How evolutionary psychology went viral
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How evolutionary psychology went viral
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Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#2WELL I NEVER, See I Told You, Morning Commuter Time (NNN) — British scientists have uncovered why little girls like pink toys. “Women are hardwired to like pink,” says Professor Gene Hunt of the University of Metro, “because their cavewoman foremothers spent their days gathering red leaves and berries amongst the trees.” Later, women needed to notice red-faced babies and blushing boyfriends. Men are attracted to blue because of the colour of the sky as seen when hunting.
Women are also predisposed to backstab one another in the workplace and cry in the boardroom, just like the social structures in the cave population as extrapolated from these two bone needles. Being too successful will increase women’s testosterone, giving them hairy nipples and male-pattern baldness. Females joining the hunt may also explain the end of the Neanderthals.
IQ test studies show that women have lower IQs on average than men, undoubtedly from lesser need for environmental variation while taking care of the cave. Tests on little boys prove that testosterone correlates with a sense of humour, which is why women just can’t take a joke. Housework has been shown to cut the risk of several fatal diseases, and dressing up nicely around the house is psychologically healthy as it uses the Homo erectus clan maintenance abilities of the female of the tribe.
Men are naturally predisposed to sleep with as many women as possible, as proven by lions, whereas women are naturally predisposed to stay loyal to their man and their spawn. Women who sleep around are at increased risk of parasites and death, as proven by cheetahs, who are a pack of catty sluts.
In a final crowning achievement, the team has shown that daily fellatio greatly reduces the incidence of breast cancer. Furthermore, regular sexual intercourse is essential to feminine health, but may be injurious if prolonged for more than two minutes or conducted while the man is sober.
“In conclusion,” says Professor Hunt, “all of this is top-notch science that you can absolutely rely on. Now get your knickers back on and make me a cuppa.”
from http://newstechnica.com/2008/10/23/science-reveals-evolution...
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#3Most evo-psych is pretty weak stuff, basically a lot of dubious and untestable just-so rationalizations for various prejudices and apparent human tendencies. A good chunk of it is full-on woo-woo nonsense.
Sometimes I get the (rather cynical) sense that there's an inverse relationship between the merit of an idea and its virality.
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#4Most evo-psych is pretty weak stuff, basically a lot of dubious and untestable just-so rationalizations for various prejudices and apparent human tendencies. A good chunk of it is full-on woo-woo nonsense. Sometimes I get the (rather cynical) sense that there's an inverse relationship between the merit of an idea and its virality.
I'm going to have to disagree here. I think that the tests necessary to prove psych are incredible difficult, but I can still use limited sets of data to verify things. Evolutionary psych is the philosophy that matches up the best with what I have seen in this world. This isn't scientific, but if I don't have another philosophy to go off of then I will at least reference that model for ideas on how people will behave.
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#5Most evo-psych is pretty weak stuff, basically a lot of dubious and untestable just-so rationalizations for various prejudices and apparent human tendencies. A good chunk of it is full-on woo-woo nonsense. Sometimes I get the (rather cynical) sense that there's an inverse relationship between the merit of an idea and its virality.
Come'n, there would be less suicide bombers if they had readily access to sex with supermodels! :)
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#6Most evo-psych is pretty weak stuff, basically a lot of dubious and untestable just-so rationalizations for various prejudices and apparent human tendencies. A good chunk of it is full-on woo-woo nonsense. Sometimes I get the (rather cynical) sense that there's an inverse relationship between the merit of an idea and its virality.
Well then.. that settles the is Psychology a science debate ;)
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#7This is where I first stumbled upon evolutionary psychology:
http://www.lloydianaspects.co.uk/evolve/evolmenu.html
I was trying to make sense of some feminist arguments and this provided answers for me as well as lots of other fascinating ideas. He also made a series on YouTube about the stone age man in a modern world.
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#8Most evo-psych is pretty weak stuff, basically a lot of dubious and untestable just-so rationalizations for various prejudices and apparent human tendencies. A good chunk of it is full-on woo-woo nonsense. Sometimes I get the (rather cynical) sense that there's an inverse relationship between the merit of an idea and its virality.
I'm going to have to disagree here. I think that the tests necessary to prove psych are incredible difficult, but I can still use limited sets of data to verify things. Evolutionary psych is the philosophy that matches up the best with what I have seen in this world. This isn't scientific, but if I don't have another philosophy to go off of then I will at least reference that model for ideas on how people will behave…
>but I can still use limited sets of data to verify things.
Such as?
>This isn't scientific, but if I don't have another philosophy to go off of then I will at least reference that model for ideas on how people will behave.
I don't understand your point. If you say it's not scientific, what exactly are you "verifying" ?
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#9Most evo-psych is pretty weak stuff, basically a lot of dubious and untestable just-so rationalizations for various prejudices and apparent human tendencies. A good chunk of it is full-on woo-woo nonsense. Sometimes I get the (rather cynical) sense that there's an inverse relationship between the merit of an idea and its virality.
Well then.. that settles the is Psychology a science debate ;)
Evo-psych is not.the totality of pysch.
Re: How evolutionary psychology went viral
#10The author makes some really good points about the quackery in EP. But at no point are the merits of some of these theories even mentioned. Take for example the proposition that women are attracted to older men. If it was found that all current human cultures and other mammals exhibited this behavior you could begin to think that this behaviour is grounded in biology.
> Evolutionary psychology does draw on empirical data and laboratory studies, and those data are falsifiable. But the adaptationist explanations that evolutionary psychologists offer are not.
If an explanation fit all current observations and predicted future experiments why is it not correct?
I'm having trouble expressing what I want to say, and some cursory googling for sources was met with paywalls but I wasn't a fan of some of the author's arguments.
Even if EP somehow explained that some very nasty behaviours were actually evolutionary adaptations that would not make the behaviours correct, and it would not make the explanation incorrect.
Human behaviour is complex and influenced by factors both societal and biological. While current pop sci has swung the needle way too far into the "biological" side of the argument I feel like the author has swung a bit too far into the "societal" side.