What evolutionary psychology hypotheses might be just-so stories?
December 7, 2018 8:38 AM

Evolutionary psychology has often been criticised for producing "just-so stories" that explain a particular result, where an equally compelling story could have been constructed if the opposite result had been found. Does anyone have any good examples of a compelling evolutionary psychology explanation that seems less compelling once you see that there is an equally compelling explanation for a contradictory theory?
posted by casebash to Science & Nature (5 answers total) 7 users marked this as a favorite
Did the religious early humans succeed because religious behaviors help keep a community cohesive? Or is it the other way around -- is it a biological predisposition to religion that leads to religious behaviors? Or is it both working together? Chicken or egg? Now my head hurts.
posted by Cool Papa Bell at 8:53 AM on December 7, 2018


Babies evolved to have a piercing cry so that the caregivers who stuck them under a rock so they could gather whatever would hear them and respond to their cries, especially if attacked by predators.

OR babies evolved to be quiet because when you are a baby alone under a rock you are vulnerable to predators, so you don't want to attract their attention by making lots of noise.
posted by praemunire at 8:59 AM on December 7, 2018


There's been some interesting conversation recently about the role of sexual dimorphism (size differences between males and females). Holly Dunsworth wrote a great essay on some of this for the Washington Post in response to Jerry Coyne - there's some good back and forth and nitty gritty and nastiness, but Holly (who is a friend) has a paper in review presenting evidence against a sexual selection explanation for sexual dimorphism and I found her talk on it pretty compelling.
posted by ChuraChura at 11:16 AM on December 7, 2018


[Folks, let's stick to stories that have citations rather than just throwing theories at the wall. Thanks. ]
posted by restless_nomad at 1:09 PM on December 7, 2018


Sorry, here's one cite for the babies issue. if you google, you'll see that even wackier theories have been built up over time around this issue!
posted by praemunire at 1:35 PM on December 7, 2018


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