Look a Peacock in the "Eyes" and Answer Whether Its Tail is for Mating or...
Evolutionary biologist Bjørn Østman of Pleiotropy tackles one of the oldest articles of faith in sexual selection. (Emphasis his.)Oh.. dear, I’m becoming one of those annoying obsessed types – with the...
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Advantage, Nerds: PartiallyClips Comic on Compensating for Cliche Online...
Image from Robert T Balder and Timothy Christ's PartiallyClips.com. Click through for full-size version.Love the "survival advantage" angle.
View ArticleShoshana Grossbard: Traditional Polygamy Undermines Women's Autonomy Despite...
Via Tyler Cowen of Marginal Revolution, here's a link to a counterintuitive but compelling argument against the institution of traditional polygamy (that would be polygyny for sticklers but I'm going...
View ArticleWould Ev-Psych Have Found the Same "Timeless Truths" About Men, Women, or...
Amanda Marcotte says of Jesse Bering's giddy claim that women are just chock-full of evolved defenses against rape. (Especially, what a surprise, rape by African American men.) After nicely...
View ArticleJesse Bering Claims Lesbians are Funnier Than Straight Women, Thinks...
Jesse Bering just can't get enough of that sociobiology. This time, in a post about how an allegedly tiny number of female humorists are "crowded out on the roster of female comedy all-stars by a long...
View ArticleTurns Out Polygamy, But Not Monogamy or Polyamory, Imposes High Reproductive...
Sooo.... If I was a pop evolutionary psychologist or sociobiologist I might spend all my time pondering how it's just seed-spreadingly natural for men to want to be polygamous. Oh, silly, me....
View ArticleIf a Sufficient but Simpler Solution is Preferable Then Terri Conley's...
There's a lot of buzz in the press and blogosphere about a study by Professor Terri D. Conley of the University of Michigan called "Perceived Proposer Personality Characteristics and Gender Differences...
View ArticleWhere's the Ev. Psych Paper Claiming Women Evolved to Be Hornier on Weekends?
While talking about how it's often pretty relevant for researchers to know where a woman is in her menstrual cycleEmily Nagoski nevertheless keeps things in perspective. [T]he literature on something...
View ArticleHmm... How Exactly Does Rarity Evolve Through Sexual Selection?
While reflecting on a male friend's persistent questions about whether another acquaintance's breasts were "real" or "artificial," Brunettes Blog blogger Ginny comes up with a much more plausible......
View ArticleWhy London School of Economics Should Consider Dismissing Satoshi Kanazawa
Note: Satoshi Kanazawa used the generic catchphrase "black" in the post I'm about to discuss. Since it's not clear from his context whether his racism was directed at people of African, or...
View ArticleYou Don't Really Need Evolution to Explain Sexting... Which Is Good Because...
Sungold uses reactions to the Rep. Weiner cybersex scandal to emphasize a far more "scandalous" but actually utterly mundane fact about "sexting." (emphasis mine) I wouldn’t be able to give [reporters...
View ArticleThe Trials and Tribulations of Role Reversal as Heterosexual Couples Age...
In the course of hitting the nail on the head about sex and aging, Joanna Cake also perfectly outlines why the Unified Field Theory of pop Ev-Psych is so wrong radar won't find it.If you are in a...
View ArticleOne of Terri Conley's Six Myths Probably Helps Shape the Other Five
Feministing blogger Maya summarizes Terri Conley's debunking of six common gender-essentialist myths. Follow the links to read the rest. The last two myths really stood out for me. 5) Men like casual...
View ArticleMen as the "Sex Class:""Not Particularly Choosy"
In a Huffington Post, err, post hypothesizing about (white? western?) men's fascination with women's breasts Larry Young and Brian Alexander reference the old sociobiology canard about men. Something...
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Rules of Desire: Evolutionary Psychologists Getting More Nuanced But No More...
Photo by Flickr user The mofoJT. Used under a Creative Commons license. Now if you only the abstract below you might conclude the only possible explanation for women "evolving" same-sex desire was...
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