical hotels within driving distance is an option. Empiricism

Registration fee is approximately Can$ Thomas J. Bouchard, Jr., Twin Studies of 350 (US$ 245) and includes the abstract book, Behavior: New and Old Findings welcome reception the evening of the 19th, salmon barbeque (worth the price of admission C. Sue Carter, Hormonal Influences on Human by itself), and conference banquet. Participants Behavior will have to forage independently for lunches and the last dinner, the 22nd. R. Robin Baker, Copulation, Masturbation, and Infidelity: State-of-the-Art. The Young Investigators Award competition is open to any graduate student ISHE has ordered 40 copies of the book, whose degree will not have been awarded by 1 which we are selling for the usual purchase July 1998. Applicants are to submit three copies price of $45, shipping included. To order a of a paper not to exceed five double-spaced copy, please send payment, made out to ISHE, pages, plus the usual abstract (marked with a to Glenn Weisfeld (see Editorial Box for "y" in the upper right hand corner). The address). You may pay by check drawn on a US student will present the paper orally at the bank, VISA, Mastercard or Eurocard; please conference. Papers will be judged on substance provide credit card number, expiration date, and clarity. The winner(s) will receive a free and your signature. If you pay by check drawn ISHE membership renewal, free registration at on a non-US bank, please add $10. Please do not the subsequent Biennial Congress, a book, and a order the book directly from the publisher, at certificate. Further details or amendments will least until we sell the 40 copies. If the book is follow as necessary. adopted as a course requirement, a bulk order will be sent on consignment and the extra books may be returned. ISHE Book on Sale A New, Disturbing Late in 1997 Plenum Press published the proceedings from the 1996 ISHE convention Trend for Human held in Vienna. New Aspects of Human Ethology is edited by Alain Schmitt, Klaus Ethology? Atzwanger, Karl Grammer and Katrin Schafer. The 239-page volume includes the 73 abstracts By Bill Charlesworth from the convention, author and subject indices, P. O. Box 18, Stockholm, WI 54769 USA plus these chapters by featured speakers:

Ireniius Eibl-Eibesfeldt, Human Ethology: The recent change in the title of the Origins and Prospects of a New Discipline journal Ethology and Sociobiology to Evolution and Human Behavior, along with other Glenn Weisfeld, Research on Emotions and indicators to be discussed below, suggests that Future Developments in Human Ethology human ethology may be in a bit of trouble. The new editors of the journal note that they Peter K. Smith, Play Fighting and Real welcome cross-species comparison and have"an Fighting: Perspectives on Their Relationship unabashedly anthropocentric focus." They also aver that the scope of the journal is "not Karl Sigmund, Games Evolution Plays limited to any single methodological or - Human Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) 3 theoretical approach" (p. 2), despite the fact convincing, the name change has practical that evolutionary theory is the raison d'etre implications for many of our colleagues and for the journal's existence. One wonders if they therefore has to be respected. will welcome theoretical approaches that challenge evolutionary theory, or ethogram- The problem goes deeper, though. For like descriptive studies of human adaptation me, first recognition of it began when I read the that have no explicit relevance to current account of ethology in Richard Milner's The theorizing but could very well be relevant in Encyclopedia of Evolution: Humanity's search the future. for its origins (1990). Ethology was described as a refreshing revival of Darwinian ideas Personally, I am disappointed with the against psychologists' "rats, mazes and puzzle decision to drop the terms "ethology" and boxes" and as quite successful for several "sociobiology," although I don't disagree decades in "studying the interaction between completely with the rationale behind it. Both innate species-specific behavior and learning" labels represent contrasting as well as and as penetrating "animal signal systems to an complementary views of behavior. Ethology is unprecedented extent, gaining new a well-established discipline with a history understanding of animal communication" (p. and rationale of its own that reached a 156). So far so but then in the following produc.tive epitome in the ideas of Tinbergen paragraph: "ethologists got tangled up in their and Lorenz, and evolved into special own theories of 'drive,' 'motivation,' and concentration upon humans under the initial 'releasing mechanisms,' and built an impetus of Eibl-Eibesfeldt and others. intellectual structure that collapsed under its own weight." Okay, that may be so, although I Sociobiology, as we all well known, is am not so convinced about the "collapse." much younger than ethology and a product of E. O. Wilson's audacious ideas expressed in Further down in the description, Sociobiology: The new synthesis (1975). ethology "became discredited by a spate of Wilson's view of ethology, however, may have facile books applying their theories of fish and launched the present trend. He predicted that bird behavior directly to humans," and enjoyed sociobiology and behavioral ecology (on one end "tremendous vogue" through attempts at "pop of a continuum) and neurophysiology and ethology" in the 19602 and 1970s. Milner then sensory psychology (on the other) would concludes that "the concepts of ethology have cannibalize ethology as well as comparative been all but abandoned as investigators of psychology. As can be imagined, many animal behavior re-label themselves ethologists were not impressed by this "behavioral ecologists" (p. 156). prediction. One can agree with parts of this sketch, From what I can gather, one reason for but there is much with which to disagree. The the journal's name change is that the label volume (itself pop sensational in many places) "sociobiology" is perceived by many as a is not· a purely happy publishing event since professional kiss of death--at least for a young inadequate or misleading depictions of a major U.S. investigator applying for a job. As for topic are not scholarly enough for an "ethology," I have been told by some leading encyclopedia. Encyclopedias carry special evolutionary behaviorists that it is an outworn weight, at least for the nonprofeSSIonaL One discipline that has seen its day. More can imagine them having significant disturbingly, I have been told it is identified implications for future research--in this case with Konrad Lorenz whose name connects its turning off a new generation of researchers who many minds with Nazi ideology. Both reasons, may be inclined to apply ethology to humans. of course, have little or' nothing to do with doing good science. But many respectable The problem of the status of ethology, scientists, department chairs, journal editors, of course, goes back beyond Milner. As a and concerned students apparently feel (as the colleague, Peter Verbeek, reminded me, George HBES poll revealed) that both terms have Barlow grappled with the issue in his paper become politically incorrect, dangerous, or "Has sociobiology killed ethology or whatever. Even if such reasons are not totally trivializ.·.ed it?" that appeared in Bateson and 4 fIuman Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) Klopfer's (1989) Perspectives In Ethology Ethology) because the field began there and 8:Whither ethology? this history remains alive. Nevertheless, past and current ethological research is frequently That the problem won't go away cited in North America as well as elsewhere. emerged very recently in correspondence with Examples are the work of Bowlby on an eminent evolutionary biologist whose attachment, Lorenz on the infant schema, van exposition of evolutionary ideas and their Hooff on facial expression, McGuire on relevance for studying humans I have always dominance and serotonin, de Waal on admired and publicly supported when such reconciliation, Mazur on dominance contests and ideas were hardly popular. My correspondent testosterone, Rapoport on obsessive-compulsive noted that some of Lorenz's ideas (for example, disorder, and Grammer on human pheromones. his hydraulic model and concept of instincts) are no longer accepted. Fair enough, but Lorenz had many more concepts than this, as do Despite my negative reaction to such an Tinbergen, Thorpe, Hedigger, Rensch, assessment of ethology's demise, I recognize Heinroth, Crook, von Holz, Baerands, von that my correspondent may be making an Frisch, Whitman, Leyhausen, Hinde and important substantive point. Times may have others who helped build modern ethology. changed about attitudes toward ethology and, Surely their contributions should not be rejected whether human ethologists like them or not, or forgotten simply because a new trend has such attitudes have to be understood and appeared on the scene. grappled with. This, then, may be a good time for self-analysis and dialogue. My correspondent's identification of ethology with Lorenz is especially peculiar Actually, I am skeptical about most given that Tinbergen and von Frisch were co- dialogues ever influencing behaviQr, but winners with Lorenz of the Nobel Prize and perhaps one more won't hurt. At the 1996 that most human ethologists usually define Human Ethology Congress in Vienna (not to be ethology in terms of Tinbergen's four questions. confused with the IEe mentioned above), John The four questions include evolutionary Richer, Wolfgang Schleidt and I held a considerations along with strong emphasis upon workshop on the epistemological aims of ontogeny, an area my correspondent sees as the ethology and how distinctive such aims were. wave of the future. Apparently, he is not While many of the participants made good aware of early ethology's concentrqtion On points, the workshop, in my estimation, was imprinting, which is a developmental pretty much a failure. Some attending seemed phenomenon, or of John Archer's recentEthology to find the workshop theme irrelevant--they and Human Development (1992). were already doing good human ethology, so what was the point? Others appeared so My correspondent continues: "Scarcely overwhelmed by jet lag and the rich anyone in evolutionary biology, outside of hospitality that they couldn't concentrate on human studies, uses the word 'sociobiology' any such a weighty charge. more-or ethology for that matter." He goes on to say, "1 think it's because they have simply Whatever the truth of the matter, in integrated the useful concepts from each in my mind the issue is still important for the their work and are moving on from there." field. Members of ISHE, in my opinion, ought to Actually, these two terms are still very much alive, and are used with reference to research think about it. If it is a non-issue, I would like on animals and humans. For example, at least to hear why. If it is an issue, in what specific two journals have the word "ethology" in their way is it and what can be done about it? I names. The International Ethological Congress understand that grappling with the issue can features papers on animals and humans, and take time away from empirical research, and attracts about a thousand scholars from around young investigators perhaps should not the world. The European Sociobiological jeopardize themselves with what may tum out Society has been growing steadily. Perhaps to be idle talk. Hopefully, though, some the term "ethology" is more entrenched in members of ISHE will think about it and share Europe (witness the Danish Society for Human their thoughts in the Bulletin. Human Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) 5 Below is a paraphrase of some of the many psychologists have succumbed, and of major ideas presented by the three organizers of which human ethologists must be continually this 1SHE workshop on the epistemology of aware." Many psychologists subscribe to the human ethology. The ideas were aimed at subjectivist view that we must include in our stimulating questions concerning the kinds of study of humans what they are feeling, knowledge ethologists can and should seek in thinking and so on. However, "this subjectivist order to make a distinctive contribution to view misses the point....When we as a understanding human behavior. community are trying to assemble a body of knowledge it is not each person's knowledge or Wolfgang Schleidt: "I see the epistemological experience that is important, but how two or significance of human ethology" in its more people can agree." Richer the proceeded opportunity to allow us to recognize "the fun to discuss the distinction between the points of complexity of human behavior, its components view of "onlookers" (trained observers) and and settings." Ethology "allows us to meet the "agents." Connecting both points constitutes the needs for the observation, 'description, and phenomenon of "intersubjectivity," "ascribing documentation (ethograms and ecograms) agency and subjective experience to others," an required for the understanding of human activity similar to imitation and one that behavior. "We need more advanced methods in ethologists engage in during observation. But, recording and analysis, not new theories. Let unlike most anthropologists who take the theory emerge from the data, stop inventing "emic" point of view (inferring the meaning of simplistic 'hypotheses' (sociobiology) and behavior by assuming a subjective role), the filling journals with culled examples which human ethologist adopts "a thoroughly 'etic' support them. We must invest much more effort and passive approach... taking the study of in collecting elementary data on behavior and human behavior away from on the environment in which it occurs within anthropocentricism." This is rIa most difficult the full spectrum of humanity--cross-cultural step" but is necessary to avoid the failures of ethograms and ecograms. And we must...check psychology and other social sciences. the paradigms from artificial intelligence and Traditional ethology has successfully adopted artificial perception, search among tIthe lateral thinking inductive approach" in mathematicians for a Hilbert for ethology, and its study of animals, and "may be contrasted accept the smartest students we can get!" We with the deductive approach of psychology should also develop a field of "archeo- and its disdain for facts for their own sake" ethology" so we need two kinds of knowledge: (taken from Blurton Jones). Human ethologists (1) knowledge of the essential components of can escape the failures of psychology by "normal behavior" within a given framework careful, systematic, and comprehensive of space and time--the types of behavior, observation of humans in their natural probability of each behavior, and behavioral habitats. "All the reliability tests in the sequences for each individual human (stimulus world are wasted when we cannot (or at least releasers, courses of action, decision points); and do not try) to describe exactly what we observe (2) recognition and understanding of specific in pure onlooker terms." disorders of behavior, or behavioral pathology (e.g., attention deficit disorders, panic attacks, Bill Charlesworth: "Human ethologists (HEs) impotence). derive their truth claims about human behavior primarily from objective (observable) John Richer: Like psychology, human ethology fads. Subjective impressions (as obtained from "is a reflexive subject in that we study interviews, questionnaires, etc.) are used only ourselves and communicate our results to our secondarily to direct attention to relevant facts subject matter, ourselves....The (subjective) and to amplify the meanings of behavior. content of consciousness is treated in the same Given their commitment to evolutionary way as any other property of behaviour... .It is theory, HEs aim to explain facts in terms of studied and discussed in the same way as we proximate as well as ultimate 'causes,' which would discuss courtship, dominance means investigating phenomena with hierarchies, hedonically ordered primate Tinbergen's four questions in mind. Given that societies or the function of the animal ethology made great progress as a hippocampus....This carries a danger to which science by observing and describing animal 6 Human Ethology Bulletin, 13(1) behavior in free and semi-constrained stimulus opportunity arises. HEs are requi.red to conditions, HEs are faced with the labor- subscribe to two claims to truth: correspondence intensive and challenging task of constructing of observation statements to objective fact, and human ethograms (or partial ethograms) as the degree to which facts cohere with other well