Essential Building Blocks of Human Nature (eBook)

Ulrich Frey (philosophy), Charlotte Störmer and Kai Willführ (biology) work in an interdisciplinary research group at the University of Giessen, applying evolutionary theory to a broad range of fields. The following authors contributed to the chapters of this book: Karl Grammer, Benjamin Grant Purzycki, Peter Kappeler, Niklas Krebs, Ruth Mace, Elisabeth Oberzaucher, Frank Rösler, Michael Schmidt-Salomon, Mary K. Shenk, Richard Sosis and Matthias Uhl.

Preface 7
Contents 8
List of Contributors 11
Introduction 13
Chapter 1 Our Origins: How and Why We Do and Do Not Differ from Primates 16
1.1 Introduction 17
1.2 Why Humans Do Not Differ from Primates 18
1.3 How Humans Do Not Differ from Primates 21
1.4 How Humans Do Differ from Primates 22
1.5 Why Humans Do Differ from Primates 23
References 24
Chapter 2 Our Children: Parental Decisions — How Much to Invest in Your Offspring 28
2.1 Introduction to Parental Investment Theory 28
2.2 Life History Theory and Tradeoffs 30
2.2.1 Current vs. Future Reproduction 30
2.2.2 Quantity vs. Quality 31
2.3 Who Invests: Mothers, Fathers, Grandmothers, and Others 34
2.3.1 Mothers and Fathers 34
2.3.2 Grandmothers and Others 36
2.3.3 Are Humans Cooperative Breeders? 37
2.4 Parent–Offspring and Sibling Conflicts 38
2.4.1 Infanticide and Neglect 38
2.4.2 Differential Investment and Inheritance 40
2.5 Sons vs. Daughters: Sex Biases in Parental Investment 41
2.5.1 The Trivers–Willard Effect 41
2.5.2 Local Resource Competition and Enhancement 42
2.5.3 Marriage Payments as Sex-Biased Parental Investment 43
2.6 Conclusions 44
References 45
Chapter 3 Our Social Roots: How Local Ecology Shapes Our Social Structures 50
3.1 Adaptation and Maladaptation 50
3.2 Testing Hypotheses About Adaptation in Human Cultural Behavior Through Cross-Cultural Comparison 53
3.2.1 Ecological Correlates of Human Social Behavior 53
3.2.2 How Social Behavior is Adapted to Subsistence Strategies 55
3.2.3 Cultural Phylogenetics 56
3.2.4 Transmission of Traits from Mother to Daughter Cultures 61
3.3 Conclusions 63
References 64
Chapter 4 Our Selections and Decisions: Inherent Features of the Nervous System? 66
4.1 Introduction 66
4.2 Some Thoughts About Selection–Decision Architectures 69
4.3 Switching/Decision/Negotiation Modules 73
4.3.1 Features of Conflict Negotiation Modules 73
4.3.2 Evidence for Conflict-Negotiating Modules 74
4.4 Representation of Decision-Related Intervening Variables 76
4.4.1 BOLD Responses in Humans 77
4.4.2 Single Cell Responses in Animals 79
4.5 Summary and Some Implications 81
4.5.1 Distributed Networks and Complex Interactions 81
4.5.2 Nomothetic vs. Idiographic Descriptions 82
References 85
Chapter 5 Our Gods: Variation in Supernatural Minds 87
5.1 Introduction 87
5.2 Representing Supernatural Minds 88
5.2.1 The Mindreading System and Attributed Domains 88
5.2.2 Supernatural Minds, Variation, and Counterintuitiveness 90
5.3 Variation in Domains of Supernatural Agents’ Knowledge and Concern 94
5.3.1 Omniscience with Heightened Concern: Prosocial Behavior 94
5.3.2 Imperfect Access with Acute Concern: Ritual Behavior 95
5.3.3 Emphases on Faith, Practice, and Social Complexity 97
5.4 Conclusion 99
References 99
Chapter 6 Our Preferences: WhyWe Like What We Like 104
6.1 Darwin’s Problem 105
6.2 Evolutionary Constraints on Aesthetic Perception:The Body as an Evolved Form 107
6.3 The Eight Pillars of Beauty 109
6.4 Alternative Views: Neuroaesthetics 112
6.5 Alternative Views: The Evolutionary Psychology of Ugliness 113
6.6 The Future of the Adapted Mind 114
References 115
Chapter 7 Our Appetite for Information: Invented Environment, Non-Transparent Mind, and Evolved Preferences 118
7.1 Introduction 118
7.2 Old Cognition, New Playgrounds, and the Technological Fallacy 119
7.3 We Don’t Know that We Don’t Know How We Perceive Media 121
7.4 Still the Same Old Cues 124
7.5 Reality and Media: The Boundary that Never Was 126
7.6 The Old Stories Are the Best 127
7.7 Conclusion 129
References 130
Chapter 8 Our Best Shot at Truth: Why Humans Evolved Mathematical Abilities 131
8.1 Introduction 131
8.2 The Mathematical Abilities of Modern Humans 132
8.2.1 Number Sense 132
8.2.2 Number Processing 134
8.2.3 Mathematical Thinking in Terms of Relations 135
8.3 Evolutionary Origins of the Mathematical Abilities of Modern Humans 137
8.3.1 Evolutionary Origins of Number Sense 137
8.3.2 Evolutionary Origins of Number Processing 138
8.3.3 Evolutionary Origins of Mathematical Thinking in Terms of Relations 141
8.4 Discussion: The Mathematical Nature of Modern Humans 144
References 147
Chapter 9 Our Way to Understand the World: Darwin’s Controversial Inheritance 150
9.1 Knowing Instead of Believing: Why the Theory of Evolutionand Traditional Forms of Belief Are Irreconcilable 150
9.2 Errors and Misunderstandings: The Theory of Evolution and the Ghost of Biologism 156
9.3 Huxley’s Synthesis: How Evolutionary Humanism Comes into Darwin’s Inheritance 159
References 163
Index 164