Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 BRIEF CONTENTS About this Book xiv About the Author xv Acknowledgements xvi 1. Allosaurus and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology 1 2. Evolutionary Epistemology: Research Methods in Evolutionary Psychology 21 3. How Did We Get Here? Genetics, Natural Selection, and Speciation 53 4. Let’s Talk About Sex: Promiscuity, Ovulation, Incest Avoidance, and Sexual Jealousy 93 5. Will You Never Grow Up? Human Development 123 6. Six Children and a Pickle Barrel: Parenting, Stepparenting, and Grandparenting 149 7. Thinking Hard or Hardly Thinking? Evolution, Thought, and Language 171 8. Until Someone Gets Hurt: Evolution and Aggression 207 9. Is there an “I” in Altruism? Evolution and Prosocial Behavior 253 10. Genes, Schmenes: Evolutionary Social and Cultural Psychology 281 11. Death be Somewhat Proud: Terror Management Theory 309 12. On the Origin of Specialness: And How to Save a Planet from It 323 Glossary 347 References 370 Subject Index 393 Name Index 399 vii Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 CONTENTS About this Book xiv About the Author xv Acknowledgements xvi 1. Allosaurus and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day: Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology 1 Homology, paleontology, and psychology 2 We’re not that special 6 Five important facts about how evolution works 7 Evolution is slow 7 Evolution is conservative 7 Evolution comes with baggage 7 Evolution implies continuity 9 Evolution is (pretty) orderly 10 Evolutionary principles in psychology 11 Adaptation and natural selection 12 Love, prey, eat 13 Play dead, keep living 15 For further reading 19 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 19 2. Evolutionary Epistemology: Research Methods in Evolutionary Psychology 21 The four canons of science 22 Determinism 23 Empiricism 24 Parsimony 26 Testability 27 The three requirements for establishing causality 30 Covariation 30 Temporal sequence 31 A detour: radiometric dating 31 Eliminating confounds 33 Another detour: the Human Genome Project 37 Beyond PCR: Other non-experimental methods and techniques 40 Passive observational methods 40 Surveys and interviews 41 Unobtrusive observation 42 Archival research 43 Ethnographies 43 viii Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 CONTENTS ix Internal vs. external validity and the OOPS! heuristic 44 Operationalizations 45 Occasions 45 Populations 46 Situations 46 Is evolutionary psychology just a bunch of “just so” stories? 47 For further reading 51 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 51 3. How Did We Get Here? Genetics, Natural Selection, and Speciation 53 The likely origins of life on earth 55 The biological mechanism of evolution: genetics 59 Basic Mendelian inheritance 59 Do dominant traits “dominate” recessive traits? 61 Post-Mendelian genetics 62 Quantitative genetics and heritability 63 Natural selection happens via genetic variation 66 Mutation and genetic variation 68 Genotype-environment correlations 71 A problem with the PEA model 72 A closer look at natural selection 76 Natural selection via-à-vis artificial selection 76 Not just selective fitness: inclusive fitness 77 Adaptation vs. exaptation 80 Sexual selection 82 Speciation 85 Punctuated equilibrium 90 For further reading 91 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 91 4. Let’s Talk About Sex: Promiscuity, Ovulation, Incest Avoidance, and Sexual Jealousy 93 Sex differences in mating strategies: parental investment theory 94 Common concerns about evolutionary theories 96 Back to sex differences in sexual interest 98 Common myths about evolutionary psychology 101 Evolutionary scientists don’t always agree with one another 103 Evolution and the myth of race 105 Back to parental investment theory 106 The timing of sexual desire 107 Sexual repulsion: incest avoidance 111 A brief detour on the human sense of smell 112 From smell back to incest avoidance 114 Sexual jealousy 115 Cuckoldry rates in people and sexual jealousy 117 Good reason to be jealous: mate poaching 118 For further reading 120 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 120 viii Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 x CONTENTS 5. Will You Never Grow Up? Human Development 123 Haeckel’s time machine 124 What can go wrong sometimes does 126 Evolution and early postnatal development 127 Got milk? Not for long 127 Slow to see, quick to taste 129 Extremely quick to do what’s instinctive 131 The evolution of critical and sensitive periods 131 We’re the animal that’s hardest to study 134 Is being sensitive better than being critical? 135 It’s a jungle out there: proliferation and pruning 138 Evolution, puberty, and the cultural evolution of adolescence 139 The evolution of menopause 141 Evolution and natural versus artificial childbirth 142 The midlife crisis and socioemotional selectivity theory 144 For further reading 147 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 147 6. Six Children and a Pickle Barrel: Parenting, Stepparenting, and Grandparenting 149 Some perspectives on human parenting 150 Three unique aspects of human parenting 151 Love is (almost) all you need 153 Infant attachment style 155 Cinderella, you’re not alone 156 Culture matters, too 157 The child’s age also matters 159 Where was cinderella’s maternal grandma all that time? 161 Parental investment and life history strategies 162 A parent’s main job is conflict management 166 Adoptive parents: the fairy godmother effect? 167 For further reading 169 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 169 7. Thinking Hard or Hardly Thinking? Evolution, Thought and Language 171 Are we general purpose reasoning machines? 172 It’s just not in the cards 172 The paper-folding problem 173 Judgmental heuristics: flying on autopilot 174 Could you be more specific? Genius is domain-specific 177 A savant is neither a soap nor a wine 180 Mental modularity 181 Is there a social exchange or cheater detection module? 183 Do other evolved modules influence reasoning about rules? 185 Is bias always so bad? 186 Error management theory 186 Human brains don’t care for probabilities 189 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 CONTENTS xi Maybe we’re a little too predisposed to think about frequencies 190 A final peek at detecting cheaters 193 Other examples of evolutionary cognitive psychology 194 Foraging and the “hot hand” 194 Look who’s talking 196 Feelings trump thoughts 203 That’s disgusting! 203 For further reading 204 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 205 8. Until Someone Gets Hurt: Evolution and Aggression 207 Three forms of aggression: infection, competition, and predation 209 The pervasiveness of aggression 209 Infection 210 Competition 211 Predation 214 Limitations of the three-category scheme 215 Keys to aggression: fight or flight, costs vs. benefits, and status-seeking 216 The fight-or-flight response 216 The cost–benefit rule 218 Mate hoarding and sexual dimorphism 221 Aggression is an equal opportunity employer 225 Status-seeking in social animals 226 Applying evolutionary principles to people 228 Physical, verbal, and relational aggression 228 Hostile aggression 230 Instrumental aggression 230 Predictors of physical aggression 232 Properties of the aggressor 232 Poverty and social inequality 232 Youth and maleness 233 Physical strength and fighting ability 234 Properties of the potential target 236 Dangerousness of the target 236 Gender of the target 239 Genetic relatedness of potential targets 239 Ingroup versus outgroup status of potential targets 240 Properties of the environment 241 Strength in numbers 241 Culture of honor 242 Potential for detection and punishment 243 An evolutionary spin on five major theories of aggression 243 Realistic group conflict theory 243 Frustration and aggression 244 Heat 245 Reciprocity 246 Modeling 247 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 Copyrighted material – 9781352002942 xii CONTENTS We’re becoming less violent: Pinker’s “better angels” 248 We’re getting nicer 248 Why are we getting nicer? 249 Conclusions 250 For further reading 251 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 251 9. Is there an “I” in Altruism? Evolution and Prosocial Behaviour 253 Blood is thicker than facebook friends: kin selection 256 It’s payback time: reciprocal altruism 257 Reciprocal altruism and the importance of fairness 259 Reciprocal altruism in other species 260 Reciprocal altruism and related processes in people 261 The need for connectedness aids and abets reciprocal altruism 265 Needing to belong and including others in the self 265 Empathy promotes true altruism 268 Lots of things promote helping 270 A little help here, little guys 271 Helping and religiosity: it’s complicated 273 Defectors and reduced selective fitness may not be such big problems 274 The defector argument 274 Cheating death 275 Helping others is truly rewarding 276 Group selection may not be so crazy after all 278 For further reading 280 Sample multiple-choice exam questions 280 10. Genes, Schmenes: Evolutionary Social and Cultural Psychology 281 Just how powerful are social situations? 285 Sherif’s classic conformity studies 285 Hitler as an intuitive social psychologist 287 Milgram’s obedience studies 287 Automatic social tuning illustrates the power of the situation 291 Can situations overshadow sex differences in sexual choosiness? 294 The extreme diversity of human culture 295 A peek at hofstede’s cultural dimensions 295 Cross-cultural variation in religious beliefs 297 Cross-cultural variation in the salience