Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T07:13:50.494Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Selfishness and sex or cooperation and family values?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2009

Joshua M. Ackerman  and
Douglas T. Kenrick
Joshua M. Ackerman
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Yale University, New Haven, CT [email protected]
Douglas T. Kenrick
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1104. [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Evolutionary models of behavior often encounter resistance due to an apparent focus on themes of sex, selfishness, and gender differences. The target article might seem ripe for such criticism. However, life history theory suggests that these themes, and their counterparts, including cooperation, generosity, and gender similarities, represent two sides of the same coin – all are consequences of reproductive trade-offs made throughout development.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 32 , Issue 1 , February 2009 , pp. 21
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Ackerman, J. M. & Kenrick, D. T. (2008) The costs of benefits: Help-refusals highlight key trade-offs of social life. Personality and Social Psychology Review 12:118–40.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Ackerman, J. M. & Kenrick, D. T. (under review) Raising and razing romantic relationship barriers: How men and women cooperate in courtship.Google Scholar
Ackerman, J. M., Kenrick, D. T. & Schaller, M. (2007) Is friendship akin to kinship? Evolution and Human Behavior 28:365–74.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Burnstein, E., Crandall, C. & Kitayama, S. (1994) Some neo-Darwinian decision rules for altruism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 67:773–89.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, R. (2006) The selfish gene. Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kenrick, D. T., Ackerman, J. M. & Ledlow, S. (2003) Evolutionary social psychology: Adaptive predispositions and human culture. In: Handbook of social psychology, ed. DeLamater, J., pp. 103–22. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press.Google Scholar
Kenrick, D. T., Sundie, J. M. & Kurzban, R. (2008) Cooperation and conflict between kith, kin, and strangers: Game theory by domains. In: Foundations of evolutionary psychology, ed. Crawford, C. & Krebs, D., pp. 353–70. Erlbaum.Google Scholar
Li, N. P. & Kenrick, D. T. (2006) Sex similarities and differences in preferences for short-term mates: What, whether, and why. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 90:468–89.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Weeden, J., Cohen, A. B. & Kenrick, D. T. (2008) Religious attendance as reproductive support. Evolution and Human Behavior 29:327–34.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Williams, G. C. (1966) Adaptation and natural selection. Princeton University Press.Google Scholar