Enough with the Evolutionary Psychology BS Already

Some lower status chimps had developed ways to alleviate the stress, mostly by opting out of the dominance hierarchy altogether, spending time with baby chimps, hanging out with their moms, etc. Turns out domesticity is another road to happiness for MALE chimps.

It seems when the alpha male was busy fighting usurpers to his throne, the chimp females bolted off into the bushes with the the chimp males they really liked. This is also true of deer and elephant seals. And humans. (Think beautiful woman, rich husband, pool boy.)

Which is why the supposed evolutionary psychologist quoted above is no such animal.

A better explication of the relationship between the descriptive and the prescriptive. Evolutionary theory might provide us with (generally equivocal) data about our tendencies and dispositions, but it does not thereby provide us directly with moral imperatives. Considerably more theoretical elaboration is needed to get from the point “apes do x” to the conclusion “so should we.”

I think that this is a good point. My understanding is that certain behaviors in non-human primates lead to certain genes being pasted down. For example, male primates who have power and status in their group are more likely to have their genes passed down and female primates who have a lot of offspring are more likely to have their genes passed down. However, I don’t see how this can be linked to happiness. Sure, male primates who have more status are probably more likely to be healthy, have better food etc. But it is quite a stretch to think that this has anything to do with a satisfaction with life in humans.