Creativity and Emotion CAN be explained through EP

    Evolutionary Psychology (Brody)
    • Welcome to the BOL Forum on Evolutionary Psychology by John Grohol, 3/19/97
      • (...)
        • Is Darwinism a complete theory? by Joe Ruggiero, 2/15/98

    Creativity and Emotion CAN be explained through EP
    by Christina Athena Aktipis, 12/20/98

    With regard to Joe's arguement that Darwinism isn't a complete theory because it doesn't explain creativity or emotion, I must urge him to look at the work of Allen Neuringer and Cosmides & Tooby.

    In the Environment of Evolutionary Adaptedness, humans would have been exposed to very many cirumstances in which variable responses would lead to better outcomes than non-variable ones. For example, when foraging for berries, one isn't likely to have a fresh supply of berries if one goes back to the same bush each time, Therefore, individuals who exhibited variable behavior in that regard would have acess to more resources and be more likely to survive. Also, it wouldn't contribute to one's overall survival to attack a competator at predictable time intervals or always in the same manner. This would lead to selection of mechanisms that cause "creativity" in thinking patterns which lead to variability in behavior. Neuringer does work with operant conditioning and variability in animals, but his conclusions are applicable to this issue.

    It is clear that there is a definate evolutionary basis for emotions. The work of Cosmides & Tooby, particularly thier article "The past explains the present: Emotional Adaptations and the structure of ancestral environments," addresses those evolved mechanisms which we call emotions. Emotions motivated immediate action in the face of danger. This was often an evolutionary advantage and to the extent that it was, it was selected for. Cosmides & Tooby say that "emotions are coordinated systems that organize action appropriate to situations." In other words, they motivated you to run from the tiger 'without having to think'about the possible fitness consequences of being eaten. Emotions also caused you to be attracted to a newly nubile healthy woman or a man with abundant resources and power without you consciously thinking about the way mating with her/him would affect the survival of your genes. The environment selects those designs that are the most evolutionary advantageous, including the designs for mechanisms that cause us to "feel" inclined to do certian things.

    There are other individuals who have a lot to say about the evolutionary basis of emotions. The best researcher and articles are probably Randolph Nesse's article "Evolutionary Explainations of Emotions" and Daly, Salmon & Wilson's article, "Kinship: The Conceptual Hole in Psychlogical Studies of Social Cognition and Close Relationships."


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