Module 12 Introduction
Evolutionary Psychology: Understanding Human Nature
12-1 How do evolutionary psychologists use natural selection to explain behavior tendencies?
Behavior geneticists explore the genetic and environmental roots of human differences. Evolutionary psychologists instead focus mostly on what makes us so much alike as humans. They use Charles Darwin’s principle of natural selection—”arguably the most momentous idea ever to occur to a human mind,” said Richard Dawkins (2007)—to understand the roots of behavior and mental processes. The idea, simplified, is this:
- Organisms’ varied offspring compete for survival.
- Certain biological and behavioral variations increase organisms’ reproductive and survival chances in their particular environment.
- Offspring that survive are more likely to pass their genes to ensuing generations.
- Thus, over time, population characteristics may change.
To see these principles at work, let’s consider a straightforward example in foxes.