Transcript Myers Module Eleven

Evolutionary Psychology (m11 p141-145)
The Belyaev Domesticated Fox Experiment
From Trut,
1999:As Lyudmila Trut says in her 1999 American Scientist
article [1], The least domesticated foxes, those that flee from
experimenters or bite when stroked or handled, are assigned
to Class III. Foxes in Class II let themselves be petted and
handled but show no emotionally friendly response to
experimenters. Foxes in Class I are friendly toward
experimenters, wagging their tails and whining. In the sixth
generation bred for tameness we had to add an even higherscoring category. Members of Class IE, the "domesticated
elite," are eager to establish human contact, whimpering to
attract attention nt differs from natural selection which favors
reproand sniffing and licking experimenters like dogs. They
start displaying this kind of behavior before they are one
month old. By the tenth generation, 18 percent of fox pups
were elite; by the 20th, the figure had reached 35 percent.
Today elite foxes make up 70 to 80 percent of our
experimentally selected population.
Evolutionary Psychology: Sexuality
Lippa, 2008: Men more than women everywhere agree: 'I have a
strong sex drive', and 'It doesn't take much to get me sexually
excited' (m 144 c 142).
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Schmitt, 2007: In surveys, gay men (like straight men) report
more interest in uncommitted sex, more responsiveness to
visual sexual stimuli, and more concern with their partner's
physical attractiveness than do lesbian women(m 144, c142).
Men have a lower threshold for perceiving warm responses as
a sexual come-on. (Johnson et al., 1991). This is an example
of misattribution error (m 145 c 143)
What do heterosexual men and women find attractive in a
mate? Men need a six-pack; women an hour-glass figure.
Nature selects bodies and behaviours that will send one's
genes into the future.
Our Genetic Legacy
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No more than 5% of the genetic differences among
humans arise from population group differences.
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Some 95% of genetic variation exists within
populations. (Rosenberg et al., 2002 c. p140)
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If after a world wide catastrophe only Iceland or
Kenyans survived (99% population gone = 73 million
left) the human species would suffer only a 'trivial
reduction' in its genetic diversity. (Lewontin, 1982 c.
p140).
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Natural selection has given us 'a universal moral
grammar'. (Hauser, 2009 c p141).
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Our natural dispositions are mismatched with today's
junk-food environment and today's threats, such as
climate change. (Collarelli & Dettman, 2003 c p141).
Evolution & Sexuality
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Kenrick et al., 2009: Men are attracted to women whose ages
would be associated with peak fertility (the middle twenties).
This pattern is consistent across North and South America,
Africa, India, and the Phillipines. (m 145, c 143)
Singh, 1995: Women are attracted to men who seem mature,
dominant, bold, and affluent.(m 145, c 143)
Roney et al., 2006: Women skillfully discerned which men most
liked looking at baby pictures, and they rated those men higher
as potential long-term mates. ( m 145 c143)
Buss, 2009: From an evolutionary perspective, such attributes
connote a man's capacity to support and protect a family. (m
145 c143)