Quantifying Common Criticisms of Evolutionary Psychology

Abstract

In a sample of academics (N = 111), we quantified the dimensions underlying criticisms of evolutionary psychology in relation to criticisms of its parent fields (i.e., general psychology and evolutionary biology) and examined how various demographic and sociopolitical individual differences were related to these criticism dimensions. The five primary criticisms of evolutionary psychology reflected conceptual concerns, concerns over political implications, concerns over sampling, concerns about the validity of findings, and religious concerns. Evolutionary psychology suffered the worst selective skepticism relative to its parent fields. In a general sense, political liberalism was associated with more intense criticisms toward evolutionary psychology, but these associations were weak and differed across three measures of political personality (i.e., Right-Wing Authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and religiousness). Homosexuals and qualitative researchers were especially critical of evolutionary psychology. We offer these limited findings as insights into the motivated resistance to the theory of evolution as a unifying meta-theory in psychology, and we hope to provide a future framework for reducing unmerited and selective resistance to an evolutionary-informed psychological science.

Evolutionary Psychology and LGBTQ+ Issues: A Qualitative Study of Queer Women’s Perspectives on Research Results

“…This is a novel perspective that can add to the existing debate between feminists and evolutionary psychologists, and it highlights the harm that EP studies can cause to marginalized groups. In addition, our results can provide insight as to why some scholars (Jonason and Schmitt, 2016) have found that gay and bisexual individuals have negative views of evolutionary psychology.…”

“…This rise in popularity has not come without controversy. Jonason and Schmitt (2016) found there is more criticism of EP than either of its parent fields, i.e. general psychology and evolutionary biology.…”

“…general psychology and evolutionary biology. This criticism often comes from feminists (Kelly, 2014), qualitative researchers, and people who are gay or bisexual (Jonason and Schmitt, 2016).…”

“…Rose and Rose (2010) claim that EP continues a history of biology being used to "justify forms of social domination, from discrimination and exclusion to genocide." From a scientific standpoint, EP is criticized for producing hypotheses that are not testable or falsifiable, and for ignoring the influences of culture (Confer et al, 2010;Jonason et al, 2016, Parameswaran, 2014. Evolutionary psychologists defend their discipline by asserting that these arguments are based on misunderstandings.…”

“…If LGBTQ+ folks read the title, the article, or the comments, what effect did this have on them? Jonason and Schmitt (2016) found that people who identify as bisexual or homosexual are more likely to strongly criticize evolutionary psychology-is it because of incidents like these? Could it even change LGBTQ+ people's trust in science in general?…”