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:

To see these principles at work, let’s consider a straightforward example in foxes.