Evolutionary explanations for behavior

 The theory of evolution was developed by Charles Darwin. It has some important principles, such as:

• All organisms have the innate need to survive and produce offering
• Differently adapted organisms possessing different traits are adapted to their environment to varying degrees. (differential adaption)
• Better adapted organisms can produce more offspring and hence pass on their genes further. This is known is as survival of the fittest.
• Lesser-adapted organisms produce fewer offspring, and hence their genes eventually die out from the population. Thus, the genes of better-adapted organisms are passed on and remain in the population more than the genes of better-adapted organisms. This is known as natural selection.

  There are evolutionary explanations available for behavior. These behaviors have emerged into the entire species due to the environment. In humans, these can be tested by seeing if this behavior is present in all cultures and is not created due to a certain stimuli or only in a specific group. one group. Curtis, Aungie, and Rabie conducted a study to investigate if there was an evolutionary explanation for the behavior of disgust.

  The correlational study conducted aimed to prove four different hypotheses to show that digust was a product of evolution.

• Disgust will be stronger for disease salient stimuli as compared to not so salient stimuli.
• Responses to disgust will be similar cross-culturally.
• Disgust is as more pronounced in females to protect the immunity systems of their babies and themselves.
• Disgust will become less strong as the age of the participant increases.

  Data was obtained from a survey placed on the BBC Science website. The first part of the survey asked demographic questions such as age and country. Participants were then shown 20 slides of digitally manipulated images as stimuli with one manipulated to be more disease salient than the other, and participants were asked to rate their disgust at the image.The results of the study showed the hypotheses were supported. Responses to disgust were similar across all cultures. Ratings of disgust were higher for more disease-salient stimuli. Disgust was also more pronounced among the sub-sample of females in the study. Thus, the study provided evidence that disgust was a behavior designed and passed on to generations as a response to disease.

  Therefore, we see the evolutionary argument that disgust is an evolutionary behavior that prevents from catching disease via infection. Thus, there are evolutionary explanations that can be developed for certain behaviors, as these behaviors have been passed due to adaptation in an environment where these behaviors are helpful and further help in survival and reproduction.

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