6
votes
Accepted
Why are there substances that give positive psychological effects but become unhealthy addictions?
Short answer
The brain with its reward centers did not evolve with purified plant-based stimulants (nicotine, cocaine) or synthetic variants ((meth)amphetamine and other designer drugs) around.
...
- 20.7k
5
votes
Cerebellum question
Hagfish, the most primitive vertebrates, do not appear to have a cerebellum, or if they do have one it is very primitive. Hagfish have most of the other structures found in vertebrate brains (...
- 235
5
votes
Cerebellum question
I don't have a clear and definitive answer to give to you but first you should have a look about brain development (from:https://www.apa.org/education/k12/brain-function):
And to the function ...
- 213
5
votes
Is an avoidance of incest/inbreeding learned or instinctive?
This is not my field, but I gave it a quick search. This article seems to speak directly to this question, summarizing and comparing multiple theories to each other. In light of these theories, the ...
- 1,283
5
votes
Why baby animals seem "cute" to us?
What you are referring to is broadly known as baby schema. However, does this not only apply to human babies, but actually to most mammals which need (parental)care. Certain features in the mammal ...
- 401
5
votes
Is there a (evolutionary) purpose of self-pity?
Short answer
Self-pity may not have any evolutionary benefit, but may instead be part of the social capabilities allowing to feel empathy. Empathy in turn is a crucial component in social interactions....
- 20.7k
4
votes
Accepted
What do chimpanzees do with fire in the wild, and can they be trained to manipulate burning objects?
Primatologist Jill Pruetz at Iowa State University in Ames was observing savanna chimpanzees in Senegal and found that chimps there have mastered the first step in controlling fire.
However there is ...
- 12.3k
3
votes
What is the "nails on a chalkboard" response?
English and German speakers lack a single accessible linguistic label for the pattern of aversive reactions termed by Spanish speaking individuals as ‘grima’, whereas the elicitors of other emotions ...
- 12.3k
3
votes
Is The Chimp Model really a thing?
(This isn't a complete answer, as I'm not in a position to comment on the neuroscience, but it should provide some useful background for anyone else who is interested in Peters' work.)
While The Chimp ...
- 131
3
votes
Why are we the smartest species on the whole known universe?
The evolution of higher intelligence in hominids is an empirically difficult enough evolutionary question that (a) it might be better for biology.se and (b) any answer needs to be taken with a pinch ...
- 201
3
votes
Accepted
Why are we the smartest species on the whole known universe?
I just finished a special issue on 'Humans - Why we're unlike any other species on the planet' (Sci Am, September 2018).
In this issue, Kevin Laland has a paper (How we became a different kind of ...
- 20.7k
3
votes
Is an avoidance of incest/inbreeding learned or instinctive?
The answer is that we don't really know. It is understandably difficult to conduct experiments on humans in this field, so many theories remain speculative.
The two competing forces (nature and ...
- 19.8k
2
votes
Cultural brain hypothesis and gene-culture co-evolution
"evidence of recent co-evolution between genes and large-scale culture
This 2018 PLOS Computation Biology simulation study - The Cultural Brain Hypothesis examined the data from animals and humans. ...
- 1,019
2
votes
Development of social cognition as an alternative to the obstetrical dilemma
Doing some research on this interesting question, I can point you towards a few articles and books which can give you a start. From my research, there are 2 possible reasons for early childbirth ...
- 12.3k
2
votes
Is an avoidance of incest/inbreeding learned or instinctive?
Before I can answer this question, I would like to draw your attention to an iTunesU talk hosted by Professor Ralph Richard (Rick) Banks at Stanford Law about marriage restriction, which covers ...
- 12.3k
2
votes
Could we develop a notion of conceivability that would allow us to imagine impossible/inconsistent/illogical things?
There's a serious science of the theoretical limits of representation / information processing in CS, in complexity theory & computability theory. You can pull some of that stuff across to ...
- 1,399
1
vote
What are the various evolutionary theories of social dominance orientation?
SDO theory was developed outside the paradigm of evolutionary psychology, but I think it is possible to make a connection.
A person with a high social status can optimize his/her fitness by being ...
- 111
1
vote
Accepted
Do modern personality traits exist with native people
See the study below conducted on Tsimane (indigenous Bolivians). It uses Big-5 traits to assess whether if a general factor of personality can be identified with the natives (who mostly fit your ...
- 163
1
vote
How could siblings rivalry / jealousy be useful to human evolution?
First, it must be understood that not all traits in an animal are evolved or selected traits – some are only variations. Some of these variations may be selected by some evolutionary pressure in the ...
- 1,845
1
vote
Can new emotions be created or discovered?
The atlas of personality, emotion and behaviour catalogues over 3,000 emotions (Mobbs, 2020). The atlas's approach taken to identifying and cataloguing the emotions was to start with existing lists ...
- 1,748
1
vote
Counterfactual thinking and the origin of language
This is controversial, to say the least, and possibly false according to one interpretation on such experiments with monkeys. But note that there is a subtlety here: the way counterfactuals are ...
1
vote
Accepted
What stands behind the desire to want things now?
The evolutionary significance of self-regulation is that humans are more capable of this feat than apes. We can solve problems without visual feedback, by visualization. Apes are good problem solvers, ...
- 628
1
vote
Body Language: Why do we give each other the grumpy/frowning fake smile?
I suspect that it's rooted in primal responses to seeing a human being you are not expecting to see. This would in part explain the gender difference.
If you've ever seen two cats unexpectantly try ...
- 27
1
vote
Why do humans have sex in private?
Perhaps it's just because we are vulnerable during sex? Evolutionary speaking, an animal or other person could attack us so it makes sense to seek a safe environment.
- 771
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible