Adapting minds: evolutionary psychology and the persistent quest for human nature
Abstract
Was human nature designed by natural selection in the Pleistocene epoch? The dominant view in evolutionary psychology holds that it was--that our psychological adaptations were designed tens of thousands of years ago to solve problems faced by our hunter-gatherer ancestors. In this provocative and lively book, David Buller examines in detail the major claims of evolutionary psychology - the paradigm popularised by Steven Pinker in The Blank Slate and by David Buss in The Evolution of Desire - and rejects them all. This does not mean that we cannot apply evolutionary theory to human psychology, says Buller, but that the conventional wisdom in evolutionary psychology is misguided. Evolutionary psychology employs a kind of reverse engineering to explain the evolved design of the mind, figuring out the adaptive problems our ancestors faced and then inferring the psychological adaptations that evolved to solve them. Evolutionary psychologists claim many discoveries based on this approach, including the evolutionary rationale for human mate preferences (that males prefer nubile females and females prefer high-status males) and discriminative parental solicitude (the idea that stepparents abuse their stepchildren at a higher rate than genetic parents abuse their biological children). In the carefully argued central chapters of Adapting Minds, Buller scrutinises several of evolutionary psychology's most highly publicised discoveries. Drawing on a wide range of empirical research, inc…
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A science of change can occur only when the distinction between evolutionary psychology and the standard social science model is depolarized.
“Only when we depolarize the distinction between EP and the SSSM can a science of change occur (Bolhuis et al. 2011; Buller 2005; Scher & Rauscher 2002; Wilson 2002b).”
From Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change (2014) · cites this paper as Buller 2005
Relations between stepparents and stepchildren are likely to be especially problematic because there is no genetic interest at all.
“Relations between stepparents and stepchildren are likely to be especially problematic, because there is no genetic interest at all (Daly & Wilson 1988; 2001; but see Buller 2005).”
From Evolving the future: Toward a science of intentional change (2014) · cites this paper as Buller 2005
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- Authors
- Buller, D. J.
- Corresponding author
- David J. Buller
- Venue
- Choice Reviews Online
- Publisher
- American Library Association
- Published
- 2005-10-01
- Volume
- 43
- Issue
- 02
- Pages
- 43-1249-43-1249
- ISSN
- 0009-4978 (ISSN-L)
- 1523-8253
- OpenAlex
- W1712215397
- Cited by
- 393
- References
- 0
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 12 · 2022: 7 · 2021: 34 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 11 · 2018: 17 · 2017: 14 · 2016: 24 · 2015: 25 · 2014: 30 · 2013: 22 · 2012: 26
- Type
- book review
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Choice Reviews Online (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Evolutionary Psychology and Human Behavior
- Life Sciences › Agricultural and Biological Sciences › Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics › Animal Behavior and Reproduction
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Philosophy and History of Science
- Keywords
- evolutionary psychology, human nature, psychological adjustment, Pleistocene, reverse engineering, mate preferences, child abuse, Steven Pinker, critique of evolutionary psychology
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