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I keep wanting to read when I know I should be writing. I think it's because something I'm poking at in my brain that's going to take effort and honesty and might make me look stupid to some, so I'm trying to avoid it. This morning I came to a conclusion that I have been fighting for a long time- I am not 100% on board with Evolutionary Psychology. (I know...this is huge...try to contain your shock, everyone.) The other day I read this over at Denim and Tweed and although my first response was one of of righteous indignation (something at which I naturally excel), I've been nagged ever since by the supremely annoying thought that he might be right. More importantly, he might be right in a way that matters to the framework I'm trying to build for myself within science. So I'm thinking I have to restructure my beliefs a bit, and that is something at which I'm not very good at all.
Here's where I was- Evolutionary Psychology is groundbreaking and wonderful! It explains everything and people who don't see it are afraid of the truth underlying human nature. Idiots. I want to marry Evolutionary Psychology!
Now before you start thinking that I felt this way because I'm naive or willfully ignorant and content to skate by with a superficial understanding of both evolution and the scientific method, I feel the need to tell you that... that is only a little bit true. My attachment to Evo Psych comes from a number of sources, not the least of which is the fact that it was the topic that finally drove me headlong into a love affair with Anthropology and human evolution. I will always value it, also, for the unapologetic way that it allows for such a range of interdisciplinary lines of inquiry. I will never fall head over heels for a field that is hell bent on setting knowledge-limiting boundaries for the sake of clarity. It strikes me as a cop-out. It also strikes me as no fun at all. But here's where I am now- I'm coming to realize now that while it's true that science can and should be about pushing the limits of what we can learn, that should never come at the expense of responsible, well-executed, high quality research. And it is undeniable that a lot of Evolutionary Psychology studies fall short in this area.
I would love to find evidence that my weakness for musicians comes from the impressive reproductive fitness signals "hidden" in their songs, or explain away my myriad neuroses by their formerly adaptive qualities*, but if I'm honest with myself I have to admit that I'm not sold. Any claim of the evolutionary heritage of a given trait should be backed up by some kind of genetic data- or at the very least, people should be LOOKING for some kind of genetic data. Otherwise it's really just a lot of speculation. Visionary speculation. Intriguing and convincing speculation, but still speculation. That's not to say that we should stop looking at these things, just that we need to look for actual empirical evidence rather than making leaps and assumptions all over the place to fill in the blanks, however logical those leaps might seem.
It is precisely because I respect the discipline of Evolutionary Psychology that I want its practitioners to try harder to play on the same field as the other biological sciences. When someone comes along with some snarky commentary like Jeremy did (and countless others have), I want to be able to hang on to my righteous indignation without feeling like a fraud.
*Quick and dirty examples. I'm sorry. I don't have original articles with me here at work, and I'm probably screwing up something somewhere in there...regardless, my point remains the same.
