Evolutionary Psychology

Viren Swami trained as an evolutionary psychologist, and for his doctorate examined the roles that body shape and weight play in judgements of physical attractiveness across cultures. Viren’s current research in the area focuses on the influence of evolution, culture, and individual psychology on perceptions of human beauty, and his work has been widely discussed in national and international media. Viren is also currently conducting research in other fields of interpersonal attraction, including identifying predictors of positive body image, the effect of romantic love on partner perceptions, weight-based discrimination, and the history of beauty in art and sculpture. Other current projects include research on sociocultural adjustment among sojourners, and cross-cultural differences in lay beliefs about various topics, including intelligence, conspiracy theories, mental illness, and extraterrestrial life.

• 1 Evolutionary approaches to behaviour 1A brief introduction to evolutionary theory 5Fitness, sociobiology and life history theory 16Evolutionary psychology 21Conclusion 25Acknowledgements 27References 272 The evolution of cognition 31Why are we so smart? 33How did we get so smart? 38What, exactly, are we so good at? And when did we ‘get it’? 46Conclusions 60References 613 Cooperation as a classic problem in behavioural biology 73Why has cooperation been such a biological puzzle? 74Individual-level solutions to the puzzle: Selfish replicators, cooperative vehicles 76Cooperation via genic self-favouritism (kin selection and greenbeard altruism) 77Cooperation via return benefits (reciprocal altruism, indirect reciprocity and costly signalling) 82Summary of individual-level theories of cooperation 86Group selection 87Complex human cooperation: Collective action 91Conclusion 98Acknowledgements 100References 1004 Mate choice and sexual selection 107Sexual selection 108Which human traits are sexually selected signals? 115Sexual selection and within-sex differences 116Time allocation 122Conclusion 125References 1265 The evolutionary psychology of human beauty 131Facial attractiveness 134Bodily attractiveness 145Conclusion and future directions 162References 1646 Life history theory and human reproductive behaviour 183Trade-offs in human life history 185The optimisation of family size in traditional societies 193The optimisation of family size in modern societies 196Conclusions and future directions 204Acknowledgements 205References 2067 Parenting and families 215What is parental investment? 216Who invests in offspring? 217Familial conflict 227What is invested? 228Who is invested in? 230Conclusion 242Acknowledgements 243References 2438 Personality and individual differences 251The current state of differential psychology 254Personality and the evolutionary imperative 257A cost-benefit analysis of the Big Five 262Authoritarianism 267Ability and intelligence 268‘Dark-side’ disorders 271Conclusion 276References 2769 Evolution, cognition and mental illness: The imprinted brain theory 281The illnesses that made us human 282Antitheses of mentalism in autism and psychosis 288The imprinted brain 294Implications for evolutionary psychology 303Acknowledgements 305References 30510 Interactions between cognition and culture 311Social transmission 315Gene-culture co-evolution of cognition and culture (mainly) in the hominid lineage 325Conclusion: A niche construction framework of multimodal inheritance 333References 33411 The future of evolutionary psychology 343A brief historical perspective 344Can the EEA be made workable? 347Universals and the challenge of explaining variation 351Hypothesis testing: Alternative approaches 354A vision of the future 359Acknowledgements 361References 362Index 367