EVOLUTION
I’m an atheist, and a proponent of evolution. If you understand evolution, you can understand a lot about human psychology. The reason for this is simple: evolution shapes behavior. Most people tend to think of man evolving as having a bigger brain or something. While physical traits that increased survival have evolved, behavioral traits are shaped the same way. Before I explain, let’s talk a little bit about how evolution works.
People often define evolution as the survival of the fittest. While this is partially correct, it is an incomplete answer. First off, evolution is not something that Disney would write a movie about. There is no guaranteed happy ending. Evolution does not care if YOU survive. It does not care if the SPECIES survives. The whole premise of evolution is that unfavorable traits get deleted, removed, and become extinct. Evolution is a cold, hard, and heartless process, and the only thing that matters is that genetic traits that are more likely to get passed on are maintained. Thus, genetic traits must either 1) enhance survival, or 2) enhance reproductive capacity. A “super” gene that would make you a genius, super strong, and super fast would give you a definite survival advantage over others. However, if the same gene caused infertility, it would not be maintained and evolution would delete it.
Now, lets get back to the evolution of behavior. Human beings have this notion that they are autonomous beings, that they can make independent decisions about their lives. While I believe that humans have the capacity for independent decision-making, I also believe that the vast majority of our actions are dictated by evolved patterns of behavior. A lot of you won’t like to think that how you behave is dictated by evolution. Let me give you an example.
Bees. A colony of bees works together to build a hive. You have bees that gather pollen to bring back to the hive. There are bees that build the honeycomb, bees that make the honey, and bees that reproduce. Each type of bee has a specific job. Do you think that a bee sits there and thinks “Gee, I’d like to be a pollen gatherer when I grow up?” Of course not. The behavior of a given bee is dictated by what we call “instinct”.
I am going to use the word “instinct” as a substitute for “evolved behavior” because that’s all it really is. And like all other animals, human beings have evolved behaviors, instincts, which dictate their reaction to certain stimuli.
You walk up to a stove and rest your hand on it. The stove is hot. You immediately jump back, and start shaking your hand in pain. Now, do you think to yourself “Boy this stove is hot, it’s going to burn my hand and hurt like a mofo if I don’t remove it immediately!” or does it happen automatically? When you are running, do you tell your heart to speed up and increase your breathing, or does it just happen? Most people will agree that these instinctual behaviors are not things that we rationally choose to happen.
Now, let’s get back to putting instinct into the context of evolution. Your instincts give you certain behaviors, and those behaviors that have been passed on through the ages are ones that increase your survival and/or reproductive capacity. Surely, ancestors who went around sticking themselves in the fire and not pulling away wouldn’t have survived. Likewise, instinctual behaviors that decreased your reproductive capacity would have been deleted.
What is this “reproductive capacity” to which I keep referring, and how does it affect human behaviors? Reproductive capacity means different things for the different sexes, because that’s how evolution has made us. Let me explain.
A man can reproduce approximately every 30 minutes. That means the average adult man in our society can (in theory) reproduce 2 times an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 50+ years – or over 800,000 offspring. Because of this amazing reproductive capacity, and the relatively small amount of effort that is required of men during this “genetic transaction,” men have evolved behaviors that take advantage of this. Namely, men are instinctually promiscuous. It is to the advantage of a man’s genes to get into as many different offspring as possible to increase the chances that the genes will survive and get passed on.
When a woman reproduces, she carries the child inside her for nine months. She gets bigger, uses more energy, and is slower and less able to do different tasks. Before we had a lot of the technology we have today, pregnancy gave women a definitive survival disadvantage. They were less mobile and could not run from danger, or collect enough food. In other words, bearing a child is a burden to women in the evolutionary sense. Given this, what would most benefit a woman’s genes? In other words, what could a woman do to ensure that her genetic information has a better chance of surviving and reproducing in the future?
Reproduction is a burden for women, and therefore, evolution has made women the pickier sex when it comes to finding a mate. Women’s genes have a better chance of survival when 1) they are paired with the best genetic stock available, and 2) the woman’s limited offspring are cared for and protected. When choosing a mate, women look for these two things instinctually. Let’s break them down one at a time.
Genetic stock. Every child has ½ of it’s genes from the mother and ½ from the father. A woman, then, will try to find a man who has the best survival and reproductive genes in order to ensure that her offspring will inherit this increased survival and reproductive capacity. For example, taller men, stronger men, and dominant alpha men are more likely to survive, where smaller, unhealthy, and feeble men won’t. This explains why women tend to choose taller and stronger mates (and coincidentally, why men have evolved to be taller and stronger than their female counterparts).
Care and protection. Women are much more limited in the number of offspring they can produce, and each offspring is another burden they must carry. Women are by no surprise much more inclined to care for the children and raise them. This is instinct, and is an evolved behavior. However, men are generally stronger and taller than women, and having a man around to help care for and protect their offspring is an advantage. This point is the essence of much of the courting behavior we experience even today. Yes, women want a man of good genetic stock, but they also want a man who will stick around to provide food, clothing, shelter, and protection for her bundle of genetic joy. Thus, women look for men who are willing to make commitments, and men must prove their worthiness by donating gifts, time, and other resources to the woman prior to mating.
Now, I could go on and on about the evolution of courtship behavior, but I think by now you should get the main idea. Human behaviors are affected by evolution. In order to solidify your understanding, I’ll give a few more examples of behaviors that have been documented by evolutionary psychologists.
Testicle size in apes correlates with promiscuity. The most promiscuous apes have the largest testicles, and vice versa. This means that promiscuous ape species have been selected for those males which can release more sperm (and thus, out compete other males who may have copulated with the same female).
Interestingly, researchers have shown that the number of sperm that men release upon copulation is not set in stone, but actually depends on their relationship with the woman. If the woman has been out of town, or otherwise had theoretical opportunities to copulate with other men, her partner releases an increased number of sperm. This has been confirmed to happen regardless of length of time since the male last copulated, and regardless of whether the man actually suspects the woman to have been unfaithful.
When woman are unfaithful to their partner, there are some striking patterns about when and whom they do it with. Women who cheat on their spouses almost exclusively do so during the time in their cycle in which they are most fertile. Women also are much more likely to cheat with taller, stronger, and better-looking man than they are to actually marry one. In an evolutionary sense, women want benefit #1 (genetic stock) from one man, and then they go home to get benefit #2 (care and protection) from another established man. They want their cake and to eat it too.
Now, before I go on I don’t want you to think that women are bad, or that men are bad, or that people in general like to cheat on everyone and are shallow about looks and money, etc. The fact is that these behaviors I’ve talked about are unconscious. A woman doesn’t look at her calendar and say “Oh, I’m more fertile today, I’m going to go cheat on my husband.” It’s instinct, it’s feelings, it’s passion. Her brain is wired to make her FEEL things that increase the chances of her taking the best evolutionary path.
A lot of you reading this may not like what I’m saying. You might not like it if I say that guys are attracted to women with wide hips (for child bearing) and big breasts (for milk). Let me get one thing straight, I am not saying that any of this is beyond our control. In a nutshell, here is my philosophy on evolution:
We have evolved certain tendencies that increase our survival and reproductive capacities, however, it is only when we accept and understand our instincts that we are able to overcome them.
I’m an atheist, and a proponent of evolution. If you understand evolution, you can understand a lot about human psychology. The reason for this is simple: evolution shapes behavior. Most people tend to think of man evolving as having a bigger brain or something. While physical traits that increased survival have evolved, behavioral traits are shaped the same way. Before I explain, let’s talk a little bit about how evolution works.
People often define evolution as the survival of the fittest. While this is partially correct, it is an incomplete answer. First off, evolution is not something that Disney would write a movie about. There is no guaranteed happy ending. Evolution does not care if YOU survive. It does not care if the SPECIES survives. The whole premise of evolution is that unfavorable traits get deleted, removed, and become extinct. Evolution is a cold, hard, and heartless process, and the only thing that matters is that genetic traits that are more likely to get passed on are maintained. Thus, genetic traits must either 1) enhance survival, or 2) enhance reproductive capacity. A “super” gene that would make you a genius, super strong, and super fast would give you a definite survival advantage over others. However, if the same gene caused infertility, it would not be maintained and evolution would delete it.
Now, lets get back to the evolution of behavior. Human beings have this notion that they are autonomous beings, that they can make independent decisions about their lives. While I believe that humans have the capacity for independent decision-making, I also believe that the vast majority of our actions are dictated by evolved patterns of behavior. A lot of you won’t like to think that how you behave is dictated by evolution. Let me give you an example.
Bees. A colony of bees works together to build a hive. You have bees that gather pollen to bring back to the hive. There are bees that build the honeycomb, bees that make the honey, and bees that reproduce. Each type of bee has a specific job. Do you think that a bee sits there and thinks “Gee, I’d like to be a pollen gatherer when I grow up?” Of course not. The behavior of a given bee is dictated by what we call “instinct”.
I am going to use the word “instinct” as a substitute for “evolved behavior” because that’s all it really is. And like all other animals, human beings have evolved behaviors, instincts, which dictate their reaction to certain stimuli.
You walk up to a stove and rest your hand on it. The stove is hot. You immediately jump back, and start shaking your hand in pain. Now, do you think to yourself “Boy this stove is hot, it’s going to burn my hand and hurt like a mofo if I don’t remove it immediately!” or does it happen automatically? When you are running, do you tell your heart to speed up and increase your breathing, or does it just happen? Most people will agree that these instinctual behaviors are not things that we rationally choose to happen.
Now, let’s get back to putting instinct into the context of evolution. Your instincts give you certain behaviors, and those behaviors that have been passed on through the ages are ones that increase your survival and/or reproductive capacity. Surely, ancestors who went around sticking themselves in the fire and not pulling away wouldn’t have survived. Likewise, instinctual behaviors that decreased your reproductive capacity would have been deleted.
What is this “reproductive capacity” to which I keep referring, and how does it affect human behaviors? Reproductive capacity means different things for the different sexes, because that’s how evolution has made us. Let me explain.
A man can reproduce approximately every 30 minutes. That means the average adult man in our society can (in theory) reproduce 2 times an hour, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for 50+ years – or over 800,000 offspring. Because of this amazing reproductive capacity, and the relatively small amount of effort that is required of men during this “genetic transaction,” men have evolved behaviors that take advantage of this. Namely, men are instinctually promiscuous. It is to the advantage of a man’s genes to get into as many different offspring as possible to increase the chances that the genes will survive and get passed on.
When a woman reproduces, she carries the child inside her for nine months. She gets bigger, uses more energy, and is slower and less able to do different tasks. Before we had a lot of the technology we have today, pregnancy gave women a definitive survival disadvantage. They were less mobile and could not run from danger, or collect enough food. In other words, bearing a child is a burden to women in the evolutionary sense. Given this, what would most benefit a woman’s genes? In other words, what could a woman do to ensure that her genetic information has a better chance of surviving and reproducing in the future?
Reproduction is a burden for women, and therefore, evolution has made women the pickier sex when it comes to finding a mate. Women’s genes have a better chance of survival when 1) they are paired with the best genetic stock available, and 2) the woman’s limited offspring are cared for and protected. When choosing a mate, women look for these two things instinctually. Let’s break them down one at a time.
Genetic stock. Every child has ½ of it’s genes from the mother and ½ from the father. A woman, then, will try to find a man who has the best survival and reproductive genes in order to ensure that her offspring will inherit this increased survival and reproductive capacity. For example, taller men, stronger men, and dominant alpha men are more likely to survive, where smaller, unhealthy, and feeble men won’t. This explains why women tend to choose taller and stronger mates (and coincidentally, why men have evolved to be taller and stronger than their female counterparts).
Care and protection. Women are much more limited in the number of offspring they can produce, and each offspring is another burden they must carry. Women are by no surprise much more inclined to care for the children and raise them. This is instinct, and is an evolved behavior. However, men are generally stronger and taller than women, and having a man around to help care for and protect their offspring is an advantage. This point is the essence of much of the courting behavior we experience even today. Yes, women want a man of good genetic stock, but they also want a man who will stick around to provide food, clothing, shelter, and protection for her bundle of genetic joy. Thus, women look for men who are willing to make commitments, and men must prove their worthiness by donating gifts, time, and other resources to the woman prior to mating.
Now, I could go on and on about the evolution of courtship behavior, but I think by now you should get the main idea. Human behaviors are affected by evolution. In order to solidify your understanding, I’ll give a few more examples of behaviors that have been documented by evolutionary psychologists.
Testicle size in apes correlates with promiscuity. The most promiscuous apes have the largest testicles, and vice versa. This means that promiscuous ape species have been selected for those males which can release more sperm (and thus, out compete other males who may have copulated with the same female).
Interestingly, researchers have shown that the number of sperm that men release upon copulation is not set in stone, but actually depends on their relationship with the woman. If the woman has been out of town, or otherwise had theoretical opportunities to copulate with other men, her partner releases an increased number of sperm. This has been confirmed to happen regardless of length of time since the male last copulated, and regardless of whether the man actually suspects the woman to have been unfaithful.
When woman are unfaithful to their partner, there are some striking patterns about when and whom they do it with. Women who cheat on their spouses almost exclusively do so during the time in their cycle in which they are most fertile. Women also are much more likely to cheat with taller, stronger, and better-looking man than they are to actually marry one. In an evolutionary sense, women want benefit #1 (genetic stock) from one man, and then they go home to get benefit #2 (care and protection) from another established man. They want their cake and to eat it too.
Now, before I go on I don’t want you to think that women are bad, or that men are bad, or that people in general like to cheat on everyone and are shallow about looks and money, etc. The fact is that these behaviors I’ve talked about are unconscious. A woman doesn’t look at her calendar and say “Oh, I’m more fertile today, I’m going to go cheat on my husband.” It’s instinct, it’s feelings, it’s passion. Her brain is wired to make her FEEL things that increase the chances of her taking the best evolutionary path.
A lot of you reading this may not like what I’m saying. You might not like it if I say that guys are attracted to women with wide hips (for child bearing) and big breasts (for milk). Let me get one thing straight, I am not saying that any of this is beyond our control. In a nutshell, here is my philosophy on evolution:
We have evolved certain tendencies that increase our survival and reproductive capacities, however, it is only when we accept and understand our instincts that we are able to overcome them.
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