Evolutionary psychology is the study of how evolution has shaped the way people think, feel, and act. For example, an evolutionary psychologist may wonder why people like sweet flavors. He or she might reason that the preference evolved because people who liked sweets would have been better fed, and more likely to survive, in a world where food was hard to get.
This simple example illustrates that preferences that were adaptive in the past are not always so today. Human beings evolved in a world where all food came from wild plants and game. Today, however, food is widely cultivated and generally abundant, and many people are overweight. The example also shows how biology and culture work together. For example, human babies must be taught what to eat. Their learning, however, is guided by innate flavor preferences that evolved over the course of human prehistory.
Evolutionary psychologists attempt to explain many aspects of human nature, some obvious, some not. For example, they examine why people are more likely to do favors for relatives than strangers, why men are more physically aggressive than women, why people are interested in gossip, and even why people fear snakes more than automobiles. Some aspects of human nature are desirable, such as being generous, while others, such as cheating and aggression, are not. The fact that some human behaviors are the result of evolution does not necessarily mean that they are desirable today. Evolutionary psychologists believe that people can work to change undesirable behaviors once they understand how they evolved.
See also Adaptation ; Evolution ; Natural selection ; Psychology .
