Another frequent sin—not necessarily an inherent one—of the enterprise is to explain phenomena by reference to a virtus dormitiva—to say “here is an observed fact x about humans/undergraduate psychology majors, here is a plausible story for why evolution would select for x,” and thus conclude that x occurs because of an x instinct or x module. This is equivalent to saying that we observe x, here is a plausible story for why capitalism/patriarchy/society at large stands to benefit from x, so capitalism &c. creates a “social process” to realize x. That’s not an explanation; it’s not even a hypothesis. You have to talk about mechanisms.
Again, this isn’t inherent in evolutionary psychology, but I think until our understanding of behavioral genetics becomes much better it will be a more common vice than its equivalent in social explanations. If we found ways to genetically reconstruct our ancestors at various points in our specific development that would go a long way as well.
Mechanisms—good point. I have another way of putting it.
In TV police shows, detectives try to establish a suspect’s means, motive, and opportunity for committing a crime.Sloppy detectives (and jurors!) tend to focus just on motive and its lurid details. In evolutionary bio/psych, we try to establish genetic variation, selective advantage, and heritability. Sloppy evolutionary hypotheses tend to focus just on the selective advantage and ignore the other two.
People are drawn to stories. We give evidence extra weight if it comes in the form of a good narrative. (Is there a name for that bias?)
Another frequent sin—not necessarily an inherent one—of the enterprise is to explain phenomena by reference to a virtus dormitiva—to say “here is an observed fact x about humans/undergraduate psychology majors, here is a plausible story for why evolution would select for x,” and thus conclude that x occurs because of an x instinct or x module. This is equivalent to saying that we observe x, here is a plausible story for why capitalism/patriarchy/society at large stands to benefit from x, so capitalism &c. creates a “social process” to realize x. That’s not an explanation; it’s not even a hypothesis. You have to talk about mechanisms.
Again, this isn’t inherent in evolutionary psychology, but I think until our understanding of behavioral genetics becomes much better it will be a more common vice than its equivalent in social explanations. If we found ways to genetically reconstruct our ancestors at various points in our specific development that would go a long way as well.
Mechanisms—good point. I have another way of putting it.
In TV police shows, detectives try to establish a suspect’s means, motive, and opportunity for committing a crime.Sloppy detectives (and jurors!) tend to focus just on motive and its lurid details. In evolutionary bio/psych, we try to establish genetic variation, selective advantage, and heritability. Sloppy evolutionary hypotheses tend to focus just on the selective advantage and ignore the other two.
People are drawn to stories. We give evidence extra weight if it comes in the form of a good narrative. (Is there a name for that bias?)