All posts; Tags Include "Evolutionary Psychology"
- April 15, 2011
- 02:21 PM
- 1,078 views
The Allure of Gay Cavemen
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries
The latest stop in the #PDEx tour is being hosted by Neuron Culture at Wired:In 1993 the reputable German weekly Der Spiegel reported a rumor that Otzi, the 5,300-year-old frozen mummy discovered in the Otztal Alps two years earlier, contained evidence of the world's earliest known homosexual act. "In Otzi's Hintern," wrote the editors, referring to the Iceman's hinterland, "Spermien gefunden worden." (If you require a translation, chances are you didn't want to know anyway.) The rumor quickly s........ Read more »
Will Roscoe. (2000) Changing Ones: Third and Fourth Genders in Native North America. Macmillan. info:/
- April 14, 2011
- 03:07 PM
- 1,352 views
Mountain Dwarfs & Earthquakes
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Before there were materialist explanations of nature’s unpredictable fury, there were stories. These stories were not mere entertainment, but were attempts to make sense of that which was inexplicable. The world is of course an unpredictable place. We were powerfully reminded of this but one month ago, as an earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan.
Modern Japanese [...]... Read more »
McMillan, A. (2002) When the Mountain Dwarfs Danced: Aboriginal Traditions of Paleoseismic Events along the Cascadia Subduction Zone of Western North America. Ethnohistory, 49(1), 41-68. DOI: 10.1215/00141801-49-1-41
Cruikshank, Julie. (1992) Invention of Anthropology in British Columbia's Supreme Court: Oral Tradition as Evidence in Delgamuukw v. B.C. BC Studies, 25-42. info:other/
- April 7, 2011
- 02:55 AM
- 1,117 views
Skepticism and Rape Adaptations
by Stephanie Zvan in Almost Diamonds
It isn't terribly difficult to find well-written, skeptical pieces on evolutionary psychology. In fact, several have come out quite recently. They examine current evo psych theorizing in the light of scientific requirements for proof of any such theory.Kate Clancy wrote a post on the variety of human behavior that evo psych studies attempt to represent by using mostly college undergraduate research subjects. In addition to her concern over undergraduates' WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized........ Read more »
Goetz, A., & Shackelford, T. (2006) Sexual coercion and forced in-pair copulation as sperm competition tactics in humans. Human Nature, 17(3), 265-282. DOI: 10.1007/s12110-006-1009-8
Peters J, Shackelford TK, & Buss DM. (2002) Understanding domestic violence against women: using evolutionary psychology to extend the feminist functional analysis. Violence and victims, 17(2), 255-64. PMID: 12033558
- April 6, 2011
- 06:01 PM
- 1,203 views
Sleepy or Empathetic: What Does Yawning Mean?
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
You know that old phrase, "monkey see, monkey do"? Well, there might be something to it, except that chimpanzees aren't monkeys. (Sadly, "ape see, ape do" just doesn't have the same ring to it.) A new paper published today in PLoS ONE has found evidence that chimpanzees have contagious yawning - that is, they can "catch" yawns from watching other chimpanzees yawning - but (and here's the interesting part) only when the chimp that they're watching is a friend.
At first, scientists thought that........ Read more »
Matthew W. Campbell, & Frans B. M. de Waal. (2011) Ingroup-Outgroup Bias in Contagious Yawning by Chimpanzees Supports Link to Empathy. PLoS ONE, 6(4). info:/10.1371/journal.pone.0018283
- April 6, 2011
- 12:00 PM
- 997 views
If I objectify you, will it make you feel bad enough to objectify yourself? On shopping, sexiness and hormones.
by Kate Clancy in Context & Variation
This post critiques recent work on "sexy" shopping behavior during high and low fertility periods in the menstrual cycle.... Read more »
Campbell, A. (2004) Female competition: Causes, constraints, content, and contexts. Journal of Sex Research, 41(1), 16-26. DOI: 10.1080/00224490409552210
Durante, KM, Griskevicius, V, Hill, SE, Perilloux, C, & Li, NP. (2011) Ovulation, female competition, and product choice: hormonal influences on consumer behavior. Journal of Consumer Research, 37(6), 921-934. info:/
Fehring, R., Schneider, M., & Raviele, K. (2006) Variability in the Phases of the Menstrual Cycle. Journal of Obstetric, Gynecologic, Neonatal Nursing, 35(3), 376-384. DOI: 10.1111/j.1552-6909.2006.00051.x
Lenton EA, Landgren BM, Sexton L, & Harper R. (1984) Normal variation in the length of the follicular phase of the menstrual cycle: effect of chronological age. British journal of obstetrics and gynaecology, 91(7), 681-4. PMID: 6743609
Moffitt, L., & Szymanski, D. (2010) Experiencing Sexually Objectifying Environments: A Qualitative Study. The Counseling Psychologist, 39(1), 67-106. DOI: 10.1177/0011000010364551
Smuts, B. (1995) The evolutionary origins of patriarchy. Human Nature, 6(1), 1-32. DOI: 10.1007/BF02734133
Streeter, S. (2003) Waist–hip ratio and attractiveness New evidence and a critique of “a critical test”. Evolution and Human Behavior, 24(2), 88-98. DOI: 10.1016/S1090-5138(02)00121-6
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- April 4, 2011
- 11:15 AM
- 1,220 views
From the Archives: Elephants Say Bee-Ware!
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
Given the recent elephant hunting scandal, I thought I'd repost this award-winning piece from the archives, on a very clever way to deter elephants from raiding human settlements. Much cleverer than shooting them. (Click on the archives icon for the original.)
What information is contained in the call of a mammal? Some calls might reflect the internal emotional state of the animal, like fear or anxiety, or they can refer to an external object, agent, or event, like the presence of a predator. R........ Read more »
King, L., Soltis, J., Douglas-Hamilton, I., Savage, A., & Vollrath, F. (2010) Bee Threat Elicits Alarm Call in African Elephants. PLoS ONE, 5(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0010346
- April 3, 2011
- 03:36 PM
- 1,314 views
Storytelling Gone Wild
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Humans everywhere are inveterate storytellers. Because storytelling, in the form of narrative, is found in all cultures and is structurally similar — with agents and action linked together by causation — there is excellent reason to think this ability is the result of intense selection pressure and is not simply a byproduct of other cognitive [...]... Read more »
Scalise Sugiyama, M. (2001) Food, foragers, and folklore: the role of narrative in human subsistence. Evolution and Human Behavior, 22(4), 221-240. DOI: 10.1016/S1090-5138(01)00063-0
Sugiyama, M. (2001) Narrative Theory and Function: Why Evolution Matters. Philosophy and Literature, 25(2), 233-250. DOI: 10.1353/phl.2001.0035
Sugiyama, M. (1996) On the origins of narrative. Human Nature, 7(4), 403-425. DOI: 10.1007/BF02732901
- March 30, 2011
- 04:56 PM
- 1,219 views
The evolution of nice
Most people reading this blog will have heard of the "selfish gene" - the idea, formally defined by Hamilton and popularised by Dawkins, that what matters from the perspective of evolution is not organisms, but genes.
Those genes that maximise their chances of survival - regardless of what happens to individuals - will be the ones that come to predominate.
It comes in for a lot of flack, mostly from people who wrongly equate selfish genes with selfish people. To be fair, there also a lot of co........ Read more »
West, S., El Mouden, C., & Gardner, A. (2010) Sixteen common misconceptions about the evolution of cooperation in humans. Evolution and Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.08.001
- March 29, 2011
- 03:41 PM
- 928 views
A Cognitive Approach.
by SeriousMonkeyBusiness in This is Serious Monkey Business
Cognition: responsible for the tasks many of us seem to enjoy, also responsible for the encephalization and increased sociality within primates, and so, so much more.... Read more »
Sinha, A. (2003) A beautiful mind: attribution and intentionality in wild bonnet macaques. Current Science, 85(7), 1021-1031. info:other/
- March 29, 2011
- 02:42 PM
- 1,175 views
A Cognitive Approach
by Serious Mokey Business in This is Serious Monkey Business
Cognition: responsible for the tasks many of us seem to enjoy, also responsible for the encephalization and increased sociality within primates, and so, so much more.... Read more »
Sinha, A. (2003) A beautiful mind: attribution and intentionality in wild bonnet macaques. Current Science, 85(7), 1021-1031. info:other/
- March 28, 2011
- 02:35 PM
- 1,371 views
Digitizing Jane Goodall's Legacy at Duke
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
A new piece by me today at the Scientific American Guest Blog, on some exciting news from the Jane Goodall Institute and Duke University:
Fifty years ago, in the summer of 1960 - the same year that a US satellite snapped the first photo of the Earth from space, the same year that the CERN particle accelerator became operational, the same year that the Beatles got their name - a 26-year-old Jane Goodall got on a plane in London and went for the first time to Gombe Stream Game Reserve, in Tanzani........ Read more »
Goodall, J., & Pintea, L. (2010) Securing a future for chimpanzees. Nature, 466(7303), 180-181. DOI: 10.1038/466180a
GOODALL J. (1964) TOOL-USING AND AIMED THROWING IN A COMMUNITY OF FREE-LIVING CHIMPANZEES. Nature, 1264-6. PMID: 14151401
Pusey AE, Pintea L, Wilson ML, Kamenya S, & Goodall J. (2007) The contribution of long-term research at Gombe National Park to chimpanzee conservation. Conservation biology : the journal of the Society for Conservation Biology, 21(3), 623-34. PMID: 17531041
- March 28, 2011
- 12:40 PM
- 1,555 views
In which I try to explain why "heritability" is not quite the same thing as "heritable"
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
Robert Kurzban responds in the ongoing "adaptive" homophobia kerfuffle (henceforth, the O.A.H.K.) with continued confusion about how biologists identify possible adaptations and test to see whether natural selection is responsible for them. He notes that one effect of natural selection is to remove heritable variation in traits under selection, so that many traits which are probably adaptations—arguably, sometimes the best-adapted traits—actually have zero heritability.
This is true. But it........ Read more »
Godsoe, W., Yoder, J.B., Smith, C.I., Drummond, C., & Pellmyr, O. (2010) Absence of population-level phenotype matching in an obligate pollination mutualism. Journal of Evolutionary Biology, 23(12), 2739-2746. DOI: 10.1111/j.1420-9101.2010.02120.x
Verweij, K., Shekar, S., Zietsch, B., Eaves, L., Bailey, J., Boomsma, D., & Martin, N. (2008) Genetic and environmental influences on individual differences in attitudes toward homosexuality: An Australian twin study. Behavioral Genetics, 38(3), 257-265. DOI: 10.1007/s10519-008-9200-9
- March 23, 2011
- 09:05 AM
- 1,266 views
In which several evolutionary psychologists still don't understand evolution
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
Jesse Bering has responded to criticism—by me, Jon Wilkins, and P.Z. Meyers, among others—of his post about Gordon Gallup's hypothesis that fear of homosexuals is favored by natural selection, in the form of an interview with Gallup. The result is informative, but probably not in the way intended.
To recap: Gallup proposed that homophobia could be adaptive if it prevented gay and lesbian adults from contacting a homophobic parent's children and—either through actual sexual abuse or some ........ Read more »
Arden, N., & Spector, T. (1997) Genetic influences on muscle strength, lean body mass, and bone mineral density: A twin study. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 12(12), 2076-2081. DOI: 10.1359/jbmr.1997.12.12.2076
Berenbaum, M., & Zangerl, A. (1992) Genetics of physiological and behavioral resistance to host furanocoumarins in the parsnip webworm. Evolution, 46(5), 1373-84. DOI: 10.2307/2409943
Young, K. (2004) How the horned lizard got its horns. Science, 304(5667), 65. DOI: 10.1126/science.1094790
Campbell, D. (1996) Evolution of floral traits in a hermaphroditic plant: Field measurements of heritabilities and genetic correlations. Evolution, 50(4), 1442-53. DOI: 10.2307/2410882
Gallup, G. (1995) Have attitudes toward homosexuals been shaped by natural selection?. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16(1), 53-70. DOI: 10.1016/0162-3095(94)00028-6
Mousseau, T., & Roff, D. (1987) Natural selection and the heritability of fitness components. Heredity, 59(2), 181-97. DOI: 10.1038/hdy.1987.113
- March 18, 2011
- 06:23 PM
- 1,548 views
Pair Bonding & Ritual Marriage
by Cris Campbell in Genealogy of Religion
Over the past few years, something like a perfect storm has been brewing over human pair bonding and the profound impacts it has wrought on human social structure. This is a welcome development in a field that has long been dominated by those who wish to root the relatively modern idea of marriage in ancient [...]... Read more »
Chapais, B. (2011) The Deep Social Structure of Humankind. Science, 331(6022), 1276-1277. DOI: 10.1126/science.1203281
Hill, K., Walker, R., Bozicevic, M., Eder, J., Headland, T., Hewlett, B., Hurtado, A., Marlowe, F., Wiessner, P., & Wood, B. (2011) Co-Residence Patterns in Hunter-Gatherer Societies Show Unique Human Social Structure. Science, 331(6022), 1286-1289. DOI: 10.1126/science.1199071
Lovejoy, C. (1981) The Origin of Man. Science, 211(4480), 341-350. DOI: 10.1126/science.211.4480.341
Lovejoy, C. (2009) Reexamining Human Origins in Light of Ardipithecus ramidus. Science, 326(5949), 74-74. DOI: 10.1126/science.1175834
Langdon, J. (1997) Umbrella hypotheses and parsimony in human evolution: a critique of the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis. Journal of Human Evolution, 33(4), 479-494. DOI: 10.1006/jhev.1997.0146
- March 18, 2011
- 11:00 AM
- 947 views
She's quite a dish
by Charlie Harvey in I, Science
Research explains why, if on a first date and you ask to split the bill, you probably wont be around for the second date.... Read more »
Stirrat,M.; Gumert, M.; Perrett, D. (2011) The Effect of Attractiveness on Food Sharing Preferences in Human Mating Markets. Evolutionary Psychology, 9(1), 79-91. info:/
- March 11, 2011
- 03:56 PM
- 1,081 views
Penis Spines, Pearly Papules, and Pope Benedict's Balls
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries
The latest stop in the #PDEx tour is being hosted by A Primate of Modern Aspect:A new study in the journal Nature has generated a great deal of titillation this week as Cory McLean and colleagues have revealed a sequence of DNA that promotes these penis spines, a sequence that humans appear to have lost. The genetic mechanism involved has already been explained extremely well by Ed Yong and John Hawks. However, the interpretation of what the loss of this DNA reveals about human evolution is perh........ Read more »
McLean, C., Reno, P., Pollen, A., Bassan, A., Capellini, T., Guenther, C., Indjeian, V., Lim, X., Menke, D., Schaar, B.... (2011) Human-specific loss of regulatory DNA and the evolution of human-specific traits. Nature, 471(7337), 216-219. DOI: 10.1038/nature09774
- March 11, 2011
- 03:56 PM
- 973 views
Penis Spines, Pearly Papules, and Pope Benedict's Balls
by Eric Michael Johnson in The Primate Diaries in Exile
The latest stop in the #PDEx tour is being hosted by A Primate of Modern Aspect:A new study in the journal Nature has generated a great deal of titillation this week as Cory McLean and colleagues have revealed a sequence of DNA that promotes these penis spines, a sequence that humans appear to have lost. The genetic mechanism involved has already been explained extremely well by Ed Yong and John Hawks. However, the interpretation of what the loss of this DNA reveals about human evolution is perh........ Read more »
McLean, C., Reno, P., Pollen, A., Bassan, A., Capellini, T., Guenther, C., Indjeian, V., Lim, X., Menke, D., Schaar, B.... (2011) Human-specific loss of regulatory DNA and the evolution of human-specific traits. Nature, 471(7337), 216-219. DOI: 10.1038/nature09774
- March 11, 2011
- 02:59 PM
- 1,139 views
Penis Spines, Pearly Papules, and Pope Benedict’s Balls
by zinjanthropus in A Primate of Modern Aspect
The following guest post by Eric Michael Johnson is part of the Primate Diaries in Exile blog tour. You can follow other stops on this tour through his RSS feed or by following him on Twitter. If this is your first time visiting A Primate of Modern Aspect make sure to browse some of the [...]... Read more »
McLean, C., Reno, P., Pollen, A., Bassan, A., Capellini, T., Guenther, C., Indjeian, V., Lim, X., Menke, D., Schaar, B.... (2011) Human-specific loss of regulatory DNA and the evolution of human-specific traits. Nature, 471(7337), 216-219. DOI: 10.1038/nature09774
- March 10, 2011
- 04:57 AM
- 1,091 views
An adaptive fairytale with no happy ending
by Jeremy Yoder in Denim and Tweed
The evolution of human traits and behaviors is, as I've noted before, a contentious and personal subject. This is enough of a problem when there's some data to inform the contentiousness. In the absence of meaningful data, it's downright dangerous.
Take, for instance, Jesse Bering's recent post about the evolution of homophobia, which Steve Silberman just pointed out to me.
.flickr-photo { }.flickr-framewide { float: right; text-align: left; margin-left: 15px; margin-bottom: 15px; width:100%;}........ Read more »
Ellstrand, N. (1983) Why are juveniles smaller than their parents?. Evolution, 37(5), 1091-4. DOI: 10.2307/2408423
Gallup GG Jr, & Suarez SD. (1983) Homosexuality as a by-product of selection for optimal heterosexual strategies. Perspectives in Biology and Medicine, 26(2), 315-22. PMID: 6844119
Gallup, G. (1995) Have attitudes toward homosexuals been shaped by natural selection?. Ethology and Sociobiology, 16(1), 53-70. DOI: 10.1016/0162-3095(94)00028-6
Gallup, G. (1996) Attitudes toward homosexuals and evolutionary theory: The role of evidence. Ethology and Sociobiology, 17(4), 281-284. DOI: 10.1016/0162-3095(96)00042-8
Gould, S., & Lewontin, R. (1979) The Spandrels of San Marco and the Panglossian paradigm: A critique of the adaptationist programme. Proc. Royal Soc. B, 205(1161), 581-98. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.1979.0086
Wilson, H., & Widom, C. (2010) Does physical abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect in childhood increase the likelihood of same-sex sexual relationships and cohabitation? A prospective 30-year follow-up. Archives of Sexual Behavior, 39(1), 63-74. DOI: 10.1007/s10508-008-9449-3
Young, K., Brodie, E.D., Jr., & Brodie, E.D., III. (2004) How the horned lizard got its horns. Science, 304(5667), 65. DOI: 10.1126/science.1094790
- March 8, 2011
- 11:45 AM
- 1,621 views
Defending Your Territory: It Pays To Have a Bigger Brain
by Jason Goldman in The Thoughtful Animal
Welcome to the second installment of Animal Territoriality Week. Today, we'll look at a case where differences in territory size can have implications for neuroanatomy. If you missed part 1 of Animal Territoriality week, check it out here.
Let's say you have two very very closely related species. You might even call them congeneric, because they are from the same taxonomic genus. In most ways, these two species are very similar, but they differ behaviorally in some very big ways. Might those ........ Read more »
Jacobs, L. (1990) Evolution of Spatial Cognition: Sex-Specific Patterns of Spatial Behavior Predict Hippocampal Size. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 87(16), 6349-6352. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.87.16.6349
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