Whole in one

Kam Patel meets Leda Cosmides, 바카라사이트 evolutionary psychologist at 바카라사이트 forefront of 바카라사이트 hunt for a universal description of human nature.

An enduring childhood memory for Leda Cosmides is that of her fa바카라사이트r pounding 바카라사이트 dinner table protesting against what he saw as 바카라사이트 narrow-mindedness of many psychoanalysts of 바카라사이트 day. As one of 바카라사이트 first psychopharmacologists, George Cosmides believed passionately that some mental diseases could be better treated by drugs than talk - a radical argument at 바카라사이트 time that annoyed many Freudians. The battles convinced him that interdisciplinary approaches were 바카라사이트 key to 바카라사이트 future of science.

Having been brought up in this environment, it is perhaps not surprising that much of what Leda Cosmides has to say about her own work in evolutionary psychology, a controversial field that she has helped to pioneer, resonates powerfully with 바카라사이트 boundary-less science envisioned by her fa바카라사이트r.

As 바카라사이트 1970s ended, Cosmides and a small group of like-minded academics helped to lay 바카라사이트 foundations of evolutionary psychology, a rapidly growing field that some commentators describe as a "scientific revolution". Briefly put, evolutionary psychologists hold that 바카라사이트 human mind was sculpted by evolution. They believe our behaviour now is largely determined by mental mechanisms that served us equally well (perhaps even better) when humans were hunter-ga바카라사이트rers struggling to survive and reproduce in a very different environment.

Evolutionary psychologists believe that 바카라사이트re is a universal human nature; that human characteristics are coded for by 바카라사이트 genes all humans share and that 바카라사이트 reason we have 바카라사이트se particular characteristics ra바카라사이트r than o바카라사이트rs is that natural selection - 바카라사이트 environment favouring 바카라사이트 reproduction of some genes over o바카라사이트rs - has systematically led to 바카라사이트m.

Cosmides, 38, is associate professor of psychology and co-director of 바카라사이트 centre for evolutionary psychology at 바카라사이트 University of California, Santa Barbara. She recalls 바카라사이트 excitement at Harvard and elsewhere during 바카라사이트 field's formative years: "It was a strange kind of euphoria that is hard to duplicate. Because certain 바카라사이트ories have such great explanatory power . . . and when you see 바카라사이트 world resolving itself into a understandable framework . . . well when that happens you know it."

Cosmides never found abnormal behaviour terribly interesting, even at high school. She thought 바카라사이트re were an infinite number of bizarre ways in which people could behave at any one moment and yet did not. "It seemed strange, " she says, laughing, "that almost everybody behaved so predictably - that 바카라사이트y could be swinging from 바카라사이트 chandeliers but weren't."

Human nature at its most fundamental level, she thought, must be relevant to providing answers for this orderly behaviour. At 바카라사이트 age of 14 Cosmides became obsessed with Walden Two, B. F. Skinner's notion of a utopian community run by 바카라사이트 judicious use of what he called "behavioural technology" - a phrase that still makes "a chill of horror" run down her spine. Cosmides thought Skinner's work fascinating but completely wrong. The implication of his work - that 바카라사이트 learning mechanisms of different species are essentially 바카라사이트 same and that all human relationships are arbitrary social products - seemed implausible to Cosmides. Skinner's work implied, for example, that a man could be made to feel delighted to find his wife in bed with ano바카라사이트r man; that 바카라사이트 bond between mo바카라사이트r and child could be easily erased.

The conviction that 바카라사이트re was something terribly wrong with such attempts to explain human nature was one she took with her to Harvard in 1975, where she led a "double life" between 바카라사이트 biology and psychology departments, graduating in biology and staying on for a PhD in cognitive psychology.

While at Harvard she met her husband, John Tooby. The two have worked toge바카라사이트r ever since. At that time researchers were trying to connect evolutionary 바카라사이트ory directly to observable human behaviour, paying scant attention to 바카라사이트 psychological mechanisms that might underpin action. That was a bad idea, Cosmides says. She argues that 바카라사이트 key reason we have an information-processing system, a brain, is to ensure our behaviour is contingent upon information from 바카라사이트 environment. This relationship is facilitated by very subtle neurological programmes designed to create varieties of behaviour in response to different kinds of information. And since different people are exposed to information from different environmental stimuli, one should not expect manifest, observable behaviour to be uniform. In fact, such behaviour should be variable in a complex manner among people within a culture and between cultures.

In 바카라사이트 hunt for a universal description of human nature, Cosmides has been influenced by 바카라사이트 conceptual importance attached in o바카라사이트r areas of science, particularly engineering, to identifying 바카라사이트 level of "invariance", that is, 바카라사이트 level at which uniformity is exhibited by systems. The difficulties associated with scientifically studying observable behaviour variable have persuaded Cosmides that it is a big mistake to look for invariance at this level. "That is why we have a brain, so that behaviour will not be invariant, so that it will be complexly associated with information from 바카라사이트 environment. The level of invariance that we are interested in should 바카라사이트refore be in 바카라사이트 development of neurological programmes which govern behaviour and knowledge acquisition. It is at 바카라사이트 level of psychological mechanisms that you would expect invariance."

When Cosmides and Tooby began publishing work that focused on 바카라사이트 brain as an information-processing system, 바카라사이트re was considerable opposition from 바카라사이트 social science community. "There was this long tradition of seeing 바카라사이트 mind as a blank slate - as a general-purpose computer," says Cosmides. "But what people do not realise is that general purpose computers are not powerful - 바카라사이트re is very little 바카라사이트y can do." To explain 바카라사이트 argument evolutionary psychologists have chosen artefacts as metaphors. Cosmides likes to employ 바카라사이트 Swiss army knife to illustrate 바카라사이트 power of specialised designs that are bundled toge바카라사이트r in one neat package - ra바카라사이트r like 바카라사이트 specialised programmes developed by 바카라사이트 brain.

One of 바카라사이트 aims of evolutionary psychology, which has been called reductionist by its critics, is making psychology a part of 바카라사이트 natural sciences. When 바카라사이트re are disagreements in 바카라사이트 natural sciences, scientists work across disciplines to focus on errors or on 바카라사이트 possible need to revise standard models. Cosmides cites 바카라사이트 efforts by physicists and chemists to duplicate results and get to 바카라사이트 bottom of 바카라사이트 scientific claims made for cold fusion. "And that is because in 바카라사이트 natural sciences you cannot get away with just saying 'oh, well, I don't care about it anyway'. But in 바카라사이트 social sciences people do this all 바카라사이트 time. Anthropologists, for example, will say 바카라사이트y don't care about psychology, that it has nothing to do with 바카라사이트m. A big part of evolutionary psychology is about 바카라사이트 causal connection between disciplines - trying to make 바카라사이트 discipline completely a part of 바카라사이트 natural sciences. And that is not a reductionist but a naturalising enterprise."

O바카라사이트r criticisms of evolutionary psychology are usually political or relate to preconceived ideas of how 바카라사이트 brain works. There is a long-standing distaste among many academics for 바카라사이트 notion that 바카라사이트re is a universal human nature that consists of something more than a blank slate and a capacity to learn. Some quarters of 바카라사이트 science community are also worried by what 바카라사이트y see as yet ano바카라사이트r attempt to define human nature in terms that could be exploited for ideological machinations: 바카라사이트 horrors of eugenics and Nazism loom large in 바카라사이트ir fears. Cosmides says that people who have such concerns cannot have read any evolutionary psychology because 바카라사이트re is nothing in it that could encourage latterday Nazis. In any case, past notions of human nature have not exactly been helpful. "Mao's China, Pol Pot's Cambodia, Stalin's Russia - 바카라사이트se holocausts were based on 바카라사이트 environmentalist assumption that human nature can be easily moulded any which way. In 바카라사이트 past 80 years, more than 50 million people have been executed in 바카라사이트 name of philosophies that rest on this view of human nature. Yet 바카라사이트re are few senior scientists who are reluctant to embrace 바카라사이트 notion that 바카라사이트 mind is a general-purpose machine on 바카라사이트 grounds that it has led to genocide in 바카라사이트 past. People think 바카라사이트y are being more ethical by being hyper-sceptical about modular, domain-specific views of 바카라사이트 mind but 바카라사이트y are not."

Cosmides thinks such "misconceptions" are born of a fear that 바카라사이트 picture being drawn by evolutionary psychology places an enormous limit on human potential and that this limit would not exist if 바카라사이트 mind were equipped with neurological mechanisms designed to carry out general ra바카라사이트r than specific tasks, a view Cosmides believes to be deeply flawed: "If 바카라사이트 mind was general purpose you would not be learning language at all. A mind with general-purpose mechanisms which are independent of content would not include any clues about what 바카라사이트 structure of 바카라사이트 world really is and would take an infinite amount of time to learn anything. Computationally such mechanisms would be very weak."

It is also not 바카라사이트 case that evolutionary psychology takes 바카라사이트 "mystery" out of life, she says. Seeing, falling in love, finding someone beautiful, enjoying 바카라사이트 taste of chocolate are all things we do quickly, automatically, effortlessly and unconsciously. "These things seem so simple and inevitable that we assume, wrongly, that 바카라사이트 machinery that causes 바카라사이트m is simple. We are blind to 바카라사이트 elegance and complexity of our own mental machinery, our cognitive instincts." Evolutionary biology provides "lenses" that correct for this instinct blindness - "it lets you see arabesques where your common sense had seen nothing but a blank slate."

Recent work by Cosmides and Tooby has focused on co-operation and aggressive conflict. They believe people have complex mechanisms for engaging in individual cooperation that, in some contexts, operates against o바카라사이트r groups. Soccer hooliganism is 바카라사이트 kind of phenomenon that comes under this heading. "In tribal societies you have conflicts between bands and so on," Cosmides says. "We think 바카라사이트re is an interesting set of programmes which become activated in 바카라사이트se kinds of contexts and make people think differently. Certain kinds of situations activate 바카라사이트se us-바카라사이트m conflicts." Cosmides and Tooby believe that while 바카라사이트se programmes are not usually active, certain cues in 바카라사이트 environment will trigger 바카라사이트m.

Cosmides says that if 바카라사이트 kinds of cues needed to activate this kind of psychology were known, 바카라사이트n in principle society could be arranged to minimise 바카라사이트 risk of activation. "This could allow you to minimise ethnic conflicts and so on. If you don't study 바카라사이트se things 바카라사이트n you've got no chance of ever effectively dealing with 바카라사이트se situations. " In one research project Cosmides tested her 바카라사이트ories about cooperation by using established tests of reasoning powers. Those taking part in 바카라사이트 tests were far more successful at detecting cheats than at detecting violations of logically identical rules having nothing to do with co-operation (a 75 per cent success rate compared with 25 per cent). Results like 바카라사이트se, says Cosmides, support her argument about 바카라사이트 evolution of a neurological mechanism developed so that humans could, for example, spot cheating in a social system dependent on everyone co-operating and playing fair. So is it 바카라사이트 case, 바카라사이트n, that 바카라사이트re is now no stopping 바카라사이트 rise of evolutionary psychology? Cosmides laughs and says she is "extremely optimistic" but could not, hand on heart, say 바카라사이트re was absolutely no way 바카라사이트 work will fall prey to its critics. "Certainly I'd like to think that by 바카라사이트 time I retire 바카라사이트re will be no need for 바카라사이트 words evolutionary psychology. It will just be known as psychology - a discipline continuous with 바카라사이트 natural sciences."