*When you notice a characteristic of an animal and ask what its Darwinian surviv... | Hacker News

Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit

		michael_dorfman on Jan 17, 2010 \| parent \| context \| favorite \| on: The truth dogs reveal about evolution When you notice a characteristic of an animal and ask what its Darwinian survival value is, you may be asking the wrong question. It could be that the characteristic you have picked out is not the one that matters. It may have _come along for the ride_, dragged along in evolution by some other characteristic to which it is pleiotropically linked. I wish the evolutionary psychology folks would paste this sentence to their wall.

berntb on Jan 17, 2010 [–]

You find bad research in all areas, also in evolutionary psychology.

BUT -- most of that type of criticism of evol psychology also painted Dawkins, which you quote here, with the exact same brush... :-)

(For some fun, go read Dawkins' criticism of "Not in our genes" http://dba.fc.ul.pt/evo/textos/Dawkins.pdf)

Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact