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Apes and angels: Adaptationism versus Panglossianism

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2004

Aurelio José Figueredo*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721-0068
Mark J. Landau*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721-0068
Jon A. Sefcek*
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ85721-0068

Abstract:

The “straw man” prior expectation of the dominant social psychology paradigm is that humans should behave with perfect rationality and high ethical standards. The more modest claim of evolutionary psychologists is that humans have evolved specific adaptations for adaptive problems that were reliably present in the ancestral environment. Outside that restricted range of problems, one should not expect optimal behavior.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2004

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