A saga da psicologia evolutiva

Steps toward convergence: Evolutionary psychology's saga continues

Jerome H. Barkow,1

+ Author Affiliations

Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada B3H4P9

Let us not ask whether the brain is “really” a biological computer. The more productive question is whether it is useful to think of the brain as a computer, one designed by evolution to solve problems of adaptation via specialized “circuits” and “architecture.” Does this biocomputational approach, pioneered by Leda Cosmides and John Tooby (1) and then developed and expanded by them and others [such as David Buss (2, 3), Geoffrey Miller (4, 5), and Steven Pinker (6)] lead to theory and research that further our understanding of human behavior? Critics notwithstanding (e.g., ref. 7), the evidence of the article in this issue of PNAS (8), indeed, of the myriad books and research papers produced by the Cosmides–Tooby school of thought, is “yes.” But, of course, there are caveats.

Sell, Tooby, and Cosmides (8) posit the existence of welfare tradeoff ratios (WTRs), the ratio between the welfare of another and that of the actor. These WTRs are presented as “not just post hoc theoretical constructs but … real neurocognitive elements within the human motivational architecture.” If Sally's WTR “circuitry” is giving a relatively high weight to Jane's interests rather than her own, the ratio will be in Jane's favor and she will do well in her negotiations with Sally over resources. We humans have therefore been selected to seek to increase the WTR others are according us, and we can do this because the WTR not only “integrates” relatively fixed factors such as kinship, reciprocation, and aggression, but also takes many other factors into account, including our readiness to get angry. In effect, we may unconsciously use anger to bully another into recalculating a WTR in our favor, causing that person to give more weight to our interests than they otherwise would. But who uses anger in this …

1E-mail: barkow@dal.ca

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