tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post623913006599647919..comments2023-06-25T01:20:35.889-07:00Comments on Very Rarely Stable: Two cheers for evolutionary psychologyDaniel Copelandhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05944461326199566111noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-3797351176393826722014-06-17T00:14:20.500-07:002014-06-17T00:14:20.500-07:00"Maybe neurology and fMRI imaging will help u..."Maybe neurology and fMRI imaging will help us break down the influence of culture. I would think that a dedicated circuit or module would have a different signature than conscious risk-assessment."<br />I doubt it. I don't think we'll find a principled difference between "natural" and "cultural" behaviour at the neurological level, simply because all "cultural" behaviours are assemblages of "natural" components. Certainly behaviours that were "instinctive" would look different from behaviours that were "conscious", but conscious behaviours can become instinctive with sufficient practice. For me recognising and reading typed English is as effortless and "instinctive" as seeing the 3D scene represented by a flat picture, but I'm pretty sure the latter is biologically programmed in a way that the former is not. Not that it wouldn't be very informative to look at something equivalent to the Hatfield experiment in a brain-scanner; I just don't think you'd find a distinction between culture and nature that way.Daniel Copelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05944461326199566111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-79664771971873243632014-06-10T14:52:27.781-07:002014-06-10T14:52:27.781-07:00I suspect you're correct. It seems preposterou...I suspect you're correct. It seems preposterous that women would not be naturally more reluctant given the investment of pregnancy and child rearing and the fact that the pattern holds for all other animals that bear the greater cost of reproduction, but argument from incredulity isn't science. Maybe neurology and fMRI imaging will help us break down the influence of culture. I would think that a dedicated circuit or module would have a different signature than conscious risk-assessment.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05779346316470042836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-42239878824198004232014-06-09T22:27:26.260-07:002014-06-09T22:27:26.260-07:00I haven't found one. It's hard to think w...I haven't found one. It's hard to think what one would look like. If my counter-hypothesis is that any contact with the Western worldview can have whatever effect on people's sex-drive my argument happens to require, then it's unfalsifiable and I'd say the onus of proof is on me.<br /><br />My own guess would be that women have a natural instinct to assess risks posed by people soliciting sex from them, but that they take in social and cultural information as part of the assessment.Daniel Copelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05944461326199566111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-80866406784226493712014-06-09T21:29:47.835-07:002014-06-09T21:29:47.835-07:00I've been giving some thought lately about the...I've been giving some thought lately about the proper unit of idea-sharing. Your long essays may limit your audience, but I'd hesitate to call that wrong. Actually, I'd argue that you're doing it far better than most people, whose blogs are stuffed with ephemera. Your essays won't quickly become dated, and you might collect them into a book. Consider Nicholas Gurewitch's Perry Bible Fellowship cartoon (which my friend from Cambridge, England, turned me onto years ago). It's been a slow burner, infrequently updated, but it must have a huge audience by now. I'll do my part to promote your blog.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05779346316470042836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-15722984364300813542014-06-09T20:19:39.621-07:002014-06-09T20:19:39.621-07:00That's simple enough. There isn't a crowd...That's simple enough. There isn't a crowd because I don't blog often enough to attract a following. Pieces like this take a long time to write. I'm seriously reconsidering my blogging style at the moment. I don't intend to stop writing things like this, but I should have shorter pieces to go with often enough that people have a reason to come back.Daniel Copelandhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05944461326199566111noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-3768551664507983472014-06-08T13:04:27.602-07:002014-06-08T13:04:27.602-07:00In your discussion of the university study where s...In your discussion of the university study where students were approached by attractive strangers and offered sex, you don't quite tackle the question of whether women's risk assessment is culturally determined. I debated a woman who was very hostile to the study, and she insisted that cultural context was wholly at issue. I countered that the studies were cross cultural, at which point she said that all the cultures mentioned were patriarchal and most of them strongly Western-influenced. That brought us to an impasse, because we couldn't agree on a sufficiently matriarchal or non-patriarchal control group. We both find each other's perspective overly convenient and non-parsimonious. There must be a study to break this deadlock.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05779346316470042836noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-648480292622180743.post-78184489846242702612014-06-07T12:54:52.465-07:002014-06-07T12:54:52.465-07:00This is a tour de force. I'm baffled why there...This is a tour de force. I'm baffled why there isn't a crowd responding enthusiastically to this compassionate, scholarly article. I came at these issues with similar experiences -- interest in evo psych, degree in humanities and a later career in software -- but with a somewhat more essentialist bias. You have strongly influenced my thinking with this and your other thoughtful essays.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05779346316470042836noreply@blogger.com