Sociobiology

Sociobiology has been and is still used as justification for eugenics and gender/sex-driven subjugation

Used to justify forced hysterectomy of black and Hispanic women, occurring commonly up through the early and mid 20th century and as recently as 2006 in California

Nature vs Nurture” popularized by eugenicist Francis Galton who divided humanity into higher and lower races.

•Concepts in science can be influenced by the ideology of the scientists

The most popular eugenics journal currently hides behind the name

“Biodemography and Social Biology”

The goals of scientists are to understand the relationship between genes and the environment on evolution

the starting point of true biosocial science does NOT assume genetics is the be-all/end-all of social behavior

Eugeneitcs

concept that one race is better than the other

Sociobiology what is it

is the scientific study of the factors driving the evolution of social behavior which borrows from disciplines of psychology, evolutionary biology, anthropology, and genetics

●Example of an adaptive, evolved physical trait:

○Bipedalism in the primate lineage

Thick fur in animals living in cold regions

●Examples of adaptive, evolved social behaviors:

○Mothers protective of their offspring- so they can increase the fitness of the mother

○Altruism: Food sharing among chimpanzees

○Infanticide: killing of infants by newly dominant male- to increase the male’s fitness

○Aggression: Mate & resource competition- -(ensuring self survival to increase your own fitness)

Dmitry Belyaev

-wanted to isolate the genes that make dogs so easy to train, but lacked the technology to sequence dog genome

Started a fox breeding program (similar to dogs, similar social structure) → selectively bred foxes that showed low fear of and high friendliness towards humans. By 4th gen, some even showed physical changes of domestication phenotype such as bigger floppier ears and white spots on their coats.

This suggests that these behavioral and physical traits may be correlated.

-Behavior can evolve in the same way that physical traits can, and these behaviors have proven to be successful over evolutionary time

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-Basic premise: Social behaviors have evolved over time

-Behavior can evolve in the same way that physical traits can

-We have evolved to adapt to social life, just as we have evolved to adapt to our physical environments (related to examples in the slide)

-Animals have therefore evolved to behave in ways that have proven to be successful over evolutionary time

-Results in the evolution of complex social processes, etc.

-Dogs have evolved different traits (social and physical) over time (due to human interference, with sometimes not so great consequences). Similarly, human behavior and physical traits have changed over time through environmental forces

Sociobiology of Facial Expressions: Darwin to Today

-Darwin was one of the first researchers

- what did he notice

to consider human behavioral characteristics through an evolutionary lens

He noticed that humans from around the world expressed very similar emotions (surprise, disgust, horror, etc) through facial expressions

-Paul Ekman study

was one of the earliest (1970’s) and best known psychologists to systematically study the biological correlates of emotions and how humans convey them through facial expressions

He developed FACS to categorize emotions as expressed in faces

- Each expression has a muscle correlate which he called action units – combinations of AUs produce a basic emotional expression

He was even able to show how expressions are reactionary tiny movements that involuntary convey to others how we feel about something even if we try to hide it:

Nurse study where subjects showed micro-expressions when shown neutral then disgusting stimuli, even if they tried to hide it, micro-expressions still occurred

PEople in same race identify facial expressions better

true

trip seperated from soscity - Supports the idea that these facial expressions must be biologically universal, and therefore evolved

Evolutionary Conservation of Facial Expressions

Bitter foods/bad smells

Disgust leads to avoidance of harmful material

Facial expressions communicate danger/safety

Facial expressions of disgust may work to remove a harmful item from the individual’s mouth, but they also communicate disgust to other humans nearby.

Facial expressions may have evolved to benefit the expresser by modifying their perception, but because they are highly visible, they can also communicate emotional state to others (Surprise widens eyes, increases perception of surroundings)

If emotions are biologically evolved in humans, we should expect that they are universal to humans across cultures & conserved in our evolutionary history through our distant primate ancestors

We observe similar facial expressions to our own among different primate species

- Top: Macaques - happiness

- Bottom: chimps- surprise

History of Sociobiology: E. O. Wilson

Sociobiology: The New Synthesis (1975)

●Argued that we should analyze social behaviors (e.g. altruism, aggression) through an evolutionary lens - animals behave in ways that maximize reproductive fitness

●Chapters about humans were/are controversial - can our social behaviors really be encoded in our genes? What does it mean if they are?

People did not like the idea that humans could be studied in this very experimental way, similar to animals.

Argued that we should anayze socail behavior through an evolutionary lens -animals behave in ways that maximise reproductive fitness

Aiamals could have more complex social structures than humans

Evolutionary Psychology: Attempts at Explaining Our Ancestors

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●Attempts to identify how psychological processes, emotions, and behaviors evolved from early humans & were maintained in the population to solve adaptive problems faced by our ancestors in their environments and which are observable today. In essence it examines how natural selection has shaped human psychological traits.

●Central concepts revolve around increased fitness, reproductive success, and adaptability of past emotional, motivational, and cognitive functions and why we observe them today

Focuses on psychological processes and attempts to identify mechanisms that were evolved to influence behavior

Again, humans have different adaptations that increased fitness in the past

Some evolved behaviors may currently be maladaptive. Environments change!

●E.g., motivation for high sugar/high fat foods may have helped our ancestors finding high quality foods and survive

○Causes health issues when food is abundant in present age

Nature” interacts with “Nurture”

●behavior, but biological factors also play a significant role.

●Humans have the capacity (likely an evolved one) to regulate behavior in socially acceptable ways

○Phineas Gage’s socially inappropriate behavior after frontal lobe damage supports this idea

●“Nurture” (environment) can flexibly regulate gene expression

Interestingly enough, your environment can actually change how your genes are expressed

Basic tenets of human sociobiology research:

1.The human mind and human behavior are/were shaped by natural selection

2.The human mind uses heuristics (strategies) to increase the likelihood of solving problems our ancestors routinely faced

3.There is a shared, and more or less universal, core human nature

The Cinderella Effect

●Evolution favors ensuring survival and reproduction of genetically related offspring (Inclusive Fitness).

●The phenomenon of favoritism for genetically related children and higher incidence of mistreatment by stepparents than by biological parents.

Oxytocin and Social Trusting

●Oxytocin is colloquially described as the love hormone because of its prosocial effect

●Participants were given oxytocin or placebo and played a trust game or a lottery game

●Participants who took oxytocin bet more than placebo in a game of trust rather than a game of lottery

●Oxytocin makes people more trusting of other people but doesn’t make them more risky

2. The human mind uses heuristics (strategies) to increase the likelihood of solving problems our ancestors routinely faced

A puzzle posed in an asocial context is difficult to solve. When the same puzzle is worded in a social manner (that is evolutionarily relevant), the puzzle is a lot easier.

Wason Task  Summary

•Tasks were logically identical, but one seemed easier to complete than the other.

•Superior performance on the second version of the task may be due to the human possession of a specialized cheater detection module.

•Such a module would presumably benefit individuals in environments where repeated, reciprocal interactions occurred (Cosmides et al., 2005)

Why detect cheaters

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•So you can punish people who cheat!

•And, if you really want to support cooperation, you can even use such a module to punish others who neglect to punish cheaters (strong reciprocity)

•Simulation from Fehr & Fischbacher (2003)

1.There is a shared core human nature which results in common experiences.

Visiting Green Spaces Increases Mindfulness

•How does the environment effect our body and how we think when we’re trying to relax?

•Does going on a walk seeing a bunch of grey buildings vs a green treeline matter? Yes!

•Nature walks are better for you than city walks

  - Better creativity

  - Lower cortisol

  - More relaxation

  - Lower heartrate

    etc.

Facial symmetry is attractive

- Evolutionary theories of human mate selection contend that both men and women select mating partners who enable them to enhance reproductive success.

- humans prefer partners with features that suggest health and fertility → enhances reproductive success

- In males and females, and across cultures, facial attractiveness includes symmetry (suggesting good health, increased fertility)

- Same pattern seen across culture and species: a universal that is biologically old (symmetry = good)

Controversies & Criticisms

•Naturalistic fallacy

•Biological determinism

•‘Just so’ stories (unverifiable narrative explanations)

•Little is known about humans in ancient times

Criticisms to some sociobiological research as well as responses from the scientistic community

-naturalistic fallacy is the idea that what is found in nature is inherently good

-Biological determinism - the idea that most human characteristics, physical and mental, are determined at conception by hereditary factors passed from parent to offspring

The Naturalistic Fallacy

●Assumption: Because something (trait/behavior) is observed in nature (across species) it must be ‘natural’ and therefore ‘good,’ however this is a moral judgement of things which have no relation to morality

●Evolutionary Psychology and Sociobiology have never proposed that some human behaviors are justified because they have occurred throughout our history. Instead, they attempt to understand why these behaviors may have evolved

●E.g.:

1.Distrust of people who look different than you may have been necessary for early primates competing for access to food patches. This evolved cognitive trait may contribute to some racial biases, but it does not suggest it is “right” in our current environment

1.Discussions about whether certain behaviors (e.g., aggression, competition, warfare) are "natural" and whether they should therefore be encouraged or accepted often risk falling into this fallacy

Biological Determinism

Assumption: Behaviors are purely biological in origin and arise from genetic, neural pathways, or hormonal processes. This view disregards social, cultural, and environmental factors which may impact behavior

Objections (to sociobiology)

○Ignores environmental influences

○Gives too much weight to genes: we are not pre-programmed robots

Response

oMainstream scientists endorse gene-environment interactions for complex traits

oGenes get turned on and off constantly; expression is not static, even within an individual

Just so’ Stories + Ancient Humans

•Some scientists have been/are guilty of “adaptive storytelling”

•an ad hoc evolutionary narrative to explain a behavior that is unverifiable and unfalsifiable

•Popularizations versus journal articles

•We don’t know enough about ancient human behavior

•Safe and general: humans live in groups, pregnancies occurred in women

•Not safe: typical sex roles between men and women, applying modern moral questions to ancient societies

•Sociobiology examines the biological basis for behavior

•Tenet 1: Behavior is shaped by evolution

Tenet 2: The human mind has the capacity for strategic thinking (effectiveness differs by context

•Tenet 3: Certain behaviors are shared across humanity

•Criticisms:

•Naturalistic fallacy - not all of our traits/behaviors are good

•Biological determinism - we are influenced by society, not just by genes

•“Just so” - we should not use stories when we don’t have sufficient evidence