Evolutionary Psychology

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Evolutionary Psychology

• A Survey Of The Field

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Important Ideas in the Field

• __________ Selection
• __________ Selection
• Intersexual Competition
• Intrasexual Competition
• _____________________________
• The More Investing Mate Will Be Choosier and
  Display Less Sexually Dominant Traits

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Universality of Emotion

• Many, Many, Differences Between Cultures
• Universality of Six Basic Emotional Types
• Happiness
• Sadness
• Surprise
• Fear
• Disgust
• Anger
• Root Cause?

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Evolutionary Cause

• Central Assumptions
• Ways in Which Emotions Can Be Adaptive
• Preparation For Action
• Natural Signals
• Example Cases
• Embarrassment
• ___________________

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___________________ Effect
Reaction Times (ms)
Percent MIS-Identification
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Cheating (Social)

• Cheater detection hypothesis
• Can people detect social cheaters?
• People are bad at logic
• Wason Card Task
• People are _______ at detecting social cheating

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Cheater Detection Contd

• Verplaeste et al. (2007)
• People can also recognize __________________

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Fear!

• Primates
• Human fears
• Patterns of learning
• Predator-prey relationships

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Women's Long-Term Mating Preferences

• _______________________
• Age
• Displayed financial resources
• Commitment and willingness to invest in children

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Age Preferences
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Mens Long-Term Mating Preferences

• __________________________
• Youth
• Cross-cultural beauty

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Similarities in Long-Term Preferences

• _______________
• Niceness

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Short Term Preferences

• Partners desired
• Attitudes towards casual sex
• Closing time phenomena
• Whats in it for women?

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________________________

• At certain times, females might not care about
  investment
• Effects of __________
• Increased sexual desire
• Preference for symmetry
• Womens clothing choice

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Haselton (2006)
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A Research Line

• Buss et al (1992) Perhaps the Most Well Known
  Research Paradigm
• Many, Many Studies Inspired By This Initial Piece
• Please think of a serious committed romantic
  relationship that you have had in the past, that
  you currently have, or that you would like to
  have. Imagine that you discover that the person
  with whom youve been seriously interested in
  became interested in someone else. What would
  distress or upset you more?
• Imagining your partner forming a deep emotional
  attachment to that person
• Imagining your partner enjoying passionate sexual
  intercourse with that other person

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Results
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_______________ Hypothesis (DeSteno Salovey,
1996)

• Idea That Women Interpret That Men Can Have Sex
  w/o Emotional Commitment, and Women Can Have An
  Emotional Commitment w/o Sex
• Offered As An Explanation For The Sex Difference
• Later Research (Buss et al, 1999) Refuted This
  Explanation
• Scenarios Where The Double-Shot Is NOT A
  Possibility Still Show Sex Difference

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Methodological Artifact?

• A Meta-Analysis Showed Robust Effects With Forced
  Choice Methods, But Continuous Measures Did Not
  Show Sex Difference (Harris, 2002)
• However, Many Studies Have Shown Sex Difference
• Becker et al. 2003
• Edlund et al 2006, Edlund Sagarin, Under Review

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__________________________

• Harris (2002) Showed That When Asked About Actual
  Experiences With Infidelity, People All Report
  Focusing On Same Aspects
• Confounded Move To Actual Experiences With Change
  In Construct?
• Focus Is Cognitive, Whereas Jealousy is Affective
• Berman And Frazier (2005) Explored, But
  Rejected Idea
• Edlund et al (2006) Larger Sample, Similar
  Definitions, and Continuous Measures

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Another Explanation?

• Differences in Selective Pressure (Buss
  Explanation)
• Women Ensuring Paternal Investment
• Men Paternal Uncertainty
• _____________________ (Buller, 2005)
• Women Ensuring Parental Investment
• Men Loss of perceived mating opportunities

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Predictions

• Both Paternal Uncertainty and Paternal
  Opportunities theory make the same predictions
  for the standard Buss scenario
• However, Paternal Opportunities Theory predicts
  differences in jealousy under a wider variety of
  scenarios
• The uncertainty scenario is a subset of the
  larger opportunity scenarios

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Scenario Examples

• Paternal Uncertainty
• Imagine that you and your romantic partner have a
  sexual relationship. You discover that your
  romantic partner has become interested in someone
  else while you are still in the relationship.
• Lost Opportunities
• Imagine that before you had ever had sex, your
  partner has broken off the relationship. This
  partner then becomes involved with someone else
  whom you have never met.

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Examples Contd

• Non-Romantic Jealousy
• Imagine that you are working at a job. You are
  your boss favorite worker. However, they
  recently hired a new worker that seems eager to
  succeed. The new worker seems to be trying to
  gain favor with your boss, perhaps to try to gain
  promotion.

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Summary

• Problems of group living
• Problems of survival
• Problems of mating