Psychological Universals and Adaptive Variation

• Main Author: Mark V. Flinn
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: Arctic; Heine; Arctic hare
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.318.4581; http://web.missouri.edu/~flinnm/pdf/Flinn2006c-uneditedproofs.pdf

The identification of universals in a species is an important method for inferring adaptive design (Mayr, 1982). Among humans, large (~1300cc) brains and habitual upright bipedal locomotion are ubiquitous traits that distinguish us from our primate relatives, providing important clues about hominin evolutionary history. The identification of psychological universals is similarly useful (Brown, 1991; Ekman, 1993; Norenzayan & Heine, 2005) and has been emphasized by the evolutionary psychology paradigm (e.g., Buss, 1995; Tooby & Cosmides, 1990). The identification of variation can also be a powerful scientific tool. For example, different color morphs of Heliconius butterflies suggest advantages for distinctive aposematic color patterns (Langham, 2004), maintaining allelic diversity at relevant loci. In addition to genetic differences, phenotypic variation usually involves ontogenetic responses to the environment (West-Eberhard, 2003). Gangestad, Haselton, and Buss (this issue) note the flexible production of melanin in melanocytes in response to solar radiation. Other classic examples include seasonal changes in cryptic fur coloration in the arctic hare, production of a protective shield in Daphnia in response to predation risk (Agrawal, Laforsch, & Tollrian, 1999), and the canalization of migratory locusts into short-winged nondispersing or long-winged dispersing adult morphs contingent on exposure to crowded conditions as juveniles (for a general discussion, see Schlichting & Pigliucci, 1998). Learning constraints follow similar “reaction norms ” (e.g., Garcia, 1974). The phenotypic variations associated with human culture, however, present some added complexities for inferring evolutionary design. The Problem of Culture Vygotsky (1978) observed that children are especially tuned to their social worlds and the information that it provides. More recent evolutionary theorists of the mind suggest a complementary adaptive logic: The social world is a rich source of useful information for cognitive ...