Evolutionary Psychology Research Articles

Transhumanism and evolutionary psychology: a dialogue about the future of human nature

The article explores the philosophical dialogue between transhumanism and evolutionary psychology regarding the limits and consequences of the technological transformation of human nature. The growing relevance of this debate is analyzed in the context of the rapid development of genetics, nanotechnology and robotics, which open up unprecedented opportunities for changing human nature. The main provisions of transhumanism are considered, which, continuing the ideas of the Enlightenment, offers a radical vision of the future, where humanity can consciously direct its own evolution with the help of technology. The position of evolutionary psychology is highlighted, which, based on an understanding of the natural mechanisms of the development of the human species, warns against hasty intervention in a complex system of adaptive mechanisms that have been formed over millions of years. The paper analyzes in detail the works of leading representatives of both directions, including J. Huxley and Gr. Flow from the side of transhumanism, as well as critical views of F. Fukuyama and L. Kass. Special attention is paid to the research of evolutionary psychologists, who provide scientific justification for the concept of universal human nature and warn against the risks of “planned evolution”. A fundamental contradiction has been revealed between the views of transhumanists, who consider human nature as plastic and ready for technological changes, and evolutionary psychologists, who consider it a fixed reality formed by long evolution. It is emphasized that modern technologies create fundamentally new conditions for human existence that go beyond the traditional enlightened understanding of science. The study shows that although technological development of mankind has already changed our nature, further radical changes require careful consideration and study. The main problem of “planned evolution” is determined by the risk of uncontrolled acceleration of natural evolutionary processes without understanding all possible consequences.

Are Boards Sensitive to CEO Masculinity? The Effect of CEO Facial and Vocal Masculinity on CEO Dismissal

AbstractDrawing on evolutionary psychology theorizing, this paper examines how chief executive officer (CEO) facial and vocal masculinity – as evolved biases shaping peoples' perceptions of an individual's leadership ability – influence boards' dismissal decisions. Specifically, we theorize that boards are likely to perceive CEO facial and vocal masculinity as costly to the firm, as they signal aggression, dominance, and risk‐taking – traits that are only valued in the narrow context of conflict. Based on this reasoning, we argue that CEO facial and vocal masculinity will be positively related to CEO dismissal. Further, we develop contingency arguments which suggest that CEO facial and vocal masculinity will interact with analysts' evaluation of firm performance to jointly influence CEO dismissal. We test and find support for our predictions using a panel dataset of CEOs from S&P 1500 firms.

Exploring evolutionary psychology perspectives on Sex differences in aggression

This research aims to extend the understanding of sex differences in aggression by applying the lens of Life History Theory to evaluate the effects of age, muscle, occupation, and other variables on aggression tactics. The study involves a resource competition game with 200 participants of both sexes, who can use direct or indirect aggression strategies. A post-game survey will assess the relationship between these variables and the differences in aggression levels. The authors predict that even when taking into account other factors affecting aggression, men will prefer direct aggression, and women will prefer indirect aggression. In conclusion, this work is intended to expand current knowledge of sex differences in aggression and contribute to the field of evolutionary psychology.

The impact of IQ on marriage rate: an analysis based on different gender perspectives

The institution of marriage is one of the oldest human institutions. Nowadays, it appears that the institution of marriage is experiencing a gradual transformation for the majority, transitioning from a societal “necessity” to a discretional “luxury. Some research indicates that divergent attitudes toward marriage exist between men and women. Men with higher IQs are more likely to marry, while the opposite is true for women. In order to analyze this phenomenon, based on the perspective of evolutionary psychology and cognitive physiology, this paper analyzes the physiological characteristics, cognitive differences, and social culture between men and women and elaborates the reasons for this difference in detail. Finally, some suggestions for future research are put forward.

Evolutionary Pedagogy: Evolutionary Foundations of Certain Pedagogical Practices and Their Implications in Teaching Processes

Human evolution is the result of highly complex biological, psychological and cultural changes over millions of years. This process can be traced back to the evolution of modern humans, thanks to the ability of human ancestors to adapt to environmental conditions. The evolutionary process involves the development not only of physical characteristics, but also of mental capacities and social structures. It is therefore a natural consequence that evolution has fundamentally influenced human cultural and psychological traits. The main reason for the emergence of fields such as evolutionary psychology and evolutionary psychiatry in the light of recent studies is the search for the contributions of evolutionary processes to such fields. Evolutionary pedagogy is basically the result of such a search. It was shaped as a result of the search for the reflections of psychological and cultural situations affected by evolutionary processes on pedagogy. Therefore, evolutionary pedagogy is a synthesis and it seeks to explain how many pedagogical practices may have been shaped in the evolutionary process. To this end, it draws heavily on evolutionary psychology and directly on human biological evolution. Such a quest for grounding predicts that a more beneficial process can be realized in the teaching-learning process by reproducing evolutionary situations in the classroom environment. In other words, the learning process can become more effective if teachers use the features compatible with evolutionary processes in their teaching techniques, classroom management, and the development of skills for learning to learn, and if they include them in the classroom environment. This is the main starting point of the study. Throughout the study, some examples of the pedagogical practices in which can manifest itself are emphasized. In addition to the explanations and examples given in the study, other researchers may associate different pedagogical practices with evolutionary processes. Therefore, evolutionary pedagogy is not only a new field but also a field that is open to the interest of researchers as a field open to development.

Voices without words: the spectrum of nonverbal vocalisations

ABSTRACT Nonverbal vocalisations are a fundamental part of human life. Here, we use Tinbergen’s ethological framework to examine the functions, ontogenetic trajectories, evolutionary history, and underlying mechanisms of five types of vocalisations: cries, laughter, moans, screams, and sighs. Integrating insights from evolutionary biology and social psychology, we demonstrate how biological functions and social factors shape vocalisations. Tracing the development of vocalisations from infancy to adulthood emphasises the role of innate tendencies, as well as delineating processes of social learning. For each vocalisation type, we map their distinct nature and communicative potential: cries are crucial for survival and caregiving responses; laughter fosters social bonding and group cohesion; moans convey a wide range of internal states from pleasure to discomfort; screams serve as urgent alarms in critical situations; and sighs regulate emotions and signal shifts in emotional states. We conclude that both biological and social factors must be considered to understand nonverbal vocalisations.

Evolutionary Perspective on Tourists’ Conformity to the Minority: The Effect of Mating Motive

Tourists tend to conform to the majority when faced with uncertainty in decision-making, which poses a considerable challenge to the promotion of new, less popular tourism offerings. This study delves into the heuristic promotion of less popular tourism offerings by using the concept of mating motives from the field of evolutionary psychology. Findings show that tourists driven by mating motives are likely to follow the minority, rather than the majority, when making purchase decisions—particularly in the context of souvenir shopping, destination selection, and gift giving—with uniqueness seeking playing a mediating role. Although purchase risk can increase the tendency of tourists to conform to the majority, it does not mitigate the effect of mating motives. The findings contribute to the promotion of less popular tourism offerings by highlighting tourists’ uniqueness seeking. This study broadens knowledge on tourist conformity behavior from the theoretical perspective of evolutionary psychology.

Robin Dunbar: The neurobiology of human sociality

Robin Dunbar is an eminent evolutionary psychologist and anthropologist whose pioneering work has permanently redefined how we think about human social relationships. Dunbar, who is an emeritus Professor of Evolutionary Psychology at the University of Oxford, became world-renowned for, among other contributions, his formulation of “Dunbar's number,” a theoretical limit to the number of stable social relationships an individual can maintain, typically cited as about 150. That idea, which he developed as he studied the relationship between brain size and social group size in various primate species, has since had broad influences across areas from social media design to organizational management. Over time, Dunbar's number has become more widely known and discussed, particularly with the advent of social media and online social networks. This has led to renewed interest in its implications for digital social interactions. Dunbar's illustrious career spans multiple prestigious institutions, including, prior to joining Oxford in 2007, the University of Cambridge, the University of Stockholm (Sweden), University College London and the University of Liverpool. He is a fellow of the British Academy and the Royal Anthropological Institute, a Foreign Member of the Finnish Academy of Science and Letters, and an elected Honorary Member of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. His interdisciplinary expertise is reflected in his professorships in psychology, evolutionary biology, and anthropology at institutions such as Liverpool and Oxford Universities. He has held a visiting chair in statistical physics and computer science at Aalto University, Finland, which has also awarded him an honorary doctorate. Dunbar studies the evolution of social processes in primates and humans, with work that blends neurobiology, cognitive science, and the social dynamics of how we communicate via friendship networks. His insights into friendships and community cohesion continue to shape our understanding of human social behaviour in the digital age. It is an absolute pleasure that Professor Dunbar answered the Genomic Press Interview as we celebrate the extraordinary story of his scientific odyssey with our readers.

Active Inference in Psychology and Psychiatry: Progress to Date?

The free energy principle is a formal theory of adaptive self-organising systems that emerged from statistical thermodynamics, machine learning and theoretical neuroscience and has since been translated into biologically plausible 'process theories' of cognition and behaviour, which fall under the banner of 'active inference'. Despite the promise this theory holds for theorising, research and practical applications in psychology and psychiatry, its impact on these disciplines has only now begun to bear fruit. The aim of this treatment is to consider the extent to which active inference has informed theoretical progress in psychology, before exploring its contributions to our understanding and treatment of psychopathology. Despite facing persistent translational obstacles, progress suggests that active inference has the potential to become a new paradigm that promises to unite psychology's subdisciplines, while readily incorporating the traditionally competing paradigms of evolutionary and developmental psychology. To date, however, progress towards this end has been slow. Meanwhile, the main outstanding question is whether this theory will make a positive difference through applications in clinical psychology, and its sister discipline of psychiatry.

Cultural Evolutionary Psychology as Generalization by Recursion

AbstractCultural evolutionary psychology (CEP) accounts for the cultural evolution of cognition. It is based on evolutionary psychology and cultural evolutionary theory and aims at a synthetic attempt which is achieved by what we want to call ‘generalization by recursion’. We argue in this paper that the evolutionary psychology program as a whole could greatly benefit from CEP’s generalization. As we will show, there is one theoretical element in particular, that CEP relevantly generalizes in contrast to its predecessors. It comes from cultural evolutionary theory and has been referred to as the ‘dual inheritance argument’. CEP’s novelty consists in showing that not only cognitive products (‘grist’) but also cognitive mechanisms (‘mills’) are subject to cultural evolution and provides lots of empirical evidence for this claim. This account is ‘recursive’, because CEP’s generalization of the dual inheritance argument theoretically employs a recursive feedback-loop between cultural learning and cultural evolution. We also argue that this account might be considered to supersede unificatory and reductionistic efforts of its competitors, because it is stronger than purely structural or analogical unification while at the same time it is not too strong in order to fall prey to implausible reductionism.

(Amoralny) familizm: propozycja rekonceptualizacji z wykorzystaniem psychologii ewolucyjnej i międzykulturowej

In his 1958 book Moral Basis of a Backward Society, Edward Banfield introduced the term amoral familism to describe social relations and values in a poor rural community in southern Italy. In my analysis, I propose to abandon the value-laden epithet "amoral" and consider familism as an evolutionary adaptive strategy activated in times of scarcity or crises. I base the thesis of the evolutionary roots of familism on the inclusive fitness theory (Hamilton 1964) and the theory of kin and reciprocal altruism (Trivers 1971). The perspective of evolutionary psychology makes it possible to see the positive functions of familism and to propose a new biological-cultural understanding of familism. Familism has so far been diagnosed primarily "indirectly" in sociological studies of bonding (and bridging) capital and in research on social trust conducted as part of cyclical social surveys such as the World Values Survey and the European Social Survey. In the search for accurate measures of biological-cultural familism we can additionally turn to the research of cross-cultural psychologists conducted for international management. I argue that the dimension of particularism on the 7-dimensional cultural map of Fons Trompenaars and Charles Hampden-Turner (2002) and the dimension of in-group collectivism on the 9-dimensional cultural map of the GLOBE project (House et al. 2004), can valuably complement the measures used in sociological sciences and make the diagnosis of familism more reliable. Finally, I call for in-depth research on Polish familism aimed at testing whether it is possible to build bridging capital on the basis of familist bonding capital.

Trusting Our Instincts: Evaluating the Evolutionary and Rational Foundations of Moral Intuitions

This paper delves into the nature and reliability of moral intuitions, building upon Jonathan Haidt’s social intuitionist model, which suggests that moral judgments stem from instinctive reactions followed by rational justifications. By examining Haidt’s experiments, which reveal the primacy of intuitive responses over rational deliberation, this paper seeks to address whether we have valid reasons to trust these moral intuitions. Drawing from evolutionary psychology, it argues that moral intuitions have historically contributed to the survival and success of the human species, thereby providing them with normative value. However, given the rapid advancements in technology and societal changes, these intuitions may sometimes lead to nonoptimal or disastrous outcomes. The paper proposes a rational test to determine the reliability of moral intuitions: we should trust an intuition if its generalized application benefits the human species. Potential counterarguments, such as the historical misuse of evolutionary logic in eugenics, are addressed to underscore the validity of this test. The conclusion emphasizes that while moral intuitions are generally trustworthy due to their evolutionary roots, rational thought must intervene when intuitions become outdated in the face of contemporary challenges.

Leveraging Evolutionary Psychology for Tourism Research: Identifying and Addressing Key Challenges

Evolutionary psychology has led to an increasing number of important and novel findings on tourist and resident attitudes and behaviors. However, in parallel with such advances, several challenges hinder the further application of evolutionary psychology in tourism studies. In this letter to the editor, we therefore identify and address six key challenges to the use of evolutionary psychology in tourism. These challenges are: (1) a difficulty in distinguishing proximate from ultimate explanations, (2) a belief that evolutionary psychology focuses on nature, and ignores nurture, (3) a belief in human exceptionalism, (4) an impression that evolutionary psychology overemphasizes gender differences, (5) a view of evolutionary psychology as a single, unified theory, and (6) a belief that evolutionary psychology can be used to justify genetic determinism, sexism, and racism. In identifying and responding to these challenges, we hope to inspire scholars to consider adopting an evolutionary psychology lens in their future research.

Beyond selfishness: the interaction of income and human values in shaping Europeans’ ideology

ABSTRACT The left-right scale of political orientation plays a pivotal role in shaping individual behaviour and government policies, particularly in Western countries. Although rational choice theory suggests that individuals with lower (higher) incomes lean towards left-wing (right-wing) redistributive policies, empirical evidence has challenged this classical view. Building on social and evolutionary psychology, cognitive dissonance theory, and experimental evidence, I argue that resolving this question requires disentangling the role of different human motivations in individuals with different personal and contextual attributes, specifically economic status. Using the European Social Survey and Schwartz’s scale of human values to estimate models of individuals’ political orientation, this paper estimates the joint and interacting ideological effects of household income and human values after controlling for possible income endogeneity. The results confirm that the classical view of ideology is useful but too simplistic. The ideological bias of human values is persistent, though economic circumstances act as a moderating variable in this relationship: Human values play a weaker role in shaping political orientation for citizens of lower economic status. The article illustrates the power of interactions to define complex profiles of citizens and proposes a research agenda.

“Justly and Without Bias”

This paper investigates the possibility that one purpose of consultation is the mitigation of cognitive biases in individual participantsand in the group as a whole. After exploring the nature of cognitive biases through the lens of evolutionary psychology, the paper surveys existing research on effective methods of “debiasing” individuals. This research suggests that the most effective environment for mitigating bias is a deliberative group, in which individual participants may be asked to justify their reasoning in a social environment of diverse perspectives. Bias mitigation diminishes over time, requiring repeated exposure to the debiasing environment. This model for debiasing strongly resonates with Bahá’í consultation, a conclusion that can enrich Assemblies’ and other consultinggroups’ perspectives on, and expectations of, consultation.

“Best Before”: On Women, Ageism, and Mental Health

Introduction: Our world has changed over the last decades, and one of the dramatic changes has been the increase in human life expectancy. Due to important life-saving breakthroughs, the current life expectancy for the world in 2024 is 73.33 years; and female global life expectancy is 76.0 years. This trend manifests one of the greatest achievements of human society, which, however, reveals issues that humanity has yet to address. One of them is the place and role of women over 40 in modern society. Purpose: This paper aims to unveil gendered ageism and to identify its negative impact on women’s mental health. Methodology: We conducted a systematic search in the main electronic databases, such as PubMed, Scopus, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Relevant studies were identified using search terms: women over 40, aging, gendered ageism, mental health, wellbeing, beauty standards, youthfulness, age stereotypes, multiple discrimination, inequity, identity, sexuality, social exclusion, intersectionality. The authors used phenomenological philosophical, hermeneutic, and inductive approaches, as well as the interpretive research paradigm. Review and Discussion: Constant anxiety about aging, attempts to turn back time, desperate cosmetic battles that women are involved in are far from just a tribute to fashion or female vanity, but also an attempt to come out of the shadows, to overcome the boundaries of female limited space, and to make a woman visible. However, women’s grand entrance onto the big stage faces gendered ageism that forces women over 40 feel excluded in society and life by making them invisible. Despite certain changes in public consciousness over the role of women in society, we still live in a men’s world. The centuries-old subordination of women to men, cultural ideas about the “perfect” female face, body, age, weight, compliance with which is a “pass” to the world of success, or, according to evolutionary psychologists, a “mechanism” that promotes survival, crystallize in various disorders, thereby undermining women’s mental health, downplaying the value of wisdom, knowledge and life experience, and eroding women’s self-esteem. Conclusion: Aging is a natural and inevitable process, and old age is a significant part of life, which can be filled with joy, achievements of small and big goals, dissemination of accumulated experience and wisdom. Unfortunately, these wonderful aspirations are hindered by ageism – one of the last socially acceptable prejudices. Inducing age stereotypes and perpetuating internalized ageism, our social environment maintains discrimination of women over 40 in workplace, social settings, and private sphere that has detrimental consequences for women’s mental and physical health. Therefore, combating ageism and sexism and eliminating age discrimination is essential to support older women’s health and wellbeing. Both women and men share the responsibility to progress towards true equity that will help women around the world achieve success on their own terms and reach their full potential. Life journey of every woman is a way of self-discovery and self-development, in which the various aspects of a woman’s personality come together to create unique integrity of body, mind, and spirit. To fully realize the potential of half of humanity, it is necessary to dismantle the systems that maintain inequities, as well as to raise up and empower women of all ages, colors, abilities to assert themselves and be respected in both public and private spheres, to accept reality and move on, to feel comfortable and confident in their own skin, to do wonders for everyone on our planet, and to know that every woman matters.

Do resources make adolescents happier? Belief in a just world as an adaptive mediator between subjective socioeconomic status and life satisfaction

Life satisfaction is adaptive, yet the antecedents of its adaptability require further exploration. Drawing from evolutionary psychology, this study aimed to investigate the adaptive mechanisms underlying happiness among adolescents, considering that adaptation involves subjective evaluation, including both first-order and second-order evaluations. Through a cross-sectional study (Study 1) and a longitudinal study (Study 2), this research examined the impact of subjective socioeconomic status on life satisfaction and the mediating roles of general and personal belief in a just world. Findings from both studies indicated that subjective socioeconomic status positively predicts life satisfaction. Moreover, it was the general belief in a just world, rather than the personal belief in a just world, that mediated this relationship. This study examined how evolutionary theory and second-order evaluation theory explain the impact of subjective socioeconomic status on life satisfaction, emphasizing the belief in a just world as a crucial adaptive belief mediating this relationship. We should emphasize the belief in a just world among adolescents with low subjective socioeconomic status, as a strategy to boost their long-term happiness. By fostering a sense of fairness and acceptance in adolescents' evaluations of their socioeconomic status, we can better promote their mental health and overall happiness.

Do you look longer at attractive faces? It depends on what you are looking for.

Evolutionary psychology suggests that we are attuned to relevant information in the environment. For example, attention may be attracted by physical beauty because it is important for finding a partner with good reproductive health. Consistently, previous studies found that attention stayed longer on attractive than unattractive faces. We asked whether this tendency was automatic and varied participants' implicit search intentions to be either consistent or inconsistent with the presumably automatic tendency to attend to attractive faces. To create an implicit intention to look at attractive faces, participants searched for a happy face in an array of neutral faces because happy faces are rated as more attractive than neutral faces. To create the opposite intention to look at unattractive faces, participants searched for a disgusted or sad face because disgusted or sad faces are rated as less attractive than neutral faces. We found longer fixation durations on attractive faces when participants searched for happy faces. When participants searched for disgusted or sad faces, however, fixation durations were longer on unattractive faces. Thus, the search task determined whether attractive faces were looked at longer. The tendency to attend to attractive faces is therefore not automatic but can be overruled by search intentions.

Do individual differences in perceived vulnerability to disease shape employees' work engagement?

The COVID-19 pandemic posed a significant impact on employees' work outcomes worldwide. However, it remains unclear whether some employees fared worse than others when facing work-related health threats and what role individual differences in vulnerability to disease played in shaping their work experiences. Integrating the evolutionary psychology perspective of the behavioral immune system with Job Demands-Resources Theory, we argue that a fundamental factor in how employees dealt with these threats was the extent to which they perceived themselves as vulnerable to infectious diseases. Employees with higher susceptibility to infectious diseases were predicted to experience heightened workplace safety concerns and engage less with their work. In addition, a health-oriented leadership style was expected to decrease employees' safety concerns and increase their work engagement, especially for the more vulnerable employees. To test hypotheses, we conducted a three-wave field survey and two vignette-based experiments on working adults in the United Kingdom at different stages of the pandemic. Results largely supported our predictions, revealing that employees who felt more vulnerable to infectious diseases were more concerned about their workplace safety, inhibiting their work engagement. We discuss these findings' theoretical and practical implications for promoting a safe and healthy post-pandemic workplace, especially for vulnerable employees.

Life history strategy and romantic satisfaction in patients' behavior.

According to evolutionary psychologists, an individual-consciously or not-who allocates resources for somatic effort focuses on homeostasis and the protection of themselves and others. During health crises, patients must choose between mobilizing their remaining resources to either recover or accepting the disease as inevitable. When patients choose to be proactive in terms of protecting their health, are conscientious, and compliant in the recovery process, a high level of patient activation is achieved. Therefore, we examined (N = 252) whether the patients' K fitness strategies are predictors for engagement in patient activation-type behavior. In addition, we tested the mediating effect of pain catastrophizing and the moderating effect of romantic satisfaction. We found that people with a medical diagnosis, who were in a romantic relationship, and had high-K fitness were much more likely to be activated patients. Moreover, pain catastrophizing mediated the relationship between high-K fitness strategy and patient activation, while romantic satisfaction moderated this relationship, amplifying its intensity. The findings highlight the importance of identifying patients' psychological resources (e.g., high-K strategy, romantic satisfaction, or pain perception) to keep them engaged in the health recovery process.