The future is the past.

Abstract

Evolutionary theories have been tested in the laboratory-evaluating, among other things, a person's willingness to help. They've been tested in field studies, adding greater depth-foragers and herders and farmers have been looked at on every inhabited continent. They've been tested across cultures, adding the dimension of space-to get at, among other things, similarities and differences in mate choice. And occasionally they've been tested across history-adding the dimension of time. Some evolutionary historians have focused on historical demography; others have used a broad spectrum of sources to illuminate big history. Public Significance StatementStudies of human psychology and history help us understand how and why our behaviors vary with context. They should help us behave in more responsible ways.