The basic concepts of evolutionary psychology. These are at the core of many explanations of universal human behaviors.
This article explores how the evolution of perception makes us perceive only a part of reality, not reality in its entirety. You might have come across one of those posts on social media that ask you to read a paragraph at the end of which you’re told that you missed some articles that were there …
Where does our tendency to cooperate come from?Is it natural for us to cooperate or is it the result of social learning? It’s tempting to think that we’re born as non-cooperative beasts that need to be tamed via education and learning. The whole idea of ‘human civilization’ revolves around the assumption that humans have somehow …
Reciprocal altruism or reciprocity in psychology is defined as the tendency of people to return favors. While reciprocal altruism is observed in kin relationships, it’s common in friendships. It won’t be an exaggeration to say that friendships and other non-kin relationships are based on reciprocal altruism. Consider the following scenario: It was the birthday of …
Our evolved psychological mechanisms are not only shaped by natural selection but also by sexual or intrasexual selection. While naturally selected traits are primarily those that help us to survive, sexually selected traits are those that help us to successfully reproduce. Imagine there’s a number floating above everyone’s head ranging from 0 to 10 that describes how …
Consumption of food plays a pivotal role in ensuring the survival and functionality of all organisms- be it a single-celled amoeba, a plant, or a human being. All living organisms are programmed to obtain food from their environments in some way or the other. Besides being programmed to obtain food, humans have also evolved certain …
Modern homo sapiens evolved around 200,000 years ago and lived mainly as hunter-gatherers. They mostly led nomadic lives moving from place to place in search of food. Their bodies had evolved to make them efficient hunter-gatherers and this continued for thousands of years. Changes in the hunter-gatherer way of life began only recently with respect …
An evolved psychological mechanism is a behavioural program present in an organism that tends to ensure its survival and reproductive success. Over the period of evolution of an organism, behavioural strategies that enable its successful survival and reproduction get selected and are passed on to succeeding generations. The result is that the behavioural strategies you …
Evolutionary psychology, as the name suggests, is the application of the principles of evolutionary theory to psychology. Before you can understand how an evolutionary perspective can be applied to human behavior, you first need to have a firm grasp on the theory of evolution itself. Theory of evolution It’s the year 2500 A.D. and mankind …