Evolutionary Psychological Approach Research Articles

An Evolutionary Psychological Approach Toward BDSM Interest and Behavior

Bondage/discipline, Dominance/submission, and Sadism/Masochism (BDSM) have gained increased attention and discussion in recent years. This prevalence is accompanied by a shift in perceptions of BDSM, including the declassification of sadomasochism as a paraphilic disorder. Evolutionary psychology offers a unique perspective of why some individuals are interested in BDSM and why some prefer certain elements of BDSM over others (e.g., dominance versus submission). In this paper, we examine BDSM from an evolutionary standpoint, examining biopsychosocial factors that underlie the BDSM interests and practice. We articulate this perspective via an exploration of: proximate processes, such as the role of childhood experiences, sexual conditioning, and physiological factors; as well as ultimate explanations for power play and pain play dimensions of BDSM, highlighting the potential adaptive advantages of each. While BDSM may not be adaptive in itself, we examine the literature of sex differences in BDSM role preferences and argue that these preferences may stem from the extreme forms of behaviors which enhance reproductive success. In the realm of pain play, we explore the intersection of pain and pleasure from both physiological and psychological perspectives, highlighting the crucial role of psychological and play partner factors in modulating the experience of pain. Finally, we encourage future research in social sciences to utilize evolutionary frameworks to further explore the subject and help alleviate the mystification surrounding BDSM. This multifaceted exploration of BDSM provides valuable insights for clinicians, kink-identified individuals, and scholars seeking to understand the evolutionary perspectives of human sexual behavior and preferences.

Leaderspeak – An Evolutionary Psychology Approach to Reducing Gaps in Strategic Communication

ABSTRACT The gaps that strategic communication has to bridge have widened due to competing values driven by self-interest versus superordinate organizational goals. We propose a higher-order comprehensive model, grounded in a) the social behavioral aspects of evolutionary psychology and strategic communication; b) evolutionary game theory reciprocity; and c) the niche construction of leadership. We offer the concept of ‘leaderspeak’, which brings into effect the concepts of collaborative and mutually beneficial relations, altruism, spite, and selfishness. In this paper, we seek to parse the role of reciprocity, altruism, and how receivers are motivated to respond to leader communication (leaderspeak, i.e., leader communication that considers all the multi-modal affordances of language, including non-verbal communication, to outline the intent of the leader). This is an initial attempt to delve deeper into the evolving human need while ensuring reciprocity between the sender and receiver. Our aim is to understand and address the attitude, “I hear you, and get what you want me to do for you, so what’s in it for me?”

The Evolution of the Sustainability Story: Strategic Sustainability Communication as Niche Construction

ABSTRACT In this article, the evolutionary perspective is applied as a heuristic to explore strategic sustainability communication as communicative niche construction at the intersection of organizations and their environment over the past decades. Within the sustainability story and frames that organize the narratives, corporates as ‘species’ not only adapt to their constantly changing environment (communicative cultivation of new values within the organization) but also impact their environment, change cultural patterns, and co-construct their own socio-ecological niche (niche construction through communication). The evolution of the strategic sustainability story can be observed in the development of corporate non-financial reporting over the past three decades. This article utilizes a mixed-methodologically designed content analysis of a sample of (n =) 250 “Environment(al) Reports” from the 1990s, later entitled as “CSR Reports” (2000–2015), and today as “Sustainability Reports”. The sample has been taken from 15 internationally operating energy corporates within a time span of 30 years. After the theoretical conceptualization, the methodology and the findings of the study are presented along with a discussion of the limitations of the analysis. Finally, future potential of the evolutionary psychology approach to study and conceptualize strategic communication and of transposing the framework of biological niches to the corporate world, is discussed.

Evidence that the aesthetic preference for Hogarth’s Line of Beauty is an evolutionary by-product

In 1753, artist William Hogarth declared a specific S-shaped line to be the ‘Line of Beauty’ (LoB). Hogarth’s assertion has had a profound impact on diverse fields over the past two and a half centuries. However, only one recent (2022) study has investigated whether Hogarth’s assertion accurately captures humans’ actual aesthetic preferences, and no research has explored why people find the LoB beautiful. We conducted two studies testing the hypothesis that the LoB’s perceived beauty is an incidental by-product of cognitive systems that evolved to attend to fitness-relevant morphological features in people. In Study 1, we replicated the finding that female bodies whose lumbar curvature approximates the biomechanical optimum for dealing with the exigencies of pregnancy are rated as more attractive. In Study 2, we found that abstract lines extracted from these bodies were perceived as more beautiful than other lines. These results suggest that the preference for Hogarth’s LoB is an incidental by-product of psychological mechanisms that evolved for other purposes. More broadly, these findings suggest that an evolutionary psychological approach – in particular the concept of evolutionary by-product – may be useful for understanding, explaining, and predicting people’s aesthetic preferences for certain abstract symbols, which otherwise might seem arbitrary and inexplicable.

Following and Avoiding Fear-Inducing News Topics: Fear Intensity, Perceived News Topic Importance, Self-Efficacy, and News Overload

ABSTRACT A critical human need is attending to the information in one’s environment. Recent studies, however, suggest news consumption is decreasing. Many report they intentionally avoid news because of its distressing nature. This study applies an evolutionary psychology approach to explore when people follow fear-inducing news topics and avoid them. A U.S. National survey tests hypotheses on the impact of fear induced by media messages and describes how evolutionary functionality operates to produce responses of following and/or avoiding the topics. Results show fear is important, but so is the perceived significance of the threat, perceived personal efficacy to cope with the threat, perceived news overload, and news consumption habits. Following news is mainly a function of high news use habits and the perceived importance of topics. Finally, following and avoiding news are not on a single dimension, as the two behaviors are most often uncorrelated.

The Rise and Rise of Sexual Violence

This article explores Pinker’s analysis of sexual violence in modern history. It argues that his analysis is flawed because of a selective choice of data, a minimization of certain harms, the application of an evolutionary psychology approach, the failure to interrogate new forms of aggression, and a refusal to acknowledge the political underpinnings of his research. By failing to acknowledge and then control for his own ideological bias, Pinker has missed an opportunity to convincingly explain the changing nature of violence in our societies.

The Dark Triad of personality and infidelity intentions: The moderating role of relationship experience

Romantic relationship infidelity jeopardizes the romantic partner's mental health and the relationship. Personality differences may predispose individuals to infidelity. According to life history strategy, people with higher Dark Triad of personality are more likely to commit infidelity. In this study, 52 men and 88 women aged from 18 to 40 completed a questionnaire in Malaysia. Partial least square path modeling revealed that intentions towards infidelity have significant relationships with Machiavellianism and psychopathy, but non-significant relationship with narcissism. In addition, partial least square multi-group analysis revealed that relationship experiences moderate the association between narcissism and intentions towards infidelity, as well as the relationship between psychopathy and intentions towards infidelity, but did not moderate the relationship between Machiavellianism and infidelity intentions. This study raises opportunities for future research to refine and elaborate the links between dark personalities and adverse relationship outcomes. Findings and future directions are outlined taking an evolutionary psychological approach.

Fibromyalgia Today: The Importance Of Psychotherapy

Teachers in high-risk South African schools suffer from stress and burnout as a result of on-going violence and lack of student discipline. An evolutionary psychological approach to self-care was researched in a mixed-method pilot study of 63 teachers in schools in high-risk communities exposed to continuous traumatic stress on the Cape Flats, Western Cape. The before-after control research design comprised interventions based on tension and trauma release exercises (TRE) for primal brain response, transpersonal psychology for paleomammalian emotional brain functions, and transactional analysis for neomammalian cognitive brain insights. This paper considers qualitative findings of perceived benefits of TRE with a group of 17 male and female teachers, 45-50 years, for 15 hours over 10 weeks. These exercises were developed as an integrative neurophysiological approach that recognises the homeostatic and thus therapeutic value of this type of tremor in the human body under stress. Content coding analysis from workshop evaluation forms showed that the TRE intervention offered intra-individual tools, leading to self-understanding and body awareness. It was considered a self-help tool, effective for calm and relaxation. A bottom-up thematic analysis of focus group interviews post-intervention considered relationship with the self, with physical and emotional impacts, self-concept and thinking processes. It also considered relationships with others and the school. It was found that problem-focused somatic coping, with repetition of skills learned in TRE workshops, contributed to teachers developing a sense of self-control and optimism needed to cope better with stressors, thus promoting classroom competency and preventing burnout.

Valuation Theory: an Environmental, Developmental and Evolutionary Psychological Approach. Implications for the Field of Environmental Education

Teoria della Valutazione: un Approccio Psicologico Ambientale, Evolutivo ed Evoluzionistico. Implicazioni in Campo Educativo In this paper, we propose a new approach to motivation theory based on a cognitive perspective: the concept of valuation. Motivation and valuation are reviewed and discussed here using an environmental, developmental and evolutionary perspective. We argue that motivation could be approached as one of the various mechanisms that compose cognitive processes, being related to the adaptive value of objects, situations, or settings. Motivation and valuation are proposed as markers of the survival value of perceived, imagined, or conceptualized objects of cognition. In this manner, motivation can be conceived as the product of a complex cognitive computation that determines the adaptive value of our cognitions, and provides an evaluative response. From this perspective, we discuss the perceptual, cognitive, and symbolic dimensions of the valuation process. Finally, we discuss the implications for possible future developments of basic and applied research in the domain of environmental psychology and environmental education.

Women’s hair as a cue to desired relationship and parenting characteristics

ABSTRACTWe investigated how women’s hair color (blond, brown, black) and length (short, medium, long) influences males’ judgments about the women’s age, health, physical attractiveness, relationship potential, and parenting capability. Results, which are generally consistent with evolutionary psychology approaches, indicate that hair color and, to a lesser extent, length can affect perceptions of personal characteristics. More specifically, we found that lighter hair (blond and brown) compared to darker hair (black) is generally associated with perceptions of youth, health and attractiveness, and generally leads to more positive perceptions of relationship and parenting potential. Furthermore, the relationships between variables suggest that characteristics directly related to reproductive potential may be inferred from more obvious indirect characteristics. These results suggest that males are able to make complex judgments about women concerning their desirable relationship and parenting potential based on discernable characteristics such as hair color and length.

P.3.b.037 - Cortical thickness, cortical surface area and subcortical volumes in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder patients with cannabis use

Romantic relationship infidelity jeopardizes the romantic partner's mental health and the relationship. Personality differences may predispose individuals to infidelity. According to life history strategy, people with higher Dark Triad of personality are more likely to commit infidelity. In this study, 52 men and 88 women aged from 18 to 40 completed a questionnaire in Malaysia. Partial least square path modeling revealed that intentions towards infidelity have significant relationships with Machiavellianism and psychopathy, but non-significant relationship with narcissism. In addition, partial least square multi-group analysis revealed that relationship experiences moderate the association between narcissism and intentions towards infidelity, as well as the relationship between psychopathy and intentions towards infidelity, but did not moderate the relationship between Machiavellianism and infidelity intentions. This study raises opportunities for future research to refine and elaborate the links between dark personalities and adverse relationship outcomes. Findings and future directions are outlined taking an evolutionary psychological approach.

Need, Compassion, and Support for Social Welfare

Funding for social welfare depends on citizen support. Drawing on evolutionary psychological approaches to politics, we study two types of need that might shape citizens' welfare support by regulating their feelings of compassion. One type of need is a recipient's absolute need. The other type is acute need created by sudden misfortune, such as sudden job loss. Across four studies, we find that absolute and acute needs independently affect compassion and welfare attitudes. This leads to potential inefficiencies in judgments: People who have fallen far are judged more deserving of compassion and access to welfare even when they are not in an absolute sense the most impoverished.

The Evolutionary Psychology of Envy and Jealousy.

The old dogma has always been that the most complex aspects of human emotions are driven by culture; Germans and English are thought to be straight-laced whereas Italians and Indians are effusive. Yet in the last two decades there has been a growing realization that even though culture plays a major role in the final expression of human nature, there must be a basic scaffolding specified by genes. While this is recognized to be true for simple emotions like anger, fear, and joy, the relevance of evolutionary arguments for more complex nuances of emotion have been inadequately explored. In this paper, we consider envy or jealousy as an example; the feeling evoked when someone is better off than you. Our approach is broadly consistent with traditional evolutionary psychology (EP) approaches, but takes it further by exploring the complexity and functional logic of the emotion – and the precise social triggers that elicit them – by using deliberately farfetched, and contrived “thought experiments” that the subject is asked to participate in. When common sense (e.g., we should be jealous of Bill Gates – not of our slightly richer neighbor) appears to contradict observed behavior (i.e., we are more envious of our neighbor) the paradox can often be resolved by evolutionary considerations which h predict the latter. Many – but not all – EP approaches fail because evolution and common sense do not make contradictory predictions. Finally, we briefly raise the possibility that gaining deeper insight into the evolutionary origins of certain undesirable emotions or behaviors can help shake them off, and may therefore have therapeutic utility. Such an approach would complement current therapies (such as cognitive behavior therapies, psychoanalysis, psychopharmacologies, and hypnotherapy), rather than negate them.

一般的信頼に及ぼす遺伝と環境の影響 : 行動遺伝学的・進化心理学的アプローチ

一般的信頼に及ぼす遺伝と環境の影響 : 行動遺伝学的・進化心理学的アプローチ

Poetic Justice and Edith Wharton's “Xingu”: An Evolutionary Psychological Approach

Abstract Insights generated in the emerging field of evolutionary psychology offer a useful new framework for examining Edith Wharton's “Xingu.” The satiric wit energizing this well-known short story depends in large measure upon the obtuseness of its central characters, who embrace counterfactual estimations of their gifts and attainments: thwarting the operations of poetic justice in order to protect social reputation and self-image, they become objects of derision. Their behavior illustrates the workings of adaptive mechanisms for self-deception. Insofar as their comically exaggerated commitment to false self-presentation illustrates universal features of evolved human nature, the target of Wharton's scorn is accordingly enlarged. Her narrative spotlights the psychological processes that sustain self-deception and scapegoating, raising serious questions concerning human claims to rational thought and ethical principle.

Connecting the obesity and the narcissism epidemics

Obesity and metabolic syndromes are major threats to health in both developed and developing countries. This opinion article is a holistic attempt to understand the obesity epidemic, by connecting it to the widespread narcissism in society. The narcissism epidemic refers to an increased prevalence of status-striving individualism and a decreased sense of community, observed in Westerns populations and spreading worldwide. Based on social personality and evolutionary psychology approaches, I speculate that this rise of narcissism underlies a steep social hierarchy resulting in increase of social stress. This social stress markedly affects individuals who are sensitive to social hierarchy dominance due to their personality, yet are relegated at a lower social position. I speculate that over-eating is one major mechanism for coping with this stress, and discuss the possibility that visceral fat may constitute an adaptive behaviour to the lower social hierarchy position, which is perceived as unjust. Connecting the prevalence of obesity to the narcissism epidemic allows for a more thorough examination of factors, which contribute to obesity, which includes early difficult childhood experience, lower rank, and the overall competitive framework of the society.

Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire: Factor structure, psychometric properties and gender differences

The evolutionary psychological approach links evolved mechanisms of disease-avoidance to prejudices against individuals perceived as a threat to health. Perceived vulnerability to disease works as an adaptive strategy which explains why individuals perceived as a source of contagion are avoided. The self-report Perceived Vulnerability to Disease Questionnaire, PVDQ, is one of the most widely used to measure subjective vulnerability to disease, however, neither test–retest reliability has been studied nor has factor structure been confirmed so far in this questionnaire. In the present study, a sample of 878 participants completed the PVDQ. Subsamples also completed different scales measuring hypochondria, health fears, beliefs and attitudes, personality traits, locus of control and obsessions, in order to obtain concurrent and discriminant validity. Item relationships, Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analyses, reliability and validity analyses were all obtained. Our results highlight two strong, valid, and stable factors: Perceived Infectability and Germ Aversion. However, the Germ Aversion factor only showed adequate confirmatory factorial indices and high temporal stability when items 11 and 13 were removed, but failed to obtain acceptable internal consistency. Gender differences have also been studied in the present work. Implications and directions for future research in the improvement of PVDQ are discussed.

Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion: Essays in Honor of Donald Wiebe. Edited by William Arnal, Willi Braun, and Russell T. McCutcheon. Sheffield: Equinox, 2012. Pp. ix+243.

Book Reviews One has to admire the industry, enthusiasm, and creativity with which Chen tackles the antediluvian puzzle. The author exhaustively compiles the sources, which are treated with philological acumen; he puts forward many interesting literary interpretations; and his main point about the rise of the Flood in the OB period is well established. As for some of the other developmental conclusions, the numerous methodological diffi- culties that Chen lists in his introduction and the fact that many pieces of the traditions are likely missing place question marks over several of his suggestions. Still, those looking to work with Mesopotamian Flood traditions would be wise to consult this monograph and the author’s dissertation. A LAN L ENZI University of the Pacific Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion: Essays in Honor of Donald Wiebe. Edited by W ILLIAM A RNAL , W ILLI B RAUN , and R USSEL T. M C C UTCHEON . Shef- field: Equinox, 2012. Pp. ixþ243. Failure and Nerve in the Academic Study of Religion honors the influence of Uni- versity of Toronto’s Donald Wiebe and his 1978 essay of the same name. The result is a collection of fifteen essays, subdivided into sections, “General Failures” and “Spe- cial Failures.” Some of the authors, Luther Martin, Russell McCutcheon, Darlene Juschka, or Johannes Wolfart, will be known to most readers, but the balance may not be. This review focuses on the implications of the curious inaptness of the core notion of “failure of nerve” but first attends to some salient aspects of this collection. Of the five essays classified as “General Failures,” fans of Russell McCutcheon will find his critique of cognitive and evolutionary psychological approaches to religion an intriguing development of his continuing battle for a historicized conception of reli- gion and “religion.” But, now, instead of attacking “tender-minded” neotheologians, like Mircea Eliade, for hiding a neotheological agenda behind the methodological assertion of a sui generis “religion,” McCutcheon wields his critical ax against “tough- minded” cognitivist science of religion (CogSci). CogSci, like Eliade, deploys a dis- credited sui generis (and thus theological) notion of religion (91). Although these new- est pretenders to the throne of “Prince Charming of Theories” promise nothing less than a “tough” regime of “scientific” studies of religion, McCutcheon thinks they are not nearly tough enough. CogSci, in effect, picks right up where E. B. Tylor’s essen- tialist, animist theory of religion left off in the mid-nineteenth century: religion is the worship of superhuman beings. But the CogSci neo-Tyloreans “fail” to historicize reli- gion or “religion,” much less even adequately conceptualize it, as E´mile Durkheim argued almost exactly a century ago (The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, bk. 1, trans. J. W. Swain [New York, 1915]). Honors for the best essay in the “General” section go to Johannes C. Wolfart’s spar- kling historical engagement with the all-important early modern theological trend “confessionalism.” One of the targets of Wiebe’s (and my) attack on theologizing is what we call “confessional” theologizing. By this we mean sectarian attempts to place particular religious grounding under arguments about religion in the university. The

Why do people play violent video games? Demographic, status-related, and mating-related correlates in men and women

The numerous negative and positive consequences of playing violent video games are well-documented. Specifically, violent games improve many aspects of cognition and attention but can also increase aggression. Compared to these established effects of exposure to violent video games, very little is known about who plays violent video games and why they play them. Taking an evolutionary psychological approach to address this gap, in two studies we surveyed 1000 men and women who reported playing video games in the past 30days. We assessed three classes of predictors of violent video game exposure: demographic, status-related, and mating-related. In both studies, women who played the most violent video games reported feeling a greater sense of mate value than women who played fewer violent video games. Women also reported being motivated to play violent video games because doing so enhanced their sense of attractiveness to romantic partners. In both studies, men reported playing more violent video games than women as did both men and women who reported higher sexual interest. These findings highlight the counterintuitive and complex motivations underlying violent video game exposure. We discuss the need for more research on who plays violent video games and why they play them.

Human Emotions: An Evolutionary Psychological Perspective

Evolutionary approaches to the emotions have traditionally focused on a subset of emotions that are shared with other species, characterized by distinct signals, and designed to solve a few key adaptive problems. By contrast, an evolutionary psychological approach (a) broadens the range of adaptive problems emotions have evolved to solve, (b) includes emotions that lack distinctive signals and are unique to humans, and (c) synthesizes an evolutionary approach with an information-processing perspective. On this view, emotions are superordinate mechanisms that evolved to coordinate the activity of other programs in the solution of adaptive problems. We illustrate the heuristic value of this approach by furnishing novel hypotheses for disgust and sexual arousal and highlighting unexplored areas of research.