Sociobiology-Discussion Flashcards
Sociobiology
The scientific study of the factors driving the evolution of social behavior
Example of an adaptive, evolved physical trait
Thick fur in animals living in cold regions
Examples of adaptive, evolved social behaviors
Mothers protective of their offspring
Altruism
Killing of lions cubs by newly dominant male
Aggression
Experimental Evidence: Breeding for behavior
In the Soviet Union/Russia in 1959, a fox breeding project was set up by scientist Dmitri Belyaev
Selectively bred for low fear of humans/high friendliness to humans
Also saw changes in phenotype: coat colors, floppy ears, curled tails
History of Sociobiology: Darwin
Charles Darwin, “The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals” (1872)
What are human universals?
Basic facial expressions
Some are even shared with other primates
Facial expressions may be functional
“Raising of eyebrows is necesssary in order that the eyes should be opened quickly and widely;… and we consequently open our eyes fully, so that field of vision may be increased
Physiology underlies similarities in expression
Duchenne vs. Non-Duchenne Smiles
Duchenne: where eyes contract/squint along with raising corners of lips, expressed with genuine happiness
Non-Duchenne: lips raised only without eye movement, not genuine
Zygomaticus and orbicularis muscles allow for the Duchenne smile
History of Sociobiology: E.O. Wilson
Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975)
Argued that we should analyze social behaviors through an evolutionary lens-animals behave in ways that maximize reproductive fitness
Chapters about humans were/are controversial-can our social behaviors really be encoded in our genes?
What is important to consider when thinking about our ancestors behavior vs. now
Some behavior may have be an advantage for ancestors, could be maladaptive for us because environments change
Motivation for high sugar/high fat foods could have helped ancestors find high quality foods and survive
Causes health issues when abundance
Due to some behavior being natural and evolving, does not mean it is morally correct
Nature interacting with Nurture
Social and cultural factors have huge impact on how humans behave. Also little doubt that biological factors play a significant role
Humans have capacity to regulate behavior in socially acceptable ways
-Phineas Gage’s socially inappropriate behavior after frontal lobe damage supports this idea
Evolutionary Psychology Books
“Adapted Mind: Evolutionary Psychology and The Generation of Culture (1992)” Barkow, Cosmides, and Tooby
-Focuses on psychological processes-attempts to identify evolved, underlying psychological mechanisms that influence behavior
“Evolutionary psychology: A new paradigm for psychological science (1995)” David Buss
-Humans have emotional, motivational and cognitive adaptations that generally increased fitness in the past
David Buss Research (1989)
Evolutionarily, women faced many reproductive challenges: surviving pregnancy, lactating, rearing children
Hypothesis: Due to investment, women tend to seek mates that can devote resources to her and her children
Evolutionarily, the main reproductive challenge men have faced is access to mates
Hypothesis: Men thus tend to seek fertile mates
He conducted survey or more than 10,000 people across 37 cultures
Findings:
Men preferred younger women (interpretation: higher fertility)
Women preferred older men (interpretation: higher resources to care for her and her offspring)
3 Basic Tenants of Human Sociobiology Research
- The human mind and human behavior are/were shaped by natural selection
- The human mind uses heuristics (strategies) to increase the likelihood of solving problems our ancestors routinely faced
- There is a shared, and more or less universal, core human nature
The Cinderella Effect
Evolution favors ensuring survival and reproduction of genetically related offspring (Inclusive Fitness)
The phenomenon of favoritism for genetically related children and higher incidence of mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents
Ovulation and Attractiveness
Miller et al. (2007) studied the effects of ovulatory cycle phase on tip earnings in exotic dancers
Dancers earn more when fertile
Proposed interpretation:Women have evolved to signal when they are sexually fertile
Criticisms of study:
Small sample size
Couple of cycles
Single city
Has not been replicated
Singh and Bronstad (2001): Female body odor is a potential cue to ovulation
Roberts et al. (2004): Female facial attractiveness (as judged by males) increases during the fertile phase of the menstrual cycle
Cheater Detection—> Wason Task
A logic game used to illustrate that humans use evolved “heuristics” to solve problems routinely faced by our ancestors
A puzzle posed in an asocial context is difficulty to solve. When the same puzzle is worded in a social manner (that is evolutionarily relevant), the puzzle is much easier
Wason Task
Task were logically identical, but one seemed easier to complete than the other
Superior performance on the second version of the task may be due to the human possession of a specialized cheater detection module
Such a module would presumably benefit individuals in environments where repeated, reciprocal interactions occurred (Cosmides et al. 2005_
Why detect cheaters
To punish the cheaters
If you want to support cooperation, you can even use such a module to punish others who neglect to punish cheaters (strong reciprocity)
Simulation from Fehr and Fishbacher (2003)
Mate age preference by sex
And Facial symmetry
Consistent across different cultures—– suggest a common, evolved human trait
Facial symmetry is attractive
Female waist to hip ratio indicates health
Comparison of Miss America Winners’ percentage ideal weight (A) and waist to hip ratios (B)
Ideal weight changes over time, suggesting cultural
Waist to hip ratio consistent-an indicator of health
Controversies and criticisms
Naturalistic Fallacy
Biological determinism
“Just so” stories (unverifiable narrative explanations)
Little is known about humans in ancient times
The naturalistic fallacy
The assumption that behavior or consequence is good because it has been favored by natural selection
Evolutionary Psychology and Sociobiology have never proposed that problematic human behaviors are justified, but rather, try to help explain why these behaviors may evolve, as understanding can lead to modification
Example:
Fear/dislike/distrust, of people who look different than you may have provided a survival advantage for hunter-gatherers competing with others for access to food. Nowadays, it is not right and may reuslt in racism
Biological Deteriminism
The belief that all behaviors are innate, determined by genes, brain size, or other biological attributes, and that social and cultural forces play little role
Objections to socibio
Responses
Objection:
Ignores environmental influences
Response:
Mainstream scientists endorse gene-environment interactions for complex traits
Objection:
Gives too much weight to genes: we are not pre-programmed robots
Response:
Genes get turned on and off constantly; expression is not static
“Just so” stories
Some scientists have been/are guilty of “adaptive storytelling”
-an ad hoc evolutionary narrative to explain a behavior that is unverifiable and unfalsifiable
Popularizations vs. journal articles
Still, evolutionary hypotheses can be tested by evaluating predictions that follow from them
-Cross-cultural studies
Little known about humans in ancient times
Critics say that too little known about the Pleistocene to provide solid basis for EP hypotheses
Evolutionary psychologists argue that research is confided to certainties about the past:
-Pregnancies occurred in women
-Humans lived in groups
