2008 Woodie Awards
David Buss and The Mating Game
Psychologist David Buss visits USM to discuss sex, jealousy and why we cheat
David McRaney
Issue date: 2/22/07 Section: Opinion
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David Buss knows what women want, but then again, he also knows what men want, and it's something else entirely.
It isn't often a new scientific discipline arises which can claim to explain in detail just what Fergie means when she sings, "They want my treasure so they get their pleasures from my photo," or the deeper evolutionary mechanisms behind Chris Rock's observation that no man would ever buy a house if women were willing to get it on in a cardboard box.
A professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Buss is the world's leading evolutionary psychologist, and he visited the University of Southern Mississippi Friday at the Fourth Annual Hildman Colloquium in Psychology to talk about human sexuality and mating practices, the focus of much of his research.
As with Freud and Skinner before him, Buss is making waves beyond the academic community by explaining our behavior in a way some are hesitant to accept.
The idea behind evolutionary psychology is this: human beings have been evolving on this planet for a long time, and we have adapted behaviors to deal with all the situations we have been most likely to encounter over millennia. Our strongest and oldest behaviors deal with problems our ancestors faced concerning survival and reproduction.
This leads to all sorts of problems because our modern lives are so far removed from the kind of lives our ancestors led. Our brains were forged during thousands of years in the harsh elements where fat and calories were scarce. Now, all of the sudden, fat and calories are plentiful and easy to obtain. The result? People eat too much, get fat and die of heart attacks.
"An evolutionary perspective will ultimately inform all of the social sciences," said Buss. "Everything that involves human behavior is driven by evolved psychological mechanisms in combination with modern inputs. It sounds bold or brash or arrogant to make such a statement, but to me the logic is inescapable."
It's an easy concept to fall in love with. Just like birds fly south and spiders spin webs without having to be taught, human beings have a great deal of innate behaviors designed to help us survive, thrive and reproduce.
It isn't often a new scientific discipline arises which can claim to explain in detail just what Fergie means when she sings, "They want my treasure so they get their pleasures from my photo," or the deeper evolutionary mechanisms behind Chris Rock's observation that no man would ever buy a house if women were willing to get it on in a cardboard box.
A professor at the University of Texas at Austin, Buss is the world's leading evolutionary psychologist, and he visited the University of Southern Mississippi Friday at the Fourth Annual Hildman Colloquium in Psychology to talk about human sexuality and mating practices, the focus of much of his research.
As with Freud and Skinner before him, Buss is making waves beyond the academic community by explaining our behavior in a way some are hesitant to accept.
The idea behind evolutionary psychology is this: human beings have been evolving on this planet for a long time, and we have adapted behaviors to deal with all the situations we have been most likely to encounter over millennia. Our strongest and oldest behaviors deal with problems our ancestors faced concerning survival and reproduction.
This leads to all sorts of problems because our modern lives are so far removed from the kind of lives our ancestors led. Our brains were forged during thousands of years in the harsh elements where fat and calories were scarce. Now, all of the sudden, fat and calories are plentiful and easy to obtain. The result? People eat too much, get fat and die of heart attacks.
"An evolutionary perspective will ultimately inform all of the social sciences," said Buss. "Everything that involves human behavior is driven by evolved psychological mechanisms in combination with modern inputs. It sounds bold or brash or arrogant to make such a statement, but to me the logic is inescapable."
It's an easy concept to fall in love with. Just like birds fly south and spiders spin webs without having to be taught, human beings have a great deal of innate behaviors designed to help us survive, thrive and reproduce.
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Keith Henson
posted 2/22/07 @ 12:33 PM CST
I am a long time reader of of David Buss' work, but evolutionary psychology is much more powerful than just letting us understand our sexuality.
As Azar Gat and Steven LeBlanc point out, human hunter-gatherer populations in excess of the ability of the environment to feed were drained off by wars between groups. (Continued…)
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